WPS expansion in Canada?

I've got to hope Vancouver gets a team. But, I wonder why you are putting Seattle rather than Portland on the list. To be clear, I would like all three cities to be on the list. Portland, however, has demonstrated a by far bigger base of fan support for women's soccer than Seattle ever has come close to demonstrating.

The problem I have had with the WPS is that it has not been focused on putting teams where the fans are. Unless it starts doing that, it is going to continue to be in big trouble.

 

While I understand the sentiment, I have to disagree. Fans =/= stability. A strong, devoted investor = stability. If a billionaire decided to put a team in Topeka, KS, it would stay there as long as that billionaire was willing to lose 0.2% of their worth each year. CHI had fairly good attendance and look where it got them. Same w/ LA now that I think about it.

RE: Canadian expansion, it would certainly be nice for the league, I think, especially since so many players are Canadian already. However, there's been a whole bunch of arguing on the men's side recently as to how legitimate it is having Canadian teams in a league that falls under USSF. I know recently the CSA put a hold on Canadain teams joining US leagues, and I don't know for how long that ban was or if it affected women's teams as well or not.

 

jeff at equalizer wrote the top three candidates are orange cty, seattle, and vancouver. only time will tell with chicago for 2012. like la sol they need to get out of that mls stadium.

that being said... that would give the league 10 teams if the current 6 stay put.

i think if you get 10 you get those clubs stable before worry about 12.

i guess long term it could be a 14-16 team league if everyone worked together on the books. that's where they need to stop being individual franchises, need to find a common ground to help each other

other candidates -

dallas?
portland?
colorado?
st louis - who do they have besides cooper who wanted mls from the beginning, never really cared about the wps.
charleston?
utah - i read somewhere about them. if the support is there, there wouldnt be alot of competition for ticket buyers
washington - money in washington wont invest in the team. what else is there to say? it's like the situation with gold pride
toronto?
houston?

who else?

 

The only remotely possible candidates for 2012 are Vancouver, Seattle and Orange County. Dallas? Sure, maybe, but we've heard that for three years and the potential owners have gone quiet there again.

The rest, unfortunately my friends, is a pipe dream right now. Strengthening and stabilizing the current six has to be the priority. Seattle and Vancouver could potentially be a package deal, which helps (very little, but some) with travel. That still doesn't help the fact that Vancouver to Florida is the longest trip you could possibly ask for (other than Vancouver to Puerto Rico, which we see on the men's side).

 

Here's some good info re Vancouver:

http://www.examiner.com/soccer-in-n...-to-enter-wps-2012-interview-with-coach-busby

 

Screw the men' side! most observers agree, the women's game is super hard to watch below the few top teams. yes, i've seen WPS. MLS used to be pretty hard to watch in prior years. Its gonna be super freaking hard to grow the women's game if you dont have brand names and premier leagues. Only the US and Ger/Scandanavia are capable of that. I read in some article that for WUSA teams to survive with a total budget of 2.5 mil, the break even point was 4k fans per game. In MLS, its currently about 13k. THE SOLUTION IS TO STICK REALLY CLOSE TO THE NATIONAL TEAM. Maybe we should have one or two club teams, and play international tournaments. Or maybe the solution is two words: Toronto & Traffic. Canada is a very strong women's soccer country, so they could provide a high quality team many would want to watch. Traffic should try the women's side in Miami, with it being essentially just the Brazilian team (Miami Samba? w/games even in Rio & Sao Paolo itself...against other US teams). Traffic should have no problem w/Miami since magicJack gets horrible attendance and will probably fold. Mexico is also coming up in the women's game. so maybe San Diego Chihuahua's could essentially be the Mexican team (or is it the Mex/Amer team?..also, with a couple of games in Monterrey/Mexico city). If you dont closely emulate the national team's international play, I dont think you'll get over 4k ALL THE TIME. On another note, one of the existing WPS teams should change their name to "Spirit of 99" (the niners). Its just a cool name. So that gives WPS 8 teams (Atl, Bos, Sky, W. NY, SD, Mia, Tor, Philly)...with 3 of those essentially being other national teams. It would US vs Canada, vs Brazil, vs Mex. This would result in very high quality play, and perhaps playing when MLS isnt might be something to consider (yes, i know the weather).

 

it was already said if santos fc wants in put them in FL, but let it be the Santos in Brasil, not some team based on USA roster rule. they must have 6 non-brasilians, the rest are brasilian and put marta, christy, etc on it, as they play in brasil. Same thing could apply for canadian teams and maybe a mexican team. colombia is up and coming. that could be your second FL team with colombians featuring rincon.

obviously, usa based wps carrying the current roster settings featuring top national players from their region.

seems workable if anyone is interested, cost can be controlled and the wps makes it to 2012 and beyond.

 

ok, lets think about whats working with women's soccer- the international play of the world cup (40million Americans watched the final in 99). Now, WPS needs to replicate that as close as possible. WPS having 10-12 or above number of teams is going to dilute the level of play. The Florida team filled w/top Brazilians is good, as well as Toronto since Canada is strong supporter of women's game and has strong players. With 8 teams, they could play home and away for a total of 14 games. Then, they could have a big international tournament with a team from France (lyon), Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Japan...or maybe 2 teams from each league, with 4 from WPS to play a group-stage tournament...maybe in cities that dont have WPS. WPS should not expand except for teams representing other nations (Can, Florida/Bra, San Diego/Mex, etc).

 

I think WPS needs to have some teams not on the east coast without particular regard to nationality. If they can interest enough international players to come over, I think the league could sustain 10-12 teams. Six is way too few, in any case.

 

I think placing teams in specific locations based on national players of specific countries is a bad idea. then, a)it would dilute each "star" player's relevance within their very own team, as of right now WNY is stoked to have their one badass brazilian, Marta... and b)as well as Canadian star, Sinclair and American star, Alex Morgan. 3 badass attackers from 3 different countries on one team...bringing them all together. Why would anyone want to disallow such awesomeness???? And, imagine if WPS can draw a player like Louisa Necib of France and she ends up on a team with American Lauren Cheney??? Wow!
With specific "national" teams represented in each region, it would simply become "us against them" type of mentality and i just don't think that's the direction this league should go, nor is it what I believe they're trying to stand for.
Do I have any other solutions? no. especially since i'm positive it's all money driven, which i can offer no help. haha BUT, i do hope they bring a team back to the sf bay area. that is all.

 

I agree with expanding into Canada but you better be prepared that SOME areas could have ice/snow on the ground when the season starts in April!

Ice football!

 

I suppose you know that it's been twice proposed that the CWNT make up the core of a Canadian WPS team? Once in 2008 before WPS started and more recently by Morace.

In the article by Beau Dure he quotes Bob Lenarduzzi of the Whitecaps as saying that they were happy in the W-League and didn't intend to join WPS (which contradicts what their coach, Busby, said earlier this year).

 

Necib can play for my team anytime......

 

Seems like given the number of both mens' and womens' teams in various leagues that call Canada home they may have figured out how to deal with that........

 

The Freedom (Gabarra) wanted Necib to come over along with Bompastor, but she couldn't be persuaded. Shame.

 

MLS/SUM have pulled off that strategy in very measured terms in the men's game pretty well

 

But those are mostly indoor teams with the exception of American football (the CFL). Those guys wear more clothing and football is better suited to be a winter sport while soccer isn't.

You'll have these ladies out there in shorts when it could still be in the 20s or 30s with snow and/or ice on the ground. I'm not saying for a second they couldn't handle