Arthur M. Blank is having a big moment. His new NWSL team launched its name, which as the name of the city the team is based in and the word City in it, and crest, which is – truly – stunning. Though the fan launch party had some… crowd issues but they sold a bunch of $168 sweatshirts because its 2026.
He wasn’t done either. This week, US Soccer and Arthur M. Blank also announced the launch of the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup, a tournament that Arthur M. Blank is supporting that will also feature women’s soccer teams. Those teams will be from the NWSL and USL who will compete for the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup.
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The idea that women’s soccer should have a tournament similar to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup has been a long standing one and the announcement does create a similar event and inarguably, more soccer is welcome. The tournament has significant stakes with a Concacaf W Champions Cup birth and $1.1 million prize on the line. However, this tournament is not the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, a tournament that is conceivably open to any men’s team in the country playing organized soccer in leagues recognized by US Soccer.
While there is also slick branding, a big announcement for the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup, and a social media campaign there is no start date and a lot of talk about how great the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup is. This is being treated as a unifying national soccer tournament, like the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, but falls far short of that for now. Worse, by making that comparison, US Soccer is celebrating a model of equality that excludes those clubs from the broader women’s soccer community.
Without a doubt, this is a positive step for women’s soccer, but without including all of the women’s soccer community, Arthur M. Blank and US Soccer have created a symbol of equality for a national tournament with a grassroots spirit but not the same opportunity that men have with the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Effectively, the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup is asking everyone to celebrate a top down approach to inclusion that ends up being based on excluding part of what makes a truly open cup a compelling and rich part of the sport.
Part of what is so frustrating about something like this is that it reflects much of what felt icky about the World Cup and the broader commercialization of the sport. The institutions that govern soccer and the private interests that influence and increasingly benefit from it want to exploit the community that created support for the sport in the first place to capture economic value. At best, this is a missed opportunity for US Soccer and the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup. At worst the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup exploits and excludes a community that has been traditionally marginalized and calls it equality.
