ESPN is under fire after several female athletes nominated for ESPYS weren't invited to the award ceremony

• The 2022 ESPYs in Los Angeles, California, will bring together many celebrities and sports superstars.
• Several women that were nominated for ESPYS were not invited to the ESPN awards show.

The 2022 ESPYS are set for Wednesday night.

Hosted by NBA superstar Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles-based awards show will be a who's who of big-name celebrities and sports icons.

But there will be some noticeable absences at this year's festivities; several of the women's sports stars nominated for ESPYS were not invited to the actual awards ceremony.

National Women's Soccer League fans and players first sounded alarms a week before the event. Celebrations on behalf of those nominated quickly transformed into public outcry when it became clear that the soccer stars would not be on hand for Wednesday's festivities.

Nicole Baxter — whose NJ/NY Gotham teammate, Caprice Dydasco, received a nomination — slammed ESPN for the slight.

"In what world would @espn nominate Cappy for best NWSL player and then tell us that category is not invited to the ESPYS????????" Baxter wrote on Twitter. "The constant disrespect for womens sports SMH."

The NWSL players aren't the only ESPYS contenders who weren't invited to The Dolby Theatre for the event. South Carolina superstar Aliyah Boston — who was nominated for the "Best College Athlete" ESPY after leading the Gamecocks to a national championship and collecting nearly every individual accolade in the sport — was not offered a seat at the show.

Her head coach — women's basketball legend Dawn Staley — was quick to speak out on behalf of her star:

"Like really….who in the room from @espn @ESPYS decided it was a great idea not to invite @MarchMadnessWBB NPOY DPOY….not one person was able to see the uproar this would cause?" Staley wrote on Twitter. "There's definitely something wrong with the make up of the room……the fight continue….#WBBSTANDUP."

A representative for ESPN told Insider that "both COVID restrictions and a new venue with much less seating capacity than previous shows" forced the company to "prioritize athlete invitations to focus on specific awards that will be handed out during the broadcast.

"Additionally, this year we moved several Sports Humanitarian Awards into The ESPYS broadcast — including the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award, and the League Humanitarian Leadership Award," the representative continued. "This means that several ESPY awards are being announced via other platforms including several of our studio shows and The ESPYS Preview Show that is airing [Tuesday] on ESPN at 8p ET."

Still, there's room for famous faces like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Allison Brie, Ciara, Jon Hamm, Lil Wayne, and Aubrey Plaza — all of whom are listed as expected attendees in a recent ESPN press release.

Hollywood's Dolby Theatre — the venue for this year's show — boasts a 3,400-person capacity. Dydasco and Boston account for two of the 132 athletes nominated for individual ESPYs this year; even if all of the nominees were included, more than 3,000 seats would remain in the auditorium.

Jade Li-English — Boston's agent at Klutch Sports — was unsatisfied with ESPN's explanation.

"Miss me with the COVID excuse and just say you didn't see the value of having one of the most decorated and dominant players in College Sports — a Black Woman — at your event," she wrote on Twitter.

After facing significant backlash for not including Boston in the ESPYS festivities, ESPN extended a late invite to the 2022 National Player of the Year. The superstar center declined, explaining in a statement that "it hurt more to see ESPN change course and invite me only after social media caught wind of it."

"I'm used to this," Boston added. "It's just another moment when the disrespect and erasure of Black women is brushed off as a 'mistake' or an 'oversight.' Another excuse for why our milestones and accomplishments aren't a 'priority' this time, even now, 50 years after Title IX."

The 2022 ESPYS air live on ABC Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.