title: Soccer in the United States

text: The growth of the women's game during the 1990s helped increase overall interest in soccer in the United States. The number of women's college soccer teams increased from 318 in 1991 to 959 in 2009. Both the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups were held in the United States. The crowd of over 90,000 at the Rose Bowl for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final remained the largest crowd in the world to witness any women's sporting event for more than 20 years.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: There are 4.2 million players (2.5 million male and 1.7 million female) registered with U.S. Soccer. , thirty percent of American households contain someone playing soccer, a figure second only to baseball.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Increasing numbers of Americans, having played the game in their youth, are now avid spectators. The annual ESPN sports poll has shown soccer as the fourth most popular team sport in the United States every year since overtaking hockey in 2006; as of 2011, 8.2% of Americans rank soccer as their favorite sport (compared to 3.8% for hockey). A 2012 Harris Interactive poll showed soccer to be the fifth favorite team sport, with 2% of Americans ranking soccer as their favorite (compared to 5% for hockey). A 2011 ESPN sports poll ranked soccer as the second most popular sport in the country for 12- to 24-year-olds. In 2013, Lionel Messi became the first soccer player ever to rank among the Top 10 most popular athletes in the U.S. in an ESPN poll, although he was not listed in the Top 10 in a Harris poll. A 2017 poll by Gallup found that soccer is nearly as popular as baseball with 7% of Americans saying it is their favorite sport, as opposed to 9% for baseball.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Many soccer matches in the United States draw large crowds, particularly international matches. A 2014 International Champions Cup match between Real Madrid and Manchester United at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan had an attendance of 109,318, a record crowd for a U.S. soccer match.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The 2009 Gold Cup quarterfinal matches drew over 82,000 to Cowboys Stadium (now known as AT&T Stadium). Between 2008 and 2011, the U.S. played three times in East Rutherford, New Jersey, drawing over 78,000 fans each game. The United States and Mexico national teams have been playing in front of crowds in excess of 60,000 in the U.S. in recent years.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Also in recent years, many top-division European clubs—such as English clubs Manchester United and Chelsea, and Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona—have spent portions of their pre-season summer schedule playing matches in the United States. These matches have been highly attended events for U.S. stadiums. The 2009 World Football Challenge drew large crowds around the country, and Chelsea's four-game stint in the United States drew record crowds for a visiting foreign team.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Nations from other regions have decided to organize tournaments in the U.S., given the growing soccer market in the country. For example, the 2014 Copa Centroamericana, a soccer competition for countries from Central America, was held in the U.S., due to the commercial appeal of the U.S. soccer market. Similarly, the 2016 Copa América was also held in the U.S., marking the first time that tournament took place outside of South America. The U.S. was selected to host for financial reasons, because "the market is in the United States, the stadiums are in the United States ... everything is in the United States."


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Furthermore, several nations schedule friendly matches to be held in the U.S. against opponents other than the U.S. national team. For example, the Mexico national team usually schedules several friendlies in the U.S. each year against various opponents. The El Salvador national team also regularly plays friendlies in the U.S., often in the Washington, D.C. area, home to a large Salvadoran community. The Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia national teams also play matches in the U.S. This is due to the fact that the U.S. has more adequate venues for competitions.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In the 2018 MLS cup final a record attendance of 73,019 came to the actual game beating the past record of 61,316 which was set in the 2002 cup final. At the time, this was the most-attended MLS game in history. The most recent attendance record for an MLS match was set on March 5, 2022, when 74,479 fans attended Charlotte FC's inaugural home match at Bank of America Stadium.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Women's soccer in the United States has been played at the professional level since 2001. Women's soccer has made a significant impact all over the U.S. They have gotten support, rejection, and discrimination, and have battled for equal rights in a male-dominated soccer environment.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: As a result of the U.S. women's national team's (USWNT) first-place showing in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, a seemingly viable market for the sport germinated.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Feeding on the momentum of their victory, the eight-team league formed in February 2000, the U.S. Soccer Federation approved membership of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) as a sanctioned Division 1 women's professional soccer league on August 18, 2000, and the league began playing its first season in April 2001. It would be the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The WUSA had previously announced plans to begin to play in 2001 in eight cities across the country, including: Atlanta, the Bay Area, Boston, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington, D.C. The WUSA forged ahead on a cooperation agreement that would see the new league work side by side with Major League Soccer to help maximize the market presence and success of both Division I leagues.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The eight teams included the Atlanta Beat, Boston Breakers, Carolina Courage, New York Power, Philadelphia Charge, San Diego Spirit, San Jose CyberRays (called Bay Area CyberRays for 2001 season), and the Washington Freedom.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The WUSA played for three full seasons. The WUSA suspended operations, however, on September 15, 2003, shortly after the conclusion of the third season, due to financial problems and lack of public interest in the sport.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: With the WUSA on hiatus, the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) and the W-League regained their status as the premier women's soccer leagues in the United States, and many former WUSA players joined those teams.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The Washington Freedom was the only WUSA team to continue operations after the league dissolved (although new versions of the Atlanta Beat and Boston Breakers formed in 2009) and eventually became a part of the W-League in 2006.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: After the folding of WUSA, WUSA Reorganization Committee was formed in September 2003 that led to the founding of Women's Soccer Initiative, Inc. (WSII), whose stated goal was "promoting and supporting all aspects of women's soccer in the United States", including the founding of a new professional league. Initial plans were to play a scaled-down version of WUSA in 2004. However, these plans fell through and instead, in June 2004, the WUSA held two "WUSA Festivals" in Los Angeles and Blaine, Minnesota, featuring matches between reconstituted WUSA teams in order to maintain the league in the public eye and sustain interest in women's professional soccer. A planned full relaunch in 2005 also fell through. In June 2006, WSII announced the relaunch of the league for the 2008 season.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In December 2006, WSII announced that it reached an agreement with six owner-operators for teams based in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and a then-unnamed city. In September 2007, the launch was pushed back from Spring of 2008 to 2009 to avoid clashing with 2007 Women's World Cup and the 2008 Olympic Games and to ensure that all of the teams were fully prepared for long-term operations.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The name for the new professional league, along with its logo, was announced on January 17, 2008. The league was to have its inaugural season in 2009, with seven teams, including the Washington Freedom, a former WUSA team. Twenty-one U.S. national team players were allocated to each of the seven teams in September 2008. Also in September, the league held the 2008 WPS International Draft.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Unlike WUSA, the WPS took "a local, grassroots approach", and "a slow and steady growth type of approach," In addition, the WPS attempted to have a closer relationship with Major League Soccer in order to cut costs.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Most teams considered the first season a moderate success, despite many losing more money than planned. However, most teams began to see problems in 2010. Overall attendance for 2010 was noticeably down from 2009, teams were struggling with financial problems, and the WPS changed leadership by the end of the season.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The success of the United States women's national soccer team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup resulted in an upsurge in attendance league-wide as well as interest in new teams for the 2012 season. However, several internal organization struggles, including an ongoing legal battle with magicJack-owner Dan Borislow, and lack of resources invested in the league led to the suspension of 2012, announced in January 2012.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: On May 18, 2012, the WPS announced that the league had officially ceased operations, having played for only three seasons.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: By this time, the WPSL and W-League were the two semi-pro leagues in the United States and had sat under WUSA and the WPS until 2012. Upon the disbandment of the WPS, they once again regained their status as the premier women's soccer leagues in the United States.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In response to the suspension and eventual end, of the WPS, the Women's Premier Soccer League created the Women's Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSL Elite) to support the sport in the United States. For the 2012 season, the league featured former WPS teams, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, and Western New York Flash, in addition to many WPSL teams. Six of the eight teams were considered fully professional.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Many members of the USWNT remained unattached for the 2012 season while others chose to play in the W-League instead of the WPSL Elite.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: After the WPS folded in 2012, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) announced a roundtable for the discussion of the future of women's professional soccer in the United States. The meeting resulted in the planning of a new league set to launch in 2013 with 12–16 teams, taking from the WPS, the W-League, and the WPSL.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The league was officially announced by U.S. Soccer on November 21, 2012, with the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and Mexican Football Federation (FMF) also participating in the announcement. The league was ultimately called the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Teams in the NWSL are privately owned, but national federations are heavily involved in league financing and operations. All three federations initially paid salaries for many of their respective national team members. U.S. Soccer committed to funding up to 24 national team members, with the CSA committing to paying 16 players and FMF pledging support for 12 to 16 (ultimately 16). This freed each of the eight charter teams from having to pay salaries for up to seven players. In addition, U.S. Soccer hosts the new league's front office, and is scheduling matches to avoid conflicts with international tournaments. Today, only U.S. Soccer and the CSA still provide support (including allocating players) to the NWSL; FMF and NWSL ended their relationship (presumably amicably) in 2017, when FMF launched its own national women's league, Liga MX Femenil.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Four of the league's charter teams had WPS ties—the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, a revival of the New Jersey-based Sky Blue FC, and the Western New York Flash. The other four were in Kansas City, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., with the Portland team being run by the Portland Timbers. The league added its second MLS-linked team in 2014 with the entry of the Houston Dash, run by the Houston Dynamo and playing in the Dynamo's stadium. A third NWSL team, FC Kansas City, announced a partnership with Sporting Kansas City in 2015; although the two clubs continued to be separately owned, FC Kansas City would use Sporting's facilities for practices and home games. Another MLS-linked team joined the league in 2016 with the arrival of the Orlando Pride, operated by Orlando City SC.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The 2016–17 offseason saw the league's first major relocation, with the Flash selling their NWSL franchise rights to the owner of North Carolina FC, then playing in the NASL and now in USL League One, who moved the NWSL team to the Research Triangle of North Carolina and relaunched it as the North Carolina Courage.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The NWSL became the first professional women's league to reach more than eight teams with the addition of the Houston Dash and Orlando Pride (10 teams in the league in 2016 and 2017) and the first to sustain more than three years of operations. In 2017, A&E Networks bought an equity stake in the league and broadcasts a game of the week on Lifetime and streams all games online via the go90 platform.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Following the 2017 season, FC Kansas City folded. Kansas City's place in the NWSL was immediately filled by a new franchise operated by another MLS club, Real Salt Lake; the new team was unveiled shortly thereafter as Utah Royals FC. In January 2018, the league dropped to 9 teams with the demise of the Boston Breakers, which had been the only team to have participated in every previous season of U.S. top-flight professional women's soccer.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The Utah Royals ceased operations at the end of the 2020 season due to the fallout from a racism controversy surrounding Real's owner; the NWSL franchise rights were awarded to a Kansas City ownership group that had no members in common with the former FC Kansas City ownership. The new Kansas City team played in the 2021 season under the placeholder name of Kansas City NWSL before announcing its permanent identity of Kansas City Current at the end of that season.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The NWSL membership announced in October 2019 the entry of a Louisville team in 2021. The team, ultimately unveiled as Racing Louisville FC, is owned and operated by USL Championship side Louisville City FC.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The most recent changes to the NWSL were the announcements of new teams in Los Angeles and San Diego, respectively Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC. Both started play in the 2022 season.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Originally called the United States Interregional Women's League, the W-League was formed in 1995 to provide a professional outlet for many of the top female soccer players in the country. Starting as the Western Division of the W-League, the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) broke away and formed its own league in 1997 and had its inaugural season in 1998. Both the W-League and the WPSL were considered the premier women's soccer leagues in the United States at the time but eventually fell to a "second-tier" level upon the formation of the Women's United Soccer Association.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The W-League grew as large as 41 teams in 2008, but its membership fell rapidly from that point on, and the league folded after its 2015 season. Of the 18 teams that competed in the final season of the W-League, seven joined the WPSL, and eight formed a new second-level league, United Women's Soccer (UWS). This new league ultimately launched in 2016 with 11 teams, including six of the founding members (the other two, both Canadian teams, were denied licenses by the Canadian Soccer Association). UWS expanded to 21 teams, including one new Canadian side, in 2017.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The United Soccer League has since announced the establishment of a full development pathway for women's soccer. First, in 2022, the USL launched the USL W League (not to be confused with the former W-League), a third-level semi-pro league. The W League launched with 44 teams. The following year will see the establishment of the USL Super League, a fully professional second-level league.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Major League Soccer (MLS) is the professional first-division league in the United States. As of the current 2022 season, it has 28 teams — 25 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada, with another U.S.-based team set to join in 2023. MLS is currently the largest first-division professional soccer league in the world by number of teams. With careful cost controls and the construction of soccer-specific stadiums, some MLS clubs became profitable for the first time in the mid-2000s, and "Forbes" magazine found that three clubs were already valued at $40 million or more, with the Los Angeles Galaxy worth $100 million.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The establishment of the Designated Player Rule in 2007 has led to the signings of international superstars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, and Cuauhtémoc Blanco.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Major League Soccer has been in an expansion phase, going from 10 teams in 2005 to 26 teams today, with plans to expand to at least 29 teams by 2023. The league's 2007 and 2009 expansion to Toronto and Seattle, respectively, have proven highly successful, with league-leading ticket and merchandise sales, capped by sold-out attendances for friendlies against Real Madrid of Spain and Chelsea of England. In 2013, New York City FC agreed to pay a record $100 million expansion fee for the right to join MLS in 2015. This record was surpassed by the ownership groups of FC Cincinnati and a new Nashville team, which each paid $150 million to join MLS (FC Cincinnati in 2019 and Nashville in 2020). The same amount was paid as an effective entrance fee by a group that bought Columbus Crew SC in 2018, which led to that team's previous operator receiving a new team in Austin, Texas that joined MLS in 2021. The league expanded to 27 teams with the addition of Austin FC in 2021 and 28 with Charlotte FC in 2022 (delayed from the original 2021 schedule), then St. Louis City SC in 2023 (delayed from 2022).


