Two National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) executives are expected to depart the league’s front office as part of a restructuring under commissioner Jessica Berman, multiple sources have confirmed to The Athletic.
Julie Haddon, the chief marketing and commercial officer, as well as Tatjana Haenni, the chief sporting director, will depart their roles this year. Haddon is expected to leave this summer, and Haenni is expected to leave later this fall, according to an internal document reviewed by The Athletic.
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As of now, the league plans to repurpose Haddon’s role, while also hiring a new chief sporting director, according to league sources with knowledge of the decisions. The league sees these moves as a necessary evolution to reach the next step of its ambitious goals, according to the internal document.
The NWSL declined to comment on the restructuring at this time.
Haddon came to NWSL after a five-year stint with the NFL and marketing positions at PayPal, Twitter, eBay and SoFi. She also previously had an ownership stake in the Chicago Stars, though she eventually gave it up to join the league’s front office.
Julie Haddon (right) had been in a front office role with the NWSL since 2022. (Peter Aiken / Imagn Images)
She joined the NWSL in 2022 as the chief marketing officer and, in 2023, was promoted to oversee the league’s commercial operations as well as the league’s marketing operations, a consolidation intended to “(integrate) marketing, media and monetization functions together in a new organization,” according to the league’s release.
“Losing Julie Haddon is a significant loss for the NWSL,” a league source with knowledge of the decision told The Athletic.
In the two years since Haddon took the job, the league expanded from 12 to 14 teams (with two more set to join for the 2026 season), signed a four-year media rights deal worth a reported $240million (the league’s previous three-year deal was worth $4million) and has seen regular-season attendance climb from just over one million to two million. She also created the League Content Creators program and hired freelance content creators to grow NWSL’s audience.
“Her departure leaves a meaningful gap in the league’s leadership at a critical moment in our growth,” the league source continued. “Julie’s decades of experience were instrumental in driving audience expansion, deepening fan engagement, and strengthening the league’s brand reputation. Her presence will be deeply missed across clubs, partners, and the broader sports community.”
Tatjana Haenni joined NWSL the same year Haddon took her role in the front office. (Ray Acevedo / USA TODAY Sports)
Haenni’s hiring was announced at the same time as Haddon’s. Her role was a large one, to “collaborate with players, league officials and stakeholders to implement sporting strategies that distinguish and sustain the NWSL as the world’s premier women’s professional soccer league,” as well as lead “the development of procedures, policies and programs to identify, attract, retain and grow the world’s best players, coaches and referees.”
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Multiple sources characterized Haenni’s tenure at the NWSL as troubled from the beginning, with one source saying, “Tatjana was set up to fail.”
The former Swiss player was frequently at odds with Berman over the direction of the sporting side of the league, according to sources.
Berman sees these changes to her executive leadership staff as an evolution of the league, according to the internal document viewed by The Athletic, but repurposing the CMO role would make the NWSL an outlier in terms of most major sports leagues, which have key marketing executives in the front office.
Additional reporting: Asli Pelit
(Top image: Jason Allen/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
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