The Women’s Premier League (WPL), like all senior clubs, canceled its fall 2020 season due to Covid-19. But the country’s top-flight competition is holding out hope for a spring revival.
“There is a working list of factors we are taking into account to determine when it is safe to compete, but mainly that has to do with local health departments for the 10 large cities we represent across the country and also national protocols like travel/quarantine recommendations,” WPL Marketing & Sponsorship Director Ali Gillberg explained in an e-mail. “For example, since we are not a league full of paid players, we have no ability to form a bubble or control what players do between matches, nor do we have the ability to charter private planes for safer travel, etc.”
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The WPL’s 10 teams hail from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, Portland (Ore.), San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area (2) and Twin Cities (Minn.). They’re divided into two conferences based on geography, and only New York vs. Beantown, and Life West vs. Berkeley games do not require flights. Covid-19 testing and vaccinations would need to be much more robust than they are today to enable that much travel and competition.
WPL Commissioner Kittery Wagner Ruiz informed team representatives that the tentative plan for the 2021 season calls for regular-season games to begin on April 10 and that nationals would occur the weekend of June 26. But if all 10 teams are not cleared to play by Feb. 1, then the regular season would be cut in half, games would begin May 15, and nationals would retain its date. Finally, if teams were not yet cleared to cross state borders and play full contact 15s by March 1, then the season would be canceled.
“While this still leaves some uncertainty, we hope that by laying out these timelines it makes it easier for teams to start planning and thinking about what their spring might look like,” Wagner Ruiz wrote.
Regardless of what happens in the next couple of months, the WPL will go forward with a spring-based season.
“The seasonality change [for 2021 and beyond] is a result of committee work and a full WPL vote from options that the committee put together for seasonality. Mostly taking into account the changing international calendars among other factors,” Gillberg referenced the November test window.
For on-going updates, visit wplrugby.org.