Another valid point and one that I think the USWNT has brought upon itself. They play a crazy amount of games and while it is great for the USWNT, it sucks for the home teams. This year has been particularly bad with the Olympic qualifiers and Olympics, but even outside that, they played in multiple extra-curricular competitions that kept the women out on international duty for weeks.
If we're talking about selling tickets (whether or not ticket holders are attending), which is a major and relevant part of the equation, it seems to me the Sounders are showing that with great promotion, a proper location, a couple (actually three) big name WNT players paid by the USSF, and one or two other pretty well known players, a team can achieve a pretty high average tickets sold level. And, so far as I know, higher than was typical for WPS. Would WNT players play in the US in future years under the same circumstances? If the USSF required it as a condition of being on the WNT?
I believe a couple of the trips were added to the schedule because there wasn't going to be a WPS this year. The Kirin Cup and the Volvo Cup were additions since they weren't going to play league games.
If Dan Borislow would have promoted Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe and the other USWNT players that he had on his team, South Florida would get a huge crowd just like the Sounders women. Again I say, Sounders women aren't doing anything special. They HEAVILY marketed Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and to an extent Megan Rapinoe and Sydney Leroux. That's why "clueless" soccer dads bought tickets. They are bringing people through the gates and that is GOOD. But IMO, much of these fans are there because of cult of personality, not because they are big, knowledable soccer fans. I've been to almost all the Sounders women home games and I always find myself sitting next to someone, male or female who other then Hope Solo and Alex Morgan have no idea who most of the other players are, who the opponent is, what league the Sounders play in, any statistic about key players like what college they played at, and so on. There would barely be a few hundred in the stands if it weren't for Hope Solo and Alex Morgan. If you want to see how a team draws without "stars" check out Boston Breakers (WPSL). That is how an organization is built.
Article on the team from the NY Times: http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/sounders-women-draft/
I agree on them drawing in stars, they really hit the ball with the USWNT signings. If It wasn't for the signings of Morgan and Solo, I wouldn't have became a fan of the sounders. I am a pretty good fan now, learning about all the players and such....
And that is what the Sounders Women need next season. For a good portion of the fans that were attracted to them by the USWNT players to stick around next season. I think the question is, how many more fans like you are out there?
I believe this is the way it's done. Get people to the games, whether to see USWNT stars, to take their kids, because a friend invited them, whatever it takes. Then, have a good enough product that they want to come back even if the USWNT stars aren't there, their kids aren't there, and the friend isn't there. This is how to build a fan base. It takes time, it takes effort, and it starts small. I don't think there will be any other way to do it for women's soccer.
True, at times when the USWNT wasn't playing with the Sounders (like solo, rapinoe, morgan, leroux) I didn't want to watch. However I did anyways, and was impressed with the style and the other great players on the team. There last home win with Veronica Perez was great soccer, very enjoyable to watch. Also Sounders have alot of upcoming USWNT players in my opinion, I know Keelin Winters has to be associated with the USWNT somehow. I know I'm following the Sounders regardless if the stars (morgan, solo) are there.
This summer the Sounders have the #1 attendance of any women's team in North America and the #5 attendance among non-MLS teams, men's or womens: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=4770
Yes, the Sounders lead womens's soccer in attendance. No surprise there. Dah, Team Hope Solo. However, the rest of the USL-W teams are far down the list. And it looks like the WPSL as a group has a far better attendance then USL-W. I know the Chicago Red Stars have had a pretty good attendance, they just don't report it for whatever reason. In fact I talked to a Sounders player today and she said that when they go on the road, the attendance is very poor. The USWNT players on the Sounders from what I can tell played only home games. So what does all that say for then future of women's soccer?
WPSL-Elite does pretty well, at least with the former WPS teams. The regular WPSL doesn't even make the list, though presumably just because there's no attendance information available. As for general conclusions, it's hard to say. The DC United Women are playing in the same stadium as the Freedom did but only getting about 1/8 the attendance due to the lack of "name" players. Even Sauerbrunn's presence was only enough to bring in another couple hundred fans.
Does anybody have any attendance figures for this season? I know it's only the preseason, but I don't expect their numbers to approach even half of last year's. All the stars seemed to align last season: - WPS folded just months before the W-League season started. - Olympic year always spikes fan interest and WNT players try to stay close to home. - Alex Morgan was dating a Seattle Sounders player. - Sydney Leroux had just graduated from UCLA and had local ties. - Hope Solo was still a star and the Jerramy Stevens fiasco was months away. And then this past off-season the Sounders Women were passed over for the National Women's Soccer League in favor of the Reign (which by the way, had an opening day crowd almost half of what the Sounders Women had for their 2012 opener).