I don't think anyone is really thinking about giving up a degree. It may be that the money isn't enough to make a senior even skip her last senior semester (thus joining a team in mid-season). But some might and finish in the fall and others will figure out ways to make it work around the league (like Andrew Wenger finished at Duke while playing for Montreal). Thus why I see local signings as more important. If you are only gonna pay me $1K per month, at least help me finish the degree that's partially paid for by my scholarship.
A degree vs. pro/semi-pro soccer is not an all-or-none choice. If I was a sentior with a good or even fair chance of making a team, I would manage my spring semester accordingly. I would try and take two courses max, one or both which could be done via 'distance learning,' and focus on soccer. If I don't make it - I'm back at school in the fall. If I do, it is part-time student until I earn the degree.
Good example of what the league-to-be-named-later is facing: The Canadian Women's Hockey League http://www.cwhl.ca/view/cwhl http://bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/...omen-hockey/IRjvJYqqDvEqPnkfh8NUzN/story.html (paywall) The Olympics are the pinnacle in this sport and the players on these 5 teams (launched in 2007) don't get paid. Funny that the Boston Blades franchise in this league plays in Somerville, near me. That means 3 women's teams -- the Breakers, Blades and the Boston Militia (women's football) -- play "professionally" in Somerville.
It's Borislow. He sees few good players beyond the magicJack starting XI. Basically, the U.S. team, plus Ellertson, Huffman and Press.
Sobering to say the least. On a related note, the WNBA launched with support of the highly profitable NBA, which at one time had an ownership interest in every WNBA team. I think that today the NBA retains some ownership position in a majority of the teams, and many of them play in NBA arenas. The other key to the WNBA's marginal success was the television contract they signed with ESPN, I think sometime in 2007 or 2008. I may have missed that portion of the discussion, but has there been any talk of broadcasting rights for the new league?
DC Athletic Club? (DC/AC) I suppose they couldn't get away with turning it the other way around to put the AC in front...) Ah, jeez, JanBalk beat me to this a long time ago...
Tweet this morning re DC team: "Name set. Website, logo, etc.. in process. Announce via media call next wk. Correct guess RTs get prize."
Another tweet this morning, this time about Portland team name and logo: @MerrittPaulson: Planning on announcing Portland Women's Pro team name & logo (thanks @BrentDiskin) late next wk. Hint: one of main TA chants will still work
A good supporter's group has at least a dozen or two chants, I doubt that 'hint' helps much. Unless TA is really not creative. X-D Gah, why so many "next week" baits?? Let us know now!
The TA has at least two dozen chants, but there are a couple of go-to chants which are quite regularly used. I think the one being referred to is "Onward Rose City". One common name bandied about the twitters has been Rose City FC. As far as the "next week" baits, that is almost assuredly because there will be a league-wide announce next week, and these two teams, which obviously have a decent amount of interest, decided to tease it. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more teases about announces next week yet later today.
Rose City FC would be great. For non-Portlanders, Portland calls it self the Rose City and has for about 100 years. The Rose City symbol is a red rose, so if indeed aperfectring is correct, I'd be expecting to see a red rose in the logo. It's something that Portlanders really identify with.
And I also read somewhere else that Portland's colors would be Red and White. So I guess being called Rose City FC, and having a red rose logo would make sense.
Ambiguous tweet is ambiguous: @MerrittPaulson @HermesLeTwit @BrentDiskin we use Rose City FC for Timbers on the red kits. but that's too many clues That could imply either that this WILL be the name, or that it CAN'T due to the Adidas/MLS arrangement.
They may or may not be able to use Rose City FC, but even if they can't, there are other iterations of the knickname that are available. rose city isn't proprietary to corporations. Everyone from Taxi companies to plumbers use the name. Merritt may have talked to the Timbers Army, for example, to leverage the logo for the Army's rec league teams. If there is one thing Merritt learned when the decision was made for the new Timbers logo, is not to screw with the team image without consulting the Army.
