With one audacious half-field chip, Carli Lloyd all but sealed the United States’ victory in the 2015 Women’s World Cup. The momentum left in the team’s wake has far greater ramifications. While it won’t elevate the women’s game to the same level of the men’s in terms of attention, the U.S. win does have very real implications for the survival (and eventual growth) of the domestic women’s league.

And the National Women’s Soccer League, the latest iteration of U.S. women’s professional soccer, has undoubtedly seen its fortunes raised by the rising tide of American star power on the world stage. For anyone who doesn’t believe that, consider the words of the general manager of Boston’s own NWSL team, the Breakers.

“We’re close to selling out the remainder of our games,” said Lee Billiard in a recent interview. Billiard, who has been in his role since 2012, also says that the Breakers’ game on August 1st against the Seattle Reign FC will be a sellout.

“Momentum doesn’t run all the way through to next year, so we’re trying to capitalize on it while its still there,” Billiard explained. “I think we’ve done a good job of trying to grab a hold of that momentum and bringing some new faces to the Breakers.”

Billiard maintained that progress won’t be achieved overnight, but gains are undeniable this season. The process expands beyond simply hoping that the United States’ success translates on a local level. It comes down to Billiard’s recognition of his (and the Breakers’) challenging reality:

We don’t have the financial budget to compete with the Patriots, the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Bruins and the Revolution. We can’t have that kind of marketing budget to be able to go and do things like that. But what we believe we have is something very unique. We have these professional athletes who want to be active in the community. And we want to try and get them out and in as many towns and events as possible where we can create one-on-ones: That personal relationship with a professional athlete and our fanbase. We think that’s something that’s pretty unique.

And he’s clearly onto something with that concept. The prospect of professional athletes consistently engaging with their community (not simply on an organized level, but in everyday one) is something that Boston’s other teams might trumpet on occasion, but very rarely live up to.

“We’re up against a battle with a lot of other professional teams,” Billiard noted, “and we effectively have to go and find fans at times.” In this way, the lifestyle of a general manager for an NWSL team is completely unconventional from that of Boston’s other major professional teams. It’s fitting, considering his team’s equally unconventional position.

“I tell people this all the time: We’re a professional sports team, but we’re effectively a small business,” said Billiard. “We are a skeleton staff. There are eight full time staff, and we all where many, many hats. I’m the least conventional general manager there possibly is.”

The Breakers’ approach to spreading the team’s name has been equally unconventional. Whether it was partnering with Mayor Walsh for World Cup viewing parties, or Boston startup Fancred, the Breakers are trying to be as innovative as they can.

“We decided that we wanted to take the old view that we used to have, where we used to do a lot of print advertising and we wanted to update it,” explained Billiard. “That’s really worked out well for us.”

Still, Billiard is also aware that, for all of his success in building a base with youth soccer fans, the Breakers’ need to be aiming at one of Boston’s most prominent demographics. And one of the now-constant team promotions, an in-game beer garden, is intended to target this group.

“Part of that (the beer garden) will help us draw in that demographic that we’re looking for: The twenties and thirties as well as just the young kids with their parents,” said Billiard, referencing the so-called “young professionals” who are such a core fanbase for the Revolution.

Speaking of the Revs, he is in complete agreement that Boston needs a soccer stadium.

“That would be huge for us,” Billiard said, enthusiastically. He did add a clear caveat though.

“We obviously don’t have our own finances to go out and build our own stadium.” Nonetheless, Billiard thinks that with or without a new stadium, the game is already well established in the city and continuing to grow.

“The sport of soccer in Boston is a big one. The Revs draw a good crowd, and we’re starting to really build and add more numbers to our games as well.”

Featured image via Leonard Cederholm, CC By 2.0