How is USSF the "group that could kill wps"? They're not calling people and telling them not to own teams in the league. Why mention MLS? USSF isn't giving MLS any money. USSF famously gave the WUSA something like 10mill back in the day, how did that work out? Your post comes across as someone who is too lazy to reason out what is really going on and would rather look for easy "paranoid/conspiracy" based solutions.
you don't think mls & ussf have too close relationship w/ lots conflicts of interest? maybe you're right about the ussf giving wusa $$ and now thinking once burned w/ respect to $$. but you think they're right to not sanction w/o 6 teams? if so, i disagree. if they don't sanction then yes, ussf killed wps since the 5 teams want to play.
I'd love to see some documentary explanation of the "$10 mil" US Soccer gave WUSA, what they've given MLS and other men's leagues (like the NASL), etc. I don't remember any contemporary discussion of a SocFed "gift" to WUSA. Is this Nike money that somehow got funneled through the Fed? Did it really happen? Will SocFed really not sanction a league after folks have sunk millions of dollars into building it and have done their best to follow all the rather antiquated requirements the Fed put down?
I don't think it works that way. FIFA itself governs USSF and other countries soccer federations. WPS has to go through USSF to get to FIFA. BTW when is the deadline? If they gave them fifteen days, that was what a week ago? It shouldn't be too much longer. I certainly hope that the WPS gets sanctioned by USSF. But I can also understand USSF side as well. They have already bypassed the rules a couple times to sanction WPS and instead of expanding and growing like they are supposed to, they are shrinking every year. And not ONLY is the league shrinking, but they have all their teams in ONE time-zone. All the teams are located in one area of the country. The league is supposed to have teams in 3 different time zones. Maybe the "every team for itself" is the wrong model. Maybe it needed the "we're in this together" model at the beginning so that if a team is in trouble it can get bailed out by other teams/owners. Maybe a model like that was need for the first few years so that USSF obligations as a Div 1 league may be met, for one.
It's funny how everybody is complaining about Blatter in MLS forums yet USSF is the same if not worse.
SocFed is much less corrupt than Blatter. On the other hand, they're dumber and no less misogynistic.
Not sure if this was posted yet, but it is worth a read. An Open Letter Regarding the Future of Women’s Professional Soccer http://www.soccerplus.org/wps/wps_open_letter_nov2011.pdf
The European leauges (at least the swedish and I think the rest to) is run either direct by the national FAs (feds) or as a subsidiary to them. Much less independet than the US leauges.
The English FA gives money to the WSL teams as they created this League to help the england team. As far as I know the FFF does not give money directly to teams in France, maybe prize money depending on ranking but no subsidising hence a curious mix of full professional and full amateur teams in Division 1.
Gerry's in a better position to know than I am. But I do recall talking with people in and from Germany who all raved about how much the federation had done to boost the game. It's not as if the Frauen-Bundesliga games sell a ton of tickets. This past weekend, a couple of games had attendance in the 500s. The big top-of-the-table clash drew around 2,500 -- a smash in Germany but a middling game in WPS. Germany has several advantages -- teams can usually travel by bus, there's not shortage of suitable stadiums, etc. But the sponsors and federation have found creative ways to help, and that's a big difference as well.
ussf does not want to kill the league!! they prefer to sanction a 6 team league than a 5 team league. so they're giving them some time to get a 6th team in. that's all.
there's also that whole better health insurance thing in sweden, germany, etc. and youth team fees to help pay for the top team. there's lots of money in girls' youth soccer in the usa and clubs sitting on $ and paying club directors/coaches/etc well. but many of these folks feel threatened that wps would hurt their $ so bash it or didn't tell kids about it, etc. instead a club could have access to great players that could coach their kids when not playing for the pro team and so forth.
Absolutely. Still boggles my mind that wealthy clubs in the DC area were happy to partner with the Freedom and have players stop by to coach their kids, and then they did nothing to help out when the Freedom needed it. It's still shocking to me that no one stepped up in the DC area.
one club guy that maybe gets it? anthony dicicco. good adivce he gives. people should directly contact the folks on the ussf board of directors. impotent twitter posts w/ a # aren't gonna get the job done. these people's emails aren't hard to find. nor are their office phone #s or you could just use the ussf web contact page. http://www.ussoccer.com/About/Federation-Services/Resource-Center/Contact-Us/Contact-Us.aspx
Interesting article. The second quote down there is pretty assuming: http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-29/sports/30455436_1_wps-magicjack-christie-rampone
1:30 p.m. ET today. So ... pretty much right now. I'm told it's about "venue," which I take to mean it'll be on Florida's jurisdiction (or lack thereof, from WPS's argument) over the case. Not sure if we'd get a decision right away. IN OTHER NEWS: Halstead denies that WPS was assured of Connecticut expansion when it terminated magicJack.
WPS is acting like they don't already have the roadmap. MLS was in a similar spot in 1998 then Garber came in and put it together.
Sometimes you have to solve problems one at a time. Clearly, WPS felt that they'd have an easier time attracting new investors with DB out. They're getting the "big bucks" and we'll see how it plays out. The move by SocFed to dink around with sanctioning was really a stupid move by the Fed. Hopefully women's soccer will once again survive the Fed's counterproductive involvement.
Do you know where to find their email addresses? I could only find a few that worked. Thanks. Just to add, I heard back from Mr. Gulati via email and he said: [FONT="]Thanks for your email and your support of the WPS. We’ll continue to work with WPS leadership over the days ahead in looking for possible ways forward.[/FONT] [FONT="]Regards,[/FONT] [FONT="]Sunil Gulati[/FONT]
MLS also had Philip Anschutz and Lamar Hunt willing to go nine figures deep into the hole before it turned around.
New investors with Dan gone = Joke!. Can't get investors because the business model and expenses are still ridiculous for a soccer team in which the girls, some of them, get paid 10k per season. Maybe DB would run off an investor if they saw he was giving his revenues away to the university. Would make them think there really isn't any money in this or the ability to break even. Then again, Sahlen said he can't make money or break even, so the team is tied into his company. They need a better scapegoat clause for DB. Puma - They never bothered putting a WPS shoe string in a store,so they were out after 3 yrs no matter what. Yeah, DB's 25 jerseys for his players made Puma leave even though they are a $2B a year company but a couple of jerseys messed up their books. Nother scapegoat clause by Puma putting DB in the mix. Well, Dan has no one to blame but himself, because these suckers will stick anything to him, as to way things don't work in the WPS. CT - They jacked up on CT. CT doesn't have Dan or Sahlen money or facilities to just jump right. Miss fire again by the WPS. Surprise they don't put this one on Dan too. USSF - make them stick to six. next, they'll try for 4 in one state. Either bring in a top W-League team and get their group of franchises in 2013 which i doubt, but they'll say DB ran them off too or close shop on this suit, make DB sign his responsibilities infront of a judge, so you can nail the coffin on him in 2012 and get on with 2012