One thing's for sure. No matter what their name or logo will be, I am almost certain that Portland will be in the playoffs in 2013. They will be stacked with top notch west coast talent, Portland talent, and possibly Wambach and/or Sinclair. From a geographic perspective, the fact that California doesn't have any franchises in this league (yet) only helps Portland's roster that much more. And the fanbase will probably be the #1 fanbase in the league. I hope Boston will still have the Riptide section, and even if they do, Portland will probably still have the #1 fanbase.
Are the Canadian and Mexican internationals being allocated or drafted or is it up to each team to negotiate with the players of their choice? I think the information to date says that the Canada and Mexico federations would fund "up to" a certain number of players.
Everything so far has indicated an "allocation". No indication how that would work, though Sunil hinted at an attempt to match player and team desires.
The original wording was "up to" for all three associations. ( the exact wording was used twice, once with the original announcement for the league, and once for the announcement of Cheryl Bailey as League Director) Since then, wording seems to indicate the the USA number is pretty solid, as is the Canada number. I haven't really seen interviews with folks from Mexico. But the wording also seems to indicate that the players are to come from at least the national team pools. It's also not clear if those numbers are caps or not.
The original news release the day it was announced said .... USA - up to 24 players Canada - up to 16 players Mexico - "at least" 12 players I could see by the year 2014 (or 2015) other feds stepping in. By then, Costa Rica may fund at least 6-8 players. Colombia may fund at least 6-8 players. Brazil may fund at least 6-8 players. If there is expansion in this league (to 10 or 12 teams) by 2015, then those three additional federations could combine to fund 18-24 additional players to the league. That means the ratio would stay the same. Each of the 10-12 teams in the league (by 2015) would have around seven players paid for by federations. That's not too far from half of an 18 team roster (or about 40% of it I should say). It would be the greatest Western Hemisphere pro league ever. And with the World Cup expanding from 16 to 24 nations, this only incentivizes nations like Costa Rica and Colombia that much more. They're almost shoe-ins to make most World Cups going forward.
No. Here is the link from which I provided the quote, which was the original announcement by Gulati. http://www.ussoccer.com/news/womens...ati-announces-new-womens-league-for-2013.aspx ( third paragraph, counting from "Chicago") And you will find the exact same paragraph at the end of the Bailey appointment announcement http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Womens...ive-Director-of-New-Womens-Soccer-League.aspx (last paragraph) In both cases, the term used is " up to" for all three FA's If each association provided a salary for one player, the conditions in the original announcement would be met.
Well then, Mexico needs to not be so cheap, and pay for 14 or 16. They should match Canada, if they want to catch up to Canada as being 2nd best in CONCACAF. And maybe they'll start out with 12 in year one, and expand to 14 or 16 players in year two. Maybe Canada will expand from 16 to 18 or 20 in year two. Let's hope the league is a major success in year one.
I think it will be. I like the infrastructure being built so far. And there will be fan demand. When WPS was taken away, it allowed fans to feel what it's like with a league taken away (yeah, I know the same thing happened back then with WUSA). The past two years (2011 WWC, 2012 Olympics) have done nothing but help the intensity level for demand. And this league won't need 4,000 fans to be at every match. I think it'll survive with only 2,000 - 2,500 fans (on avg). And that's more than plausible for any franchise. If this league fails, then a women's pro league will never work in this country. Budgets have been reduced by more than half. There's nothing else they can do at this point. It truly is now or never. And I believe, in this case, three times is a charm.
I read somewhere on twitter that the league is in communication with Fox Soccer and NBC Universal about television coverage. Fox gives them Fox Soccer Channel (now known as Fox Soccer), Fox Soccer Plus, and all the various Fox Sports Net regional channels. NBC gives them NBC, NBC Sports Network, NBC Universal Sports channel, and the Comcast regional sports networks. This would be a major coup for the league to strike a deal with Fox and/or NBC. It doesn't look like BeIN Sport or ESPN is an option. And of course, there is no more Gol-TV.