title: Soccer in the United States

text: MLS average attendance has been steadily growing, from 13,756 in 2000 to 22,113 in 2017. MLS has drawn a higher per-game attendance than NBA basketball and NHL hockey every year since 2011. With an average attendance of over 20,000 per game, MLS has the third highest average attendance of any sports league in the U.S. after the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB), and is the seventh highest attended professional soccer league worldwide.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Professional soccer has been less popular in the United States than most other parts of the world. Although MLS is also much younger than most other countries' first divisions, it is already the twelfth most-attended premier division in the world. MLS has announced its goal of developing into one of the top soccer leagues in the world by 2022.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Unlike club football leagues in other countries, Major League Soccer does not have promotion and relegation, and instead utilizes a franchise system similar to other professional sports leagues in the country. In addition, Major League Soccer operates as a single entity, meaning that all clubs are owned by the league, with club investor-operators holding shares in the league itself rather than owning their teams directly, and all players being centrally contracted. Major League Soccer has faced criticisms for this structure, as well as other deviations such as scheduling matches during time periods designated by the FIFA Calendar for international play (which can affect the quality of MLS matches taking place within, although the league had been working to reduce the number of matches during these windows). However, it has also been noted that the league's salary caps have helped to discourage rampant spending, allowing for steadier long-term growth.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: By 2012 the league had shown a marked improvement in its financial health. In November 2013, "Forbes" published a report that revealed that ten of the league's nineteen teams earned an operating profit in 2012, while two broke even and seven had a loss. Forbes estimated that the league's collective annual revenues were $494 million, and that the league's collective annual profit was $34 million. Forbes valued the league's franchises to be worth $103 million on average, almost three times as much as the $37 million average valuation in 2008. The Seattle Sounders FC franchise was named the most valuable at $175 million, a 483% gain over the $30 million league entrance fee it paid in 2009.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The trend in increased team values has continued with MLS teams seeing a strong 52% increase in franchise values from 2012 to 2014. In August 2015 "Forbes" updated its MLS franchise values with the most profitable team measuring $245 million and the least $105 million. The average value jumped from $103 to $157 million.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: As of 2018 "Forbes" estimates Atlanta United FC are the most valuable MLS team, worth $330 million, while the Colorado Rapids are the lowest value, at $155 million. These valuations do not include the value of stadiums or training facilities owned by the respective clubs.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The North American Soccer League (NASL) repeatedly accused Major League Soccer of having a monopoly position being defended by the United States Soccer Federation, such as accusing the USSF of proposing to change the minimum criteria for a Division I league to include specifications that only MLS could currently meet, such as minimum stadium capacities and requiring at least 75% of teams to be in metropolitan areas with a population of at least 2 million.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Since the 2018 season, the second tier of North American soccer has been occupied by the USL Championship, rebranded from the United Soccer League after the 2018 season. This league received provisional sanctioning by U.S. Soccer before the 2018 season. The second iteration of the North American Soccer League had functioned at the second level under provisional status through the 2017 season, but more recent developments led to the effective demise of that league.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The new North American Soccer League was formed in late 2009, with plans to launch in the 2010 season, by disgruntled team owners from the USL First Division, after Nike sold its stake in the latter league's parent corporation, then known as the United Soccer Leagues and now as the United Soccer League (USL). U.S. Soccer refused to sanction either the First Division or the new NASL for 2010, and the two groups eventually agreed to unite for 2010 only under the banner of USSF Division 2, run directly by U.S. Soccer and including teams from both leagues. U.S. Soccer initially sanctioned the new NASL in November 2010, revoked its sanctioning in January 2011 due to financial issues surrounding the ownership of several teams, and re-sanctioned it in February 2011. The NASL launched in 2011 with eight teams—five on the U.S. mainland, one in Puerto Rico (a U.S. commonwealth that has its own national federation), and two in Canada. One of the Canadian teams left the NASL after the 2011 season to enter MLS; the league remained at eight teams for 2012 as San Antonio Scorpions FC joined NASL. In 2013, a new version of the New York Cosmos joined the NASL. Ottawa Fury FC and Indy Eleven joined in 2014. Three teams were set to join the league in 2015—Jacksonville Armada FC, Virginia Cavalry FC, and Oklahoma City FC—but only the Jacksonville team actually began play. Virginia Cavalry is no longer listed as a future team on the NASL website; Oklahoma City FC was bought by the owner of Spanish club Rayo Vallecano and rebranded as Rayo OKC, which began play in 2016. Two other teams, Miami FC and Puerto Rico FC, were launched in 2016, with Miami starting play in the league's spring season and Puerto Rico in the fall season. At the same time, the Atlanta Silverbacks self-relegated to the lower-level National Premier Soccer League and the San Antonio Scorpions folded. After the 2016 season, Minnesota United left for MLS, Rayo OKC folded, and Ottawa Fury FC and the Tampa Bay Rowdies left for the USL.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Since then, the NASL has experienced even more instability. The San Francisco Deltas joined for the 2017 season but folded after that season despite winning the league's title. During that offseason, after the USSF pulled the NASL's provisional Division II status due to not meeting its criteria, the NASL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the USSF. The NASL accused the USSF of colluding with Major League Soccer to protect its status as the sole top-flight soccer league in the United States, citing a relationship under which MLS clubs are required to maintain affiliations or co-owned reserve teams in the USL. The suit was not supported by all of the league's teams; FC Edmonton was not involved in the action (and would cease professional operations due to the uncertainty stemming from the lawsuit), and North Carolina FC did not support the suit. While the league added two teams for 2018 in California United FC and San Diego 1904 FC, it lost four teams—the aforementioned San Francisco Deltas, FC Edmonton and NCFC, plus Indy Eleven; the last two of these teams moved to the USL. Due to the ongoing litigation, the NASL canceled its 2018 spring season, though choosing to frame it as a change to a fall-to-spring schedule spanning two calendar years. After a federal court denied an injunction that would have maintained the NASL's second-division status, the league announced that it would also not play a 2018 fall season. The league never resumed play.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Following the USL–NASL feud and a subsequent tightening of U.S. Soccer standards for owners of second-division teams, the USL folded its First and Second Divisions into a new third-level league originally known as USL Pro, later as the United Soccer League, and now as the USL Championship. The league launched in 2011 with 15 teams–11 on the U.S. mainland, three in Puerto Rico, and one in Antigua and Barbuda—but due to issues with the health and finances of two of the Puerto Rican owners, the Puerto Rican teams were dropped from the league shortly after the beginning of its first season. One of the U.S.-based teams folded following the 2011 season; two new U.S.-based teams joined the league in 2013. In that same year, MLS and USL Pro entered into a formal agreement that eventually merged the MLS Reserve League into the USL Pro structure. For a time, each MLS team was nominally required to field a reserve team in a USL league, either by operating a standalone team or affiliating with an independently owned team, though this was never strictly enforced. After the 2013 season, the Antigua and Barbuda team folded, as well as one U.S.-based team. In addition, one U.S.-based team left the league but was replaced by a new team in the same area; and three completely new teams entered the league for 2014. One of the new teams was an MLS reserve side.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The 2015 season, which coincided with the rebranding of the competition as the United Soccer League, saw a major expansion. Three teams left the league, but 13 new teams entered, bringing its membership to 24. Orlando City moved to MLS, and two other teams, the Charlotte Eagles and Dayton Dutch Lions, relegated themselves to the PDL. Two of the three departing teams were replaced by new franchises; the Eagles' franchise rights were acquired by a local group that launched the Charlotte Independence, and Louisville interests bought Orlando City's USL franchise rights and launched Louisville City FC. Both of these clubs became affiliates of MLS teams, respectively the Colorado Rapids and Orlando City. Seven MLS teams—the Montreal Impact, New York Red Bulls, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders, Toronto FC, and Vancouver Whitecaps—began fielding team-operated reserve sides in the USL. The Orlando City–Louisville affiliation was only for the 2015 season, as Orlando City launched Orlando City B, its own USL reserve side, in 2016.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The USL expanded to 29 teams in 2016. While Austin Aztex went on hiatus for that season while seeking to build a new stadium, six new teams were launched. Three are operated by MLS teams—Orlando City B, Bethlehem Steel FC (Philadelphia Union), and Swope Park Rangers (Sporting Kansas City). The other three are FC Cincinnati and San Antonio FC, neither of which had an MLS affiliation, and the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros. The Toros are the first USL team with a so-called "hybrid affiliation" with an MLS team; the Houston Dynamo selects players and coaches, while the separate Toros ownership group runs all business affairs. In 2017, the USL expanded to 30 teams. The Aztex ultimately folded without building a new stadium, and two other teams from the 2016 season did not play in 2017. The Wilmington Hammerheads self-relegated to the USL's Premier Development League (PDL), now known as USL League Two, and the Montreal Impact folded FC Montreal in favor of an affiliation with the incoming Ottawa Fury FC. At the same time, three new teams entered the league, with Ottawa Fury FC and the Tampa Bay Rowdies joining from the NASL, and the completely new Reno 1868 FC competing as a hybrid affiliate of the San Jose Earthquakes. U.S. Soccer awarded the USL provisional second-level status for the 2017 season alongside the NASL.