News of Note relating to the National Women’s Soccer League from the past few days: Seattle Team Name Unveiled: The Seattle Reign FC… Cindy (Parlow) Cone to helm Portland Thorns FC… Only a draft for college players… Mexico has been asked to up its sponsoring commitment to 16 players… League Twitter handle changed… League LLC created and trademarks filed.
Seattle Team Name Unveiled: The Seattle Reign FC — On Tuesday, the Seattle franchise officially launched their Twitter (@SeattleReignFC) and Facebook page (ReignFC). The team’s website address is www.SeattleReignFC.com (which currently redirects to the Facebook page. The “Reign” moniker was previously used by a now defunct women’s professional basketball team (Wikipedia).and was presumably inspired by one of Seattle nicknames, “Rain City,” which is based on the city’s rainy reputation, as well as the name of the county — King — where Seattle is located. The logo (embedded below) is in the shape of a crown and features the face of a woman wearing a crown. A secondary logo, which is currently used on the team’s Twitter icon, is simply the crown from the primary logo inside a circle (similar to the design on plastic checkers pieces).
Fig. 1: The Seattle Reign FC logo.
Cindy (Parlow) Cone to helm Portland Thorns FC: Also on Tuesday, the Portland franchise announced that United States Women’s National Team alumna Cindy (Parlow) Cone will be the team’s head coach. Cone was a member of the USA’s 1999 Women’s World Cup championship team as well as the 1996 (Gold), 2000 (Silver), and 2004 (Gold) Olympic squads. Her USWNT career spanned 9 years and included 158 caps, 75 goals, plus 35 assists. After the USWNT, she served as an assistant head coach at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina, from 2007 through the just-concluded season.
Ali Krieger returns from Germany: After five-plus years with Frankfurt FFC, the USWNT fullback will return to the USA for the upcoming season, and hopes to play for the Washington Spirit, according to a Washington Post article by Steve Goff. The 28 year-old, who is recovering from a January ACL injury, is quoted as saying “I want to be here from Day One with the national team and prove myself again,” and “The next four-year cycle is important for me.”
Only a draft for college players: According to multiple sources, once the sponsored national team players are allocated, there will only be a draft for college players. All other players will be considered as free agents and can negotiate with whichever teams they want. The college draft is planned to take place during the NSCAA’s annual convention in mid-January.
Mexico has been asked to up its sponsoring commitment to 16 players: Per K.C.-based sportswriter Thad Bell, the league has asked the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) to up its number of sponsored national team players from 12 to 16 players, in order to have a balanced number of subsidized players across the league’s eight teams. Thad Bell’s article also has some other roster-related tidbits, namely that there will apparently be a league salary cap for non-subsidized players of $200,000.
League Twitter handle changed: The league’s originally Twitter handle (@NWSL_soccer) has been changed to simply @NWSL, which previously belonged to an existing but little used account.
League LLC created and trademarks filed: The league’s legal entity is a Delaware limited liability corporation, simply named “National Women’s Soccer League, LLC.” It was incorporated on December 12th (screenshot), according to Delaware’s online database for corporations. Additionally, the the league’s trademark application for its name and logo was filed the next day, the 13th, (screenshot), according to the TESS database (tess2.uspto.gov).
Women's Soccer Express 
Exciting times for Women’s Soccer-esp with Ali’s return to the USA!