Vancouver, Carolina, Dallas, St. Louis, San Diego. That said, I'm from San Diego, and even I realize Orange County (CSUF) may be better; draw from all of Southern California to an extent.
I'm aware of that. San Diego gives them the 2nd South Cal option, if they want to two teams in Cal. The Bay aka Gold Pride has proven to have no interest in women's soccer.
LA/SD are too close, IMO. I'm curious as to whether Sac. might be a better 2nd CA options, with how well SRFC are drawing at the moment.
From my house to San Diego is over 3 hours. Seattle to Portland is also around 3 hours. The combined population of LA and SD Metro areas is over 15 Million people. Seattle and Portland combined are 5,665,818. I think LA and SD could both support teams.
Of course they can. Even if you lived in Oceanside or Carlsbad, you'd prefer the 25 min drive to San Diego vs a brutal journey OC. SD and accessible points to it have enough people to put 4-5k in a women's soccer stadium, We aren't talking two NFL franchises here. I'm sure there are two MLS clubs within 4-5 hours of each other?
There are many. Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland are all within 5 hours of each other, and pretty much all of the Northeast Teams are within 5 hours (except the 2 furthest apart New England and DC).
At this point, you could have a separate California women's pro league, with nothing but California cities (LA, San Diego, San Jose, Bay Area, Oakland, Sacramento, Fresno, Santa Rosa), and include nothing but California players, and it would still be almost as competitive as the NWSL is now.
I have been waiting years for a Los Angeles team ever since they took away the LA Sol and Marta from us. I guarantee you when they expand to us in a few years, Portland and Seattle are going to miss being great.
Vancouver was considered as one of the original teams but the WhiteCaps dropped there Womens program but that does not mean there may not be another interested ownership group. Canucks S&E chair is apparently a huge soccer fan and is looking to add teams to his Canucks Brand. In an article they are intersted in a USL Pro expansion teamfor the White caps in a stadium they will build in Fraser Valley. If the USL Pro dealgoes through having a second tennant and another club to market could be a possibility. They are also looking into Purchasing the CFL BCLions. Nothing concrete as of yet but looking at the two other Canadian S&E models, MLSE and Flames LP it is a tried and proven model of two of the more high profile groups
All three of those are in the Bay Area. Bit too much saturation? Also, Fresno?!?! All they have at this point is PDL, IIRC. Fun to dream, though. Hell, I'd love a team in Boise, just because, well, I like Boise. But....no.
You missed one... Oakland is in the bay area too. So there are 4. If one is creating a fictional all California league with 12 teams, I would expect 2 Bay Area teams based on population alone (one in SF or Oakland and the other in San Jose). But then, I'd also expect the LA metro area to have 6... (San Diego and Sacramento would have the other 2, Fresno and Santa Rosa would have none)
It sure is. Whoops, and there it is listed. Ahhh, I completely missed the first few words of the post. In which case, of course Fresno! Bakersfield, too. I would think they have some regional sports hatred of eachother. At one point, both had WCHL hockey teams. Do the Chico Rooks still exist in any form? I'd like a Lady Rooks, myself.
If California has 10 teams in a league, Bay Area and surrounding areas (wherever the facilities are) would probably get 3 or 4 of those teams.
Well, I don't know exactly where you would be able to get those numbers from... but OK. So, if in a 10 team league the Bay Area gets 3-4 teams, LA should get 5-7, since the Sol attendance was 172% of Gold Pride's 2009 average (which was the better of their 2 years). So that leaves -1 to 2 other cities that can be in the league. So San Diego and Sacramento might get 1 each. Also, just realized I made a mistake with my previous post about a 12 team league. Bay Area would get 3. And that would leave 3 other teams: San Diego, Sacramento, and 1 other, which I guess would be Fresno as it's the next largest, even though they don't have a high enough percentage of population to round up to one.
I am just not convinced that any of the California teams will draw attendance wise any better then teams like Sky Blue and Chicago, especially if they are not owned by one of the MLS franchises. Right now I think that teams should be drawing at least 4000 plus per game and grow from there. Looks like Portland and Houston are the only teams capable of doing that, based on season ticket sales, though with the current winning success of Seattle they may finish out the season doing just that.
WPS. 2009. Sky Blue averaged: 3651. Chicago averaged: 4928. LA averaged: 6298. Not saying LA will pull Portland numbers, but even if LA drops the same percent as SBFC and Chicago have, they'd still be doing better than Sky Blue and Chicago are now... they'd have to have an even bigger drop off, and I don't see how you can have any evidence that that would happen.
What were season tickets selling for during that time? What would they have to sell for now in order to cover costs? Why such a big drop for Chicago? Are current season ticket prices effecting sales for some of the NWSL teams?
Chicago lost most of its investing group when they self-relegated after the 2010 season. They also moved to a much worse location. Ticket prices are probably a big part of what's hurting KC at the moment, their prices are way higher than last year. It looked like prices were hurting DC earlier in the season, as they went up from $20/game (general admission) to $25 and initially drew 2k-ish, but their most recent games have been back up in the 3k-5k range.
Do the teams have special promotional general admission prices for the youth club teams and other youth soccer teams in their area?
Canada being involved with player allotments at ahigh level will need a club soon. Ottawa arleady have the framework to have a NWSL club. the Fury Women already have a full academy like the men and current success at the W-League level as well as an Ownership group and stadium all having the framework