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Further USL expansion was announced for 2019 and beyond. With the folding of one team, the departure of two, and the addition of six, the league featured 33 teams in its 2018 season. Permanently departing was Whitecaps FC 2, which was folded by its MLS parent, the Vancouver Whitecaps. Orlando City B and the Rochester Rhinos went on hiatus, but eventually chose not to return to the USL's top flight. Of the six new USL teams for 2018, four were new sides—Atlanta United 2 (owned by Atlanta United FC), Fresno FC (which took over the Whitecaps affiliation), Las Vegas Lights FC, and Nashville SC. The other new USL teams were former NASL sides Indy Eleven and North Carolina FC. The following year saw four teams leave the rebranded USL Championship and seven new teams join. The departing teams were FC Cincinnati, which joined MLS; the Richmond Kickers and Toronto FC II, both of which became founding members of USL League One, a third-level league that began play in 2019; and the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Penn FC, which suspended professional operations for 2019 before resuming play in League One in 2020. In addition, both clubs that had gone on hiatus after the 2017 USL season would later announce moves to League One. Orlando City B resumed play alongside Toronto FC II as an inaugural League One team, while the Rochester Rhinos initially planned not to resume professional operations until joining League One in 2020 (the Rhinos ultimately did not resume play until 2022, joining MLS Next Pro under the new name of Rochester New York FC). The teams that began play in the USL Championship in 2019 are Austin Bold FC (replacing the Aztex), Birmingham Legion FC, El Paso Locomotive FC, Hartford Athletic, Loudoun United FC, Memphis 901 FC, and New Mexico United. Of these new sides, one was an MLS reserve team, namely Loudoun United, which replaced the Richmond Kickers as the D.C. United reserve side. Three teams ceased USL operations after the 2019 season—the identity of Nashville SC was assumed by the city's new MLS team, and Fresno FC and Ottawa Fury FC suspended all operations, with the latter having been denied sanctioning by U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF. Fresno FC's owner maintained his USLC franchise rights, and eventually relaunched the side in the Monterey, California area as Monterey Bay FC in 2022. The Fury sold its USLC franchise rights to the owners of Miami FC, then members of the third-level National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), and Miami FC accordingly joined the USLC in 2020. San Diego Loyal SC also joined the USL Championship in 2020. Teams in Chicago and California's East Bay were set to launch in 2021, but the Chicago team's launch was pushed back to an indeterminate future date before plans for that team were scrapped, and the East Bay bid faltered due to stadium issues. In addition to the East Bay team, Queensboro FC, based in the New York City borough of Queens, originally planned to start USLC play in 2021, but this was pushed back to 2023.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The USLC has been significantly affected by three phenomena in the early 2020s—financial issues triggered by COVID-19, further MLS expansion, and the decision by MLS to reestablish its reserve league in 2022 under the banner of MLS Next Pro. After the 2020 season, Saint Louis FC folded after the 2020 season due to a combination of COVID-19 impact and the impending arrival of St. Louis City SC in MLS; Reno 1868 FC folded due to COVID-19 impact; North Carolina FC voluntarily dropped to USL1; and the Philadelphia Union and Portland Timbers withdrew their reserve sides from the USL system. Both MLS reserve sides, as well as some other such sides withdrawn earlier by their MLS parents, would resume play in Next Pro. After the 2021 season, Austin Bold FC went on hiatus due to a combination of the MLS arrival of Austin FC and stadium issues, with plans to relocate to another Texas city; Charlotte Independence dropped to USL1, largely due to the 2022 MLS arrival of Charlotte FC; and three more MLS teams (Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders FC, Sporting Kansas City) moved their reserve sides from the USLC to Next Pro. Additionally, all remaining MLS reserve sides still playing in the USL system will join Next Pro in 2023. Nonetheless, several teams have joined during that period. The franchise rights of the East Bay group were purchased by NISA side Oakland Roots SC, which moved to the USLC in 2021. Another NISA side, Detroit City FC, moved to the USLC in 2022, and as mentioned above the former Fresno FC franchise resumed play as Monterey Bay FC. OKC Energy FC went on hiatus for 2022, but plans to return in 2023, when Queensboro FC will finally join. The former Austin Bold FC has announced a move to Fort Worth, and plans to resume play in 2024, pending the completion of a new stadium. Also in 2024, a new team is expected to start play in Des Moines, Iowa.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The United Soccer League operates five leagues in all, with a sixth set to start play in 2023. These leagues span the lower divisions of men's professional soccer, as well as women's and youth soccer. The most recent addition to the USL lineup is the USL W League, a semi-pro third-level women's league that started play in 2022 with 45 teams. This is not to be confused with the similar USL W-League, which operated from 1995 to 2015. This will be followed in 2023 with the launch of the USL Super League, a fully professional second-level women's league. The most recent addition to the USL men's lineup is USL League One, a third-level men's league that began play in 2019. Below the USL Championship and League One is the country's semi-professional fourth-division league, USL League Two (formerly the Premier Development League), which has (as of the 2022 season) 109 teams in the U.S. and two in Canada (the league has also previously had a team in Bermuda). Though League 2 does have some paid players, it also has many teams that are made up entirely or almost entirely of college soccer players who use the league as an opportunity to play competitive soccer in front of professional scouts during the summer, while retaining amateur status and NCAA eligibility.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Major League Soccer relaunched its reserve league under the banner of MLS Next Pro in 2022. The new league, which plays at the third level, started play with 21 teams, all of which are MLS reserve sides except the independently owned Rochester New York FC. By 2023, all MLS teams except CF Montréal will field their reserve sides in Next Pro.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The United States Adult Soccer Association governs amateur soccer competition for adults throughout the United States, which is effectively the amateur fifth division of soccer in the United States.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is a knockout tournament in American soccer. The tournament is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the U.S. and was historically open to all United States Soccer Federation affiliated teams, from amateur adult club teams to the professional clubs of Major League Soccer. Since the 2016 edition, professional teams that are majority-owned, or whose playing staff is managed, by a higher-division outdoor professional team have been barred from the competition; all other U.S. Soccer-affiliated teams remain eligible to enter. The Open Cup was first held in 1913–14 when it was called the National Challenge Cup.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The overall league structure in the United States is significantly different from that used in almost all the rest of the world, but similar to that used by other American team sports leagues, in that there is no system of promotion and relegation between lower and higher leagues, but rather a minor league system, generally the same as almost all other top-level pro sports leagues in North America. In addition, teams playing in American soccer leagues are not private clubs founded independently of the league that join a league in order to ensure regular fixtures but are instead usually franchises of the league itself. Finally, the soccer leagues in the United States also incorporate features common to other American sports leagues, most notably the determination of champions by playoffs between the top teams after the conclusion of a league season. MLS formerly had a balanced schedule and prior to then used an unbalanced schedule. However, due to MLS's recent expansion, the league has returned to an unbalanced schedule.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: However, in several ways, American soccer leagues have become more similar to leagues in the rest of the world in recent years. MLS and all USL leagues now allow games to end in ties, which were initially avoided via a penalty shootout if scores were level at the end of play (This practice still exists in MLS Next Pro). This was done to avoid alienating mainstream American sports fans, who are not accustomed to tie games, but actually had the unintended consequence of alienating soccer purists who saw the change as an "Americanization" of the sport. MLS began allowing ties in the 2000 season. Additionally, MLS and USL leagues now use upward-counting clocks that do not stop for stoppages in play, and instead add on time before halftime and full-time. A downward-counting clock that stops for dead balls and ends the game when it reaches zero is still in use in American high school and college soccer, as well as most other American sports, but was and is completely foreign to soccer played outside the United States. MLS adopted the international clock in 2000. Finally, until 2007, the front of teams' shirts in MLS and USL leagues did not bear advertisements, as commercial uniform sponsorship is uncommon in American sports. However, starting in the mid-2000s, clubs were allowed to accept corporate sponsorship on the front of their shirts.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The United States men's and women's national soccer teams represent the United States in international competition.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The women's national soccer team of the 1900s were the first women's national team in the United States. They competed in the FIFA Women's World Cup, the Summer Olympics, and the Algarve Cup, in addition to the CONCACAF Women's Championship and other competitions by invitation. The United States women's team has been one of the best national teams in the history of women's soccer, having won four World Cups (in 1991, 1999, 2015 and 2019). They also won four Olympic gold medals (in 1996, 2004, 2008, and 2012), and 10 Algarve Cups (in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2015). Following their 2015 World Cup victory, the USWNT regained the top spot in the FIFA Women's World Rankings from Germany; they have held the top spot for the majority of the time since the rankings began in 2003, and have never been lower than second.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: There are several factors that may have contributed to the early dominance of the United States women's national soccer team. First is the relative lack of attention afforded the women's game in some traditional soccer-playing countries. According to a 2015 story in the ESPN-owned Web outlet "FiveThirtyEight",For as much as the rest of the world loves soccer, it has been much slower to embrace the women's game than the U.S. In England, women playing soccer was effectively banned (at least at venues that hosted men's teams) from 1921 to 1971, and in Germany it was banned from 1955 to 1970. At around the time Title IX was heating up in the United States, women's international soccer basically didn’t exist. According to FIFA, there were only three national teams and two international matches played in 1971.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Additionally, in the years following Title IX, American high schools and colleges have been steadily embracing girls' and women's soccer. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the U.S. had little more than 10,000 girls playing high school soccer in the late 1970s. This number had increased to 120,000 by 1991 when the USWNT claimed its first World Cup title, and 250,000 by 1999, the year of the second World Cup title. In 2015, there were about 375,000 girls playing high school soccer, making up 47% of all high school soccer players, and soccer has recently surpassed softball as the third-most-played girls' team sport. At the college level, 53% of all NCAA soccer players are women, and this percentage rises to 61% at the highest level, Division I.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Another contributing factor is the role of women within American society, which includes relative equality (especially rejecting hardened gender roles) for women in the United States relative to many other countries. This is also reflected in official government policy regarding women in athletics, specifically the landmark Title IX legislation, which broadly requires any educational institution that receives federal government funds to support men's and women's educational programs equally, thus including athletics. America's approach to growing the game among women has served as a model for other countries' development programs for women at all levels.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: However, the "FiveThirtyEight" story suggested that the U.S. does not take adult women's soccer as seriously as some other countries, notably Germany. On a per capita basis, the U.S. and Germany have essentially identical participation among girls. However, the two countries differ greatly in the age profile of their registered female players. Nearly 95% of registered female players in the U.S. are youths, as opposed to 31% in Germany. In turn, this leads to Germany having more than six times the number of serious adult female players as the U.S. (about 650,000 to 100,000).


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The men's national team competes in the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup, in addition to the CONCACAF Gold Cup and other competitions by invitation.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The U.S. national team had some success in early FIFA World Cup tournaments. The U.S. finished third in the World Cup in 1930, and played in the 1934 World Cup. The next World Cup participation came in the 1950 World Cup, where they upset England 1–0 in group play. After 1950, the USA did not return to the World Cup for another 40 years.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The fortunes of the U.S. national team changed in the 1990s, with the team participating in every World Cup between 1990 and 2014. The U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup, beating Colombia to reach the knockout rounds, before losing to Brazil in the round of sixteen. The team reached the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup by defeating its rival Mexico. The U.S. team also accomplished another first by winning its group at the 2010 World Cup.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The U.S. national team participated in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. The U.S. defeated #1 ranked Spain in the semifinals, before losing to Brazil 3–2 in the final.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: On the regional stage, the national team has also improved, with a record up to 2013 of reaching the final of the biannual CONCACAF Gold Cup nine times since 1989, winning it seven times: 1991, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2017, and 2021.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Most recently, the U.S. national team won the very first 2021 CONCACAF Nations League, beating Mexico 3–2 in overtime thanks to the heroics of the United States backup goalkeeper Ethan Horvath following an injury to the starting goalkeeper Zack Steffen in the 67th minute. The match was widely considered as a revival of the United States-Mexico rivalry following the struggles of U.S. soccer between 2017 and 2020.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The national team has development teams at a number of different ages, the most popular youth national team groups are the Olympic team made up of primarily U23 player, the U20s who has their own World Cup and the u17s who also have their own World Cup.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In the United States, college soccer is featured in many collegiate athletic associations including the NCAA, the NAIA, the NCCAA, and the USCAA.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Many top American college soccer players play for separate teams in USL League Two during the summer.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship, the semifinals and finals of which are known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate college soccer tournament conducted by the NCAA and determines the Division I men's national champion. The tournament has been formally held since 1959, when it crowned Saint Louis University as the inaugural champion. The tournament's current format involves 48 teams, in which every Division I conference tournament champion is allocated a berth. Since its inception, Saint Louis (10 titles), Indiana (8 titles), and Virginia (6 titles) have historically been the most successful Division I schools. Indiana has appeared in more College Cups (18) and has a higher winning percentage in post-season play (.768) than any other school in Division I soccer.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The largest category of soccer in the United States in terms of participation is boys' and girls' youth soccer. Soccer is one of the most played sports by children in the United States. In 2012, soccer was the #1 most played team sport by high school boys, and soccer overtook softball to become the #3 most played team sport by high school girls. As of 2006, the U.S. was the #1 country in the world for participation in youth soccer, with 3.9 million American youths (2.3 million boys and 1.6 million girls) registered with U.S. Soccer. Among girls, the U.S. has more registered players than all other countries combined. The number of high school soccer players more than doubled from 1990 to 2010, giving soccer the fastest growth rate among all major U.S. sports. In recent decades, more youth sports organizations have turned to soccer as a supplement to American football, and most American high schools offer both boys and girls soccer. Due to the rising number of youths playing, the term "soccer mom" is used in American social and political discourse to describe middle- or upper-middle-class suburban women with school-age children. Americans between the ages of 12 and 24 rank professional soccer as their second favorite sport behind only American football. And in 2011, the FIFA video game ranked as the #2 most popular video game in the country, behind only Madden NFL.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Though organized locally by organizations all over the United States, there are three main youth soccer club leagues working nationwide through affiliated local associations. The United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) boasts over three million players between the ages of five and 19, while American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) has more than 600,000 players between the ages of four and 19. Finally, the USL offers a number of youth leagues, including the Super-20 League and the Super Y-League, which have almost 1,000 teams and tens of thousands of players from the ages of 13 to 20.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Also, the National Federation of State High School Associations features 800,000 soccer players. However, NFHS uses rules that are somewhat different from IFAB's laws.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: U.S. television coverage and viewership of club and international soccer are at an all-time high. Mainstream sports broadcasters ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and CBS Sports regularly provide coverage of soccer, as do several popular Spanish-language channels such as Telemundo, UniMás, and Galavisión. Additionally, the U.S. has several networks devoted mostly or completely to the sport, including Gol TV and beIN Sport USA.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The size of the annual TV market in the U.S. for annual club soccer competitions was $126 million as of 2009. The club soccer competitions that generate the most annual revenue from TV audiences today in the United States are England's Premier League ($167m), Major League Soccer ($90m), the Mexican league ($50m), Spain's La Liga ($16m), and the UEFA Champions League ($10m). The most widely accessed televised soccer league in the United States is Mexico's Liga MX, which has most of its games televised live and free on television channels Azteca, Telemundo, UniMás and Univision.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Fox began showing English Premier League matches on network TV in 2011, the first time that Premier League matches aired on U.S. English-language broadcast TV. U.S. TV rights for the English Premier League were sold to NBC Sports in 2012 for $250 million for three years beginning with the 2013–14 season. Viewership for the Premier League's 2013–14 season on NBC Sports was 32 million, more than double the previous season. The Premier League earns higher ratings on NBCSN than the National Hockey League, despite the fact that the Premier League is shown in the morning while NHL games are in primetime.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Major League Soccer has received broadcast fees from ESPN since 2008, and MLS signed a three-year deal in 2011 with NBC Sports to nationally televise 40 matches per year from 2012 to 2014. MLS has since then signed new television agreements with ESPN, FOX Sports, and Univision worth in total $90 million per year from 2015 to 2022. In addition, the 2010 UEFA Champions League final was broadcast live on the Fox Network, marking the first time that a soccer match between two European club teams was televised in the U.S. on English-language broadcast television.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: These TV networks also provide coverage of international soccer competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Women's World Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the UEFA European Championship, the FIFA Confederations Cup, and the U.S. men's national team, and women's national team matches. The Mexico national football team is also a popular team featured on Spanish language television and on ESPN.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In addition to the World Cup, other international soccer competitions involving the U.S. team have become more popular among TV viewers. The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup attracted record television viewership, with the Univision telecast of the final between the United States and Mexico ranking as the third-most-watched Spanish-language program of all time in the United States, beaten only by two FIFA World Cup finals matches. The 2009 Confederations Cup Final featuring the United States attracted 6.9 million viewers (including both the English and Spanish broadcasts). The 2013 World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Mexico drew 7 million viewers, higher than the 5.8 million average viewers of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup finals. Three 2013 Gold Cup matches were broadcast on the main Fox network channel, the first time since 2002 that a U.S. national team match outside of the World Cup was broadcast on network TV.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: TV networks in the U.S. have also begun showing international soccer tournaments that do not include the United States. Euro 2008 was shown on ESPN and ABC. Viewership for the Euro 2012 was 51% higher than 2008, with the 2012 final watched by over 4 million viewers. The viewership on ESPN of the group-stage matches of the 2013 Confederations Cup was 26% higher than the 2009 tournament, even though the U.S. did not play in the 2013 tournament.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: , the most popular soccer event on television in the U.S. was the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Final. It was the most watched soccer match in American history with nearly 26.7 million combined viewers, more than the 2015 NBA Finals and Stanley Cup. It was also the most watched Spanish-language broadcast in tournament history. More than 750 million viewers were reported to have watched the match worldwide. The second highest viewership in the U.S. for a soccer match was 26.5 million combined viewers for Germany vs. Argentina in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final. Previously, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final tallied 17.9 million viewers in the U.S.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In 2005, the U.S. TV rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups were sold to ABC/ESPN and Univision for $425 million in "the biggest TV deal in a single country in FIFA's history."


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The telecasts of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final attracted an estimated 17 million American viewers, higher than the 15.8 million average viewership of the 2006 World Series.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The total TV viewership in the U.S. for all the matches including the final for the 2010 World Cup was 112 million viewers, a 22% increase over viewing numbers for the 2006 World Cup.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The 2010 World Cup final game drew 24.3 million viewers in the United States, higher than the 14.3 million average viewership of the 2010 World Series. Landon Donovan's dramatic game-winning goal against Algeria that advanced the US team to the knockout stage of the 2010 World Cup resulted in jubilant celebrations across the United States.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: In 2011, the U.S. TV rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were sold to Fox and Telemundo for a record $1.1 billion, more than any other country in the world, and 147 percent higher than the 2010 and 2014 TV rights.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: By 2014, the World Cup was considered an elite sports property on U.S. television. The USA-Portugal match during the 2014 World Cup registered 24.7 million viewers in the US, with 6.5 million viewers on Univision and 18.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most viewed program on ESPN, other than NFL or college football games, and eclipsing viewership numbers of other high-profile sports events such as MLB's World Series, the NBA Finals, and the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals. The 2014 FIFA World Cup also generated strong internet traffic, with the tournament generating more viewers via websites and apps than the 2012 Summer Olympics.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Here are the complete tournament cumulative viewership combined totals for each World Cup tournament since 1994. These totals account for all matches played throughout the tournament. Since matches take place at different times, individual viewers will be counted multiple times. Only ESPN totals have been accounted for. Please find Spanish viewership as well.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The total number of viewers in the United States who watched the World Cup final match are as follows. English and Spanish channel viewership along with internet viewership are accounted for in these statistics. For context, the average number of viewers of that year's MLB best-of-seven World Series are also provided.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The following table shows the matches (other than a final match, which is shown in the table above) at the FIFA World Cup that scored the highest TV viewership. English and Spanish channel viewership (and internet viewership, where indicated) are accounted for in these statistics.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: All of the most-watched matches have taken place since 2010. The highest-rated U.S. World Cup matches have generally involved the U.S. national team.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The following table shows the most-viewed international men's team matches other than World Cup matches. Both English and Spanish channel viewership are accounted for in these statistics.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Sports television networks like ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports and beIN Sports offer streaming services to cable/satellite television subscribers. Over-the-top streaming services like Sling TV, Hulu, DirecTV Stream and YouTube TV also offer sports channels. In addition, Fox Soccer 2Go and FuboTV are soccer-specific over-the-top streaming services. More recently, many matches have also became available on over-the-top streaming services such as Paramount+, ESPN+, and Peacock.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: Since the early 1990s, several Americans have found opportunities playing soccer at the highest levels of foreign leagues. Among the first Americans to become regulars in foreign leagues were John Harkes at Sheffield Wednesday and Derby County in England, Eric Wynalda at Saarbrücken in Germany, and Kasey Keller at Millwall in England. Since then, other Americans have played for clubs that have participated in the knockout rounds of the Champions League and Europa League, such as Brad Friedel with Tottenham Hotspur, DaMarcus Beasley with PSV Eindhoven, and Christian Pulisic with Borussia Dortmund and currently with Chelsea.


title: Soccer in the United States

text: The following national teams of U.S. unincorporated territories compete in their corresponding regions. Their governing bodies are either members or associates in the corresponding regional federations. For all but American Samoa, players for these territories are, like most local residents, U.S. citizens. Natives of American Samoa are U.S. nationals, but not U.S. citizens (unless they have a citizen parent).


title: Chandigarh University

text: Chandigarh University (CU) is a private university located in Mohali, Punjab, India.The university was established on 10 July 2012 by an act of Punjab State Legislature. It is recognized by University Grants Commission under Section 2(f) with the right to confer degrees as per Section 22(1) of the UGC Act, 1956. Chandigarh University has been accredited 'A+' by NAAC in 2019.


title: Chandigarh University

text: Chandigarh University offers undergraduate, post-graduate and doctorate degrees in various disciplines including engineering, management, computing, cognitive sciences, education, animation and multimedia, tourism, pharma sciences, biotechnology, architecture, commerce, legal studies, agricultural science, media studies, liberal arts and basic sciences.


title: Chandigarh University

text: The National Institutional Ranking Framework has ranked Chandigarh University 48 in the overall rankings, 29 in the universities rankings, 45 in the engineering category, 40 in the management category, 37 in the pharmacy category, and 19 in the architecture category, as per the rankings released in July 2022.


title: Chandigarh University

text: Chandigarh University is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC). There are also courses which are also approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT), Bar Council of India (BCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), Council of Architecture (COA), National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), member of Association of Indian Universities (AIU), member of Computer Society of India (CSI), member of International Association of Universities (IAU), member of Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), member of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and member of American Chemical Society (ACS).


title: Chandigarh University

text: Chandigarh University includes the institutes of Engineering, Business, Computing, Pharma Sciences, Liberal Arts & Humanities, Nursing, Tourism & Hospitality Management, Applied Health Sciences, among others.


title: Chandigarh University

text: On 17 September 2022, at least 6 girls residing in Chandigarh University hostel complained to the hostel warden about a girl who was secretly recording their videos. Later that day, a video erupted on the social media, where the warden of the said hostel in Chandigarh University was reprimanding the accused girl for recording bathing videos of her hostel-mates. As this went viral, demands for legal action into the matter were being made. On 18 September 2022, Punjab Police arrested the female student at Chandigarh University for allegedly recording objectionable videos of hostel inmates and sending them to her boyfriend in Shimla who leaked it on the internet. The action was taken after hostel inmates claimed their videos have gone viral on the internet.


title: Chandigarh University

text: The university promptly issued a statement saying that there was only one 'leaked' clip and that it was a personal video that the accused sent to her boyfriend in Shimla. However, students at the university protested alleging that the university is covering-up the facts and suppressing the case.


title: Chandigarh University

text: A massive protest erupted on the university campus over the leaked clips. The protesting students alleged that the girl used her mobile to make videos of students taking a bath. Following massive protests, the university administration declared holidays till 24 September 2022.


title: Chandigarh University

text: The police denied any incident of death, injury or attempt to suicide in the aftermath of the video leak. “It's a matter of a video being shot by a girl student & circulated. FIR has been registered in the matter and the accused student has been arrested. No death reported related to this incident. As per medical records, no attempt (to commit suicide) reported”, Mohali SSP Vivek Soni said.


Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine (née Barbara Villiers, – 9 October 1709), was an English royal mistress of the Villiers family and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of England, by whom she had five children, all of them acknowledged and subsequently ennobled. Barbara was the subject of many portraits, in particular by court painter Sir Peter Lely.


title: Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland

text: Barbara's first cousin Elizabeth Villiers (later 1st Countess of Orkney 1657–1733) was the presumed mistress of King William III.


text: Born into the Villiers family as Barbara Villiers, in the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, Middlesex, she was the only child of William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison, a half-nephew of the 1st Duke of Buckingham, and of his wife Mary Bayning, co-heiress of Paul Bayning, 1st Viscount Bayning. On 29 September 1643 her father died in the First English Civil War from a wound sustained on 26 July at the storming of Bristol, while leading a brigade of Cavaliers. He had spent his considerable fortune on horses and ammunition for a regiment he raised himself; his widow and daughter were left in straitened circumstances. Shortly after Grandison's death, Barbara's mother married secondly Charles Villiers, 2nd Earl of Anglesey, a cousin of her late husband.


text: Upon the execution of King Charles I in 1649, the impoverished Villiers family secretly transferred its loyalty to his son, Charles, Prince of Wales. Every year on 29 May, the new King's birthday, young Barbara, along with her family, descended to the cellar of their home in total darkness and clandestinely drank to his health. At that time, Charles was living in The Hague, supported at first by his brother-in-law, Prince William II of Orange, and later by his nephew, William III of Orange.


text: Tall, voluptuous, with masses of brunette hair, slanting, heavy-lidded violet eyes, alabaster skin, and a sensuous, sulky mouth, Barbara Villiers was considered to be one of the most beautiful of the Royalist women, but her lack of fortune left her with reduced marriage prospects. Her first serious romance was with Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, but he was searching for a rich wife; he wed Elizabeth Butler in 1660. On 14 April 1659 she married Roger Palmer (later 1st Earl of Castlemaine), a Roman Catholic, against his family's wishes; his father predicted that she would make him one of the most miserable men in the world. The Palmers had joined the ambitious group of supplicants who sailed for Brussels at the end of 1659. In 1660, Barbara became the king's mistress, and on 20 August 1660 was awarded two pennies seigniorage on every Troy pound of silver minted into coins. As a reward for her services, the King created her husband Baron Limerick and Earl of Castlemaine in 1661. These titles were given with the stipulation that they would only be passed down through Roger's heirs by Barbara, and thus served as a way for the king to indirectly secure an inheritance for his illegitimate children. The two officially separated in 1662, following the birth of her first son. It has been claimed that Roger Palmer did not father any of his wife's children.


text: Lady Castlemaine's influence over the King waxed and waned throughout her tenure as royal mistress. At her height, her influence was so great that she has been referred to as "The Uncrowned Queen," and she was known to assert her influence with the King over the actual Queen, Catherine of Braganza. This initially began upon the Queen's landing at Portsmouth. Samuel Pepys reported that the customary bonfire outside Lady Castlemaine's house was left conspicuously unlit for the Queen's arrival. In point of fact, she planned to give birth to her and Charles' second child at Hampton Court Palace while the royal couple were honeymooning.


text: Of her six children, five were acknowledged by Charles as his. Charles did not believe he sired the youngest, but he was coerced into legally owning paternity by Lady Castlemaine:


text: Upon the birth of her oldest son in 1662, she was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber despite opposition from Queen Catherine and Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, chief advisor to the King and a bitter enemy of Lady Castlemaine. Behind closed doors, Barbara and the Queen feuded constantly.


text: Her victory in being appointed as Lady of the Bedchamber was followed by rumours of an estrangement between her and the King, the result of his infatuation with Frances Stuart. In December 1663, Lady Castlemaine announced her conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. Historians disagree as to why she did so. Some believe it was an attempt to consolidate her position with the King, and some believe it was a way of strengthening her ties with her Catholic husband. The King treated the matter lightly, saying that he was interested in ladies' bodies, but not their souls. The Court was equally flippant, the general view being that the Church of Rome had gained nothing by her conversion, and the Church of England had lost nothing.


text: In June 1670 Charles created her Baroness Nonsuch (as she was the owner of Nonsuch Palace). She was also, briefly, granted the ownership of Phoenix Park in Dublin as a present from the King. She was made Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland in her own right. However, no one at court was sure if this was an indication that she was being jettisoned by Charles, or whether this was a sign that she was even higher in his favours. The dukedom was made with a special remainder which allowed it to be passed to her eldest son, Charles FitzRoy, despite his illegitimacy.


text: Lady Castlemaine was known for her dual nature. She was famously extravagant and promiscuous, with a renowned temper that often turned itself on the King when she was displeased. Diarist John Evelyn called her "the curse of the nation". She held influence over the King in her position as royal mistress and helped herself to money from the Privy Purse as well as taking bribes from the Spanish and the French, in addition to her sizable allowance from the King.


text: She also participated in politics, combining with the future Cabal Ministry to bring about Clarendon's downfall. On his dismissal in August 1667, Lady Castlemaine publicly mocked him; Clarendon gently reminded her that if she lived, one day she too would be old. There are also accounts of exceptional kindness from Lady Castlemaine; once, after a scaffold had fallen onto a crowd of people at the theatre, she rushed to assist an injured child, and was the only court lady to have done so. Others described her as great fun, keeping a good table and with a heart to match her famous temper.


text: The King had taken other mistresses, the most notable being the actress Nell Gwynne. Later in their relationship, the Duchess of Cleveland took other lovers too, including the acrobat Jacob Hall, Henry Jermyn, 1st Baron Dover and her second cousin John Churchill. Her lovers benefited financially from the arrangement; Churchill purchased an annuity with £5,000 she gave him. The King, who was no longer troubled by the Duchess's infidelity, was much amused when he heard about the annuity, saying that after all a young man must have something to live on. Her open promiscuity and extravagant spending made her a popular figure for satirists to use to indirectly ridicule the King and his court, which made her position as royal mistress all the more precarious. In 1670 Charles II gave her the famed Nonsuch Palace. As the result of the 1673 Test Act, which essentially banned Catholics from holding office, she lost her position as Lady of the Bedchamber, and the King cast her aside completely from her position as a mistress, taking Louise de Kérouaille as his newest "favourite" royal mistress. The King advised his former mistress to live quietly and cause no scandal, in which case he "cared not whom she loved".


text: In 1676 the Duchess travelled to Paris with her four youngest children, but returned to England four years later. Her extravagant tastes didn't lessen with time, and between 1682 and 1683 she had Nonsuch Palace pulled down and had the building materials sold off to pay gambling debts. She was eventually reconciled with the King, who was seen enjoying an evening in her company a week before he died in February 1685. After his death, the 45-year-old Duchess began an affair with Cardonell Goodman, an actor of terrible reputation, and in March 1686 she gave birth to his child, a son.


text: In 1705 Roger Palmer died, and she married Major-General Robert Fielding, an unscrupulous fortune-hunter whom she later had prosecuted for bigamy, after she discovered that he had married Mary Wadsworth, in the mistaken belief that she was an heiress, just two weeks before he married Barbara. She had complained of his "barbarous ill-treatment" of her after she stopped his allowance, and was eventually forced to summon the magistrates for protection.


text: Barbara died at the age of 68 on 9 October 1709 at her home, Walpole House on Chiswick Mall, after suffering from dropsy, now described as oedema of the legs, with congestive heart failure.


text: Barbara Villiers figures prominently in Bernard Shaw's "In Good King Charles's Golden Days" (1939) and Jessica Swale's "Nell Gwynn" (2015), played in the premiere productions by Daphne Heard and Sasha Waddell respectively.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Severn Bridge () is a motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wales, and took three and a half years to build, at a cost of £8 million. It replaced the 137-year-old Aust Ferry.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The bridge was opened in 1966 by Queen Elizabeth II. For thirty years, the bridge carried the M4 motorway. It was granted Grade I listed status in 1999.


title: Severn Bridge

text: Following the completion of the Prince of Wales Bridge, the section of motorway from Olveston in England to Magor in Wales was designated the M48.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The first proposal for a bridge across the Severn, approximately in the same location as that eventually constructed, was in 1824 by Thomas Telford, who had been asked to advise on how to improve mail coach services between London and Wales. No action was taken, and over the next few decades the railways became the dominant mode of long-distance travel, with the Severn Railway Bridge at Sharpness being opened in 1879 and the main line Severn Tunnel in 1886.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The growth of road traffic in the early 20th century led to further calls for improvements, and in the early 1920s Chepstow Urban District Council convened a meeting of neighbouring local authorities to consider a Severn crossing to ease congestion and delays on the A48 passing through the town. In 1935 Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire County Councils jointly promoted a Parliamentary Bill to obtain powers to build the bridge over the estuary, with 75% of costs to be met by the Ministry of Transport from the Road Fund. The bill was rejected by Parliament after opposition from the Great Western Railway Company.


title: Severn Bridge

text: After the Second World War, plans began to be made for a nationally funded network of trunk roads, including a Severn Bridge, for which the contract was awarded to Mott, Hay and Anderson, with Freeman Fox and Partners. The public inquiry into the scheme was held on 24 September 1946 at Bristol University. Because Government funding was prioritised for the similar Forth Road Bridge (opened in 1964), construction of the Severn Bridge was not started until 1961: the UK government announced in 1962 that construction costs would be recovered by a toll of 2s 6d (£0.125) on all vehicle crossings, though walking or cycling across the bridge would be charge-free. The substructure was completed by contractors John Howard and Co in 1963. The superstructure contract was awarded to Associated Bridge Builders Ltd (a joint venture of Sir William Arrol & Co., Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company and Dorman Long) in 1963, and completed in 1966.


title: Severn Bridge

text: In January 1977, it was announced that bridge traffic would be restricted to a single lane in each direction following the discovery of several weaknesses in the ten-year-old structure. The lane closures would last for several months.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Severn Bridge crossing was strengthened and resurfaced in the late 1980s as the weight of traffic grew. The work included the strengthening of the Severn Bridge towers and deck, an extension to the Wye Bridge towers and the replacement of the original single stays with two stays. The open structure of the new stays is designed to facilitate maintenance. Most of the strengthening work was inside the deck box and towers and so is not visible. Design of the strengthening was by Flint & Neill. The surfacing is a thick layer of mastic asphalt over an acrylic waterproofing membrane.


title: Severn Bridge

text: During its 40th year of operation in 2006, the bridge was inspected to check for corrosion of the suspension cables. According to the Highways Agency, the inspection concluded that the bridge needed restrictions on heavy goods vehicles. Such vehicles are now restricted to one lane on the bridge, with weight restriction signs in place. A system of rubber casing on the cables with dry air circulation, as used on the Forth Road Bridge, was installed in 2007–2009 in a move to halt the progress of the corrosion.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The bridge is also home to Severn Bridge parkrun, one of the many free, weekly 5k runs held in both the UK and internationally.


title: Severn Bridge

text: In October 2021, the Welsh Government announced it is considering reclassifying the M48 into an A-road. This is due to lower amounts of traffic on the bridge and M48, following the opening of the Prince of Wales bridge, and the high costs to improve the M48 to motorway standards for the decreased amounts of traffic it handles. Reclassification requires approval from both the Welsh Government and Secretary of State for Wales, with the Department for Transport stating they have no plans to reclassify the M48 in England.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Severn Bridge crossing consists of four structures, which, in order from England to Wales, are: the Aust Viaduct, Severn Bridge, Beachley Viaduct and Wye Bridge. In 1998 the Severn Bridge and Aust Viaduct were given Grade I listed status, and the Beachley Viaduct (eastern/English end) of the Wye Bridge and the western/Welsh end of the Wye Bridge received Grade II listed status.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Aust Viaduct is a twin box girder structure with a concrete deck, which carries the roadway from the top of Aust Cliff to the first gravity anchorage of the old Severn Bridge. The roadway is then carried over the top of the concrete anchorage to the Severn Bridge.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Severn Bridge is located close to the former Aust Ferry. The bridge is a suspension bridge of conventional design, with the deck supported by two main cables slung between two steel towers. In 1966 the cables supporting the bridge deck were spun from of wire. The main cables are each made up of 8,322 individual wires. An unusual feature of the suspension cables carrying the deck is that they are not vertical, as for most suspension bridges, but rather arranged in a zig-zag fashion, with adjacent mounts closely spaced. The triangulation this offers is an attempt to reduce vibration, as is the use of Stockbridge dampers on the cables. The bridge is long, consisting of a central span between the towers and the two side spans. The towers rise to above mean high water and are of hollow box construction. The deck is an orthotropic steel box girder of aerofoil shape with cantilevered cycle tracks and footway supported from the box. The shape of the bridge was determined by the designers Freeman, Fox and Partners following wind tunnel tests for the Forth Road Bridge, after the original wind tunnel model was accidentally destroyed. The sections of the deck were built at Fairfield-Mabey in Chepstow, and each 132 tonne section was then floated down the river before being hoisted into position.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Beachley Viaduct is of a box girder construction similar to that of the Severn Bridge but is supported on steel trestles as it crosses the Beachley peninsula over the British Army camp, Beachley Barracks, that is home to 1st Battalion, The Rifles. In November 2016 the Ministry of Defence announced that the site would close in 2027.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The Wye Bridge () is a long cable-stayed bridge, which crosses the border marked by the River Wye between England and Wales, south of Chepstow. It consists of a single large cable stayed section with two single-leg pylons supporting the bridge deck from the centre of the roadway. The deck is an orthotropic box girder similar to the Severn Bridge but has a different appearance as it has two sets of cable stays on each of two towers. Originally there was only one set of cable stays but these were replaced during the strengthening works. The Wye Bridge was built by Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The toll was collected on the English side, but only for vehicles travelling westwards from England to Wales. This led some people to describe it as a "tax on entering Wales", both in jest and also as a more serious anti-toll campaign.


title: Severn Bridge

text: Originally, tolls were charged in both directions, but the arrangements were changed in the early 1990s to eliminate the need for a set of toll booths for each direction of travel and the potential for traffic waiting to pay the toll backing up onto the bridge itself.


title: Severn Bridge

text: Shortly after the opening of the Severn Bridge, Welsh poet Harri Webb wrote an "Ode on the Severn Bridge":


title: Severn Bridge

text: In 1966, the toll for using the new motorway crossing was set at 2s 6d (post-decimalisation equivalent £0.125) for all vehicles apart from solo motorcycles which enjoyed a reduced toll of 1s (£0.05). For a small car the bridge toll represented a saving of 7s (£0.35) on the price of the ferry crossing, at that time 9s 6d (£0.475). By 1989, the toll had reached £2 each way for goods vehicles with an unladen weight over and passenger vehicles adapted to carry more than 16 passengers, and £1 each way for other vehicles. If the Severn toll had increased in line with general inflation since September 1966, when Queen Elizabeth II opened the bridge, the original value of £0.125 would have reached £2.19 in each direction (or £4.38 as it is just a one-way toll) .


title: Severn Bridge

text: In the 2016 United Kingdom budget George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that toll charges on the Severn crossings would be halved in 2018. The Welsh Liberal Democrats leader Kirsty Williams called the cut "pathetic" and said, "The Chancellor is cynically acting as if he is doing commuters a favour, but the fact is that he wants to keep this unfair tax on entering Wales." The toll was due to be cut to £5.40 in 2017 but actually increased further.


title: Severn Bridge

text: In July 2017, the Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns, announced that tolls would be abolished by the end of 2018, claiming that this would boost the South Wales economy by around £100m a year. In September 2017, Cairns confirmed that tolls would be reduced in January 2018 when VAT is removed. In October 2018 he said that the Severn Bridge tolls would cease on 17 December 2018.


title: Severn Bridge

text: On 17 December 2018, all toll lanes were permanently closed, officially marking the start of a toll-free journey into Wales for the first time since the bridge's construction. During the removal process of the toll booths, traffic was directed through a temporary three-lane layout, directly through the centre of the former toll lanes. These lanes were narrower than usual, resulting in a 50 mph speed limit being enforced. On 25 March 2019, a newly resurfaced road structure was opened, moving traffic flow from the centre of the former toll lanes to the right-hand side, directly next to eastbound traffic. This will allow for further work to remove any remaining toll infrastructure to the left of the new road layout.


title: Severn Bridge

text: Ownership and operation of the bridge passed to Severn River Crossing plc on 26 April 1992 as part of the deal to build the Second Severn Crossing.


title: Severn Bridge

text: The company's 2011 annual report showed the same companies still owned, through subsidiary companies, all the issued ordinary share capital of the Plc.


title: Severn Bridge

text: Ownership of the bridge and the Second Severn Crossing returned to the UK government on 8 January 2018 when the revenue required to build and maintain them, as defined in a Concession Agreement with the Secretary of State for Transport, had been collected. In 2010, the concession was expected to end in 2017. In 2012, changes were made to the agreement to reflect the effect of changes in VAT and Corporation Tax and the costs of installing credit card handling systems. The net effect was to increase the required revenue from £995.83 million to £1,028.91 million in 1989 prices.


title: Severn Bridge

text: On 6 February 2009, during a week of snowfall throughout Britain, both Severn bridges were closed simultaneously due to ice falling from the bridge structure and damaging vehicles. On 22 December 2009, both bridges were closed again for the same reason.


title: Severn Bridge

text: A privately developed app called Enviroute provides the status of both bridges. The original Severn Bridge status website, www.severnbridge.co.uk, was decommissioned in December 2018 following the removal of the tolls and the handing back of the first bridge to the UK government.


title: Family Guy (season 17)

text: The seventeenth season of "Family Guy" aired on Fox in the United States from September 30, 2018, to May 12, 2019.


title: Family Guy (season 17)

text: The series follows the dysfunctional Griffin family, consisting of father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie, and the family dog Brian, who reside in their hometown of Quahog. The season's executive producers are Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, Richard Appel, Steve Callaghan, Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Mark Hentemann, Tom Devanney, Patrick Meighan and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong. The season's showrunners are Sulkin and Appel.


title: Family Guy (season 17)

text: This season sees Brian trapped in a marriage with a dying woman (played by Casey Wilson) in a two-part arc ("Married... with Cancer", "Dead Dog Walking"), another two-part arc focused on Peter becoming a scaremongering news anchor, which lands him a job as President Trump's press secretary ("Hefty Shades of Gray", "Trump Guy"), Quagmire once again bonding with an estranged child who's biologically his ("No Giggity, No Doubt"), Meg qualifying for the Winter Olympics in Korea ("The Griffin Winter Games"), Brian and Stewie shrinking to microscopic size ("Big Trouble in Little Quahog"), Peter and Brian competing to become the next Pawtucket Brewery mascot (“Pawtucket Pete”), Meg becoming an Internet influencer ("Girl, Internetted"), Peter identifying as transgender ("Trans-Fat"), a meta episode where the Griffins record DVD commentary ("You Can't Handle the Booth!"), and Quagmire running against Brian for mayor ("Adam West High").


title: Sarita Joshi

text: Sarita Joshi ("née" Bhosle) is an Indian stage, television and film actress and is a veteran actress of Gujarati theatre and Marathi theatre and also Marathi cinema. In 2020, she was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, by the Government of India for her contribution to arts. She is widely remembered for her role as Godavari Labhshankar Thakkar a.k.a. Baa in the Star Plus hit dramedy Baa Bahoo Aur Baby, for which she won many awards. She is known for her Gujarati plays done with her husband Pravin Joshi in the 1970s.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: In 1988, she was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Acting in Gujarati by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. In 2020, she has been awarded with Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award for her contribution in Art. She was recently seen in (2019) Zee TV's "Hamari Bahu Silk" as a hard-working business woman who hates films especially 'A' grade films . Sarita Joshi is currently seen on "" a prequel web series to Star Plus show "Anupamaa" as Rupali Ganguly portraying Anupamaa's grandmother-in-law and Arvind Vaidya portraying Hasmukh's mother Moti Baa, with whom she worked in Star Plus show Baa Bahoo Aur Baby where she was played mother and wife to Ganguly and Vaidya's characters respectively. Arvind Vaidya and Sarita Joshi collaborated and portrayed the characters of husband and wife respectively in the hit classic show Baa Bahoo Aur Baby.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: She is currently playing the character of Radha Limaye aka Radha Tai/Kaku in Sony Sab's Pushpa Impossible.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: Sarita was born in a middle class Marathi family in Pune, though she grew up in Vadodara. Her father, Bhimrao Bhosle, was a barrister and mother, Kamlabai Rane, was from Goa. She began acting on stage at the age of nine along with her sister Padmarani, due to financial problems that her family found itself in. Though she started with traditional theatre, she soon started working with noted artists like Shanta Apte. She is often confused with her sister, Padmarani, who is also an actress.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: After working as child actor for six years, Joshi got her first lead role at age 16. She went to act with Indian National Theatre Gujarati, and it was here that she met her future husband Pravin Joshi.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: She made television debut in the 1980s, with the TV series, "Titliyan" (Butterflies), directed by Nadira Babbar, followed by numerous series in the 90s, including, Zee TV's "Zee TV's Hasratein". She is best known for portraying Baa aka Godavari Labhshankar Thakkar a tough yet fair and loving matriarch in the household hit serial "Baa Bahoo Aur Baby" in which she was cast opposite a renowned theatre, film and television actor Arvind Vaidya with whom she also did the play named Masala Mami, which stopped on 28 March 2009 for a temporary seasonal break, but was renewed on popular demand. It is a popular show among masses and is still loved by the audience and are waiting for its next season. It ran for five years on television owing to its cast, storyline and performances. In 2009, Joshi played in the serial "Kuchh Kook Hota Hai" as Rani on 9X. Joshi played Asha Parekh's friend in the movie "Kanyadaan" in 1968 and also appeared in the song "Mil Gaye Milgaye Aaj Mere Sanam" from the same film. Joshi played Vijayanthimala's friend in the movie "Pyar Hi Pyar" in 1969. She also portrayed Abhishek Bachchan's mother in "Guru", directed by filmmaker Mani Ratnam. She also played a central character in the 2008 movie "Dasvidaniya". Joshi then travelled to the United States that year to be part of the crossover film, "Bollywood Beats", starring alongside "Lilette Dubey" and "Pooja Kumar", in a film directed by "Mehul Shah". Out of all the mediums, she holds a special corner for theatre and stage performances. She claims that the joy of performing on stage is any time better than anything else and that theatre will always be her first love.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: She stars in Star Plus' "Chand Chupa Badal Mein", which is produced by Rajan Shahi as the caring, confident grandmother of female lead Nivedita, played by Neha Sargam. Her film "Gangoobai" has been released in theatres in January 2013 in which she plays the protagonist. She appeared in "Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi" in 2015 as female lead (Radhika Madan's) grandmother aka Hansa Govardhan Parekh. She was also seen playing the character of Lalita Swamy "Amma" and as "daadi maa"in the episodic story 9 saal ki dadi maa in Sab TV's serial "Khidki". She played the character of "Bakula - the lead role" in the &TV serial "Bakula Bua Ka Bhoot" in 2017.She also played cameo as Champa "Kaki" in (2005-2006) Star Plus's "Khichdi Returns".


title: Sarita Joshi

text: She played the character of Subhadra in the Colors TV show "Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka" (2018). She was seen in Zee TV's "Hamari Bahu Silk" (2019) in pivotal role as Aruna Parekh aka Baa— a wealthy and hardworking business woman who hates films especially 'A' grade films, she was also reunited with her onscreen son (Subodh) played by Rajesh Kumar in "Baa Bahoo Aur Baby" after 9 years on television.


title: Sarita Joshi

text: Joshi was first married to Rajkumar Khatau. Later, she married to theatre director and playwright Pravin Joshi. She is the mother of actresses Ketki Dave, who played the role of Daksha in "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" and of Purbi Joshi, who appears on "Comedy Circus" as a host. Aruna Irani is her sister's niece from husband side. Her niece is Manasi Joshi Roy (wife of Rohit Roy) and nephew is actor Sharman Joshi (son in law of Prem Chopra), son of theatre veteran Arvind Joshi.


title: Konpeitō

text: , also spelled kompeitō, is a type of Japanese sugar candy. It takes the form of a small sphere with a bumpy surface, and comes in a variety of colors and flavors.


title: Konpeitō

text: The characters (lit. "golden flat sugar") are selected mostly for their phonetic value and can also be written or .


title: Konpeitō

text: The technique for producing sugar candy was introduced to Japan in the early 16th century by Portuguese traders. The infrastructure and refining technology of sugar had not yet been established in Japan. As uses a lot of sugar, it was very rare and expensive as a result. In 1569, Luís Fróis, a Portuguese missionary, presented a glass flask of to Oda Nobunaga in order to obtain the permit for mission work of Christianity.


title: Konpeitō

text: By the Meiji period, had already been culturally prescribed as one of the standards of Japanese sweets—the character Sugar Plum Fairy in "The Nutcracker" was translated into (, "Fairy of ").


title: Konpeitō

text: "Konpeitō" is usually in diameter and is produced by repeatedly coating a sugar syrup over a core consisting of a grain of coarse sugar. Originally, the core was a poppy seed. The process is somewhat similar to the "dragée" process, except the candies are produced by being ladled with sugar syrup and rotated slowly in a large heated gong-shaped tub ("dora"). Each grain of the core sugar grows over the course of several days with the continued rotating, heating, and application of syrup, becoming a ball covered with tiny bulges. It usually takes 7–13 days to make "konpeitō" and they are still crafted by artisans today.


title: Konpeitō

text: The Japanese Ministry of Defense's Emergency Food Ration tins and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's Combat Ration tins both contain "konpeito" candies, in addition to hard tack bread/biscuits and other food items. While the candies aid in the calorie content necessary for activities, it also helps promote the creation of saliva to make it easier to eat the dry bread. According to the Ministry of Defense's specifications, "Each white emergency ration bag will contain 150g of small dry bread, with 8 whites, 3 reds, 2 yellows, 2 greens as standard, amounting to 15g or more to be put in the bag.” It is thought that providing the 'colorful and enjoyable' "Konpeito" will also reduce the stress that would be experienced at times during a disaster.


title: Konpeitō

text: "Konpeito" is often used for celebrations such as marriage and childbirth, in elaborate candy boxes called "bonbonniere" (), from the French , meaning "candy box". It is given as a gift for prayers at shrines and temples. The practice of giving bonbonniere dates back to the commemoration ceremony of the Meiji Constitution in 1889 and has since been thought to be a symbol of good luck. The Japanese Imperial Family has used these "Onshino Konpeitō" as the official ‘Welcome’ gift continuously for over 130 years.


title: Konpeitō

text: The Star Bits in "Super Mario Galaxy" and its sequel, the Gratitude Crystals and Star Fragments in "The Legend of Zelda" series, the Star Fragments in "Animal Crossing" as well as Minior, Max Revives (and to a lesser extent, Revives), Cosmog's star candies from the "Pokémon" series, and EXP Star Jellies in are all based on these candies. The susuwatari from Studio Ghibli films such as Spirited Away are also shown to eat konpeitō. "Super Mario RPG" also features it as an attack item that was localized as "Rock Candy". The candies also featured in an episode of the children's anime "Hamtaro", referred to as "diamonds of sugar" in the English dub.


title: Maximum power transfer theorem

text: In electrical engineering, the maximum power transfer theorem states that, to obtain "maximum" external power from a power source with internal resistance, the resistance of the load must equal the resistance of the source as viewed from its output terminals. Moritz von Jacobi published the maximum power (transfer) theorem around 1840; it is also referred to as "Jacobi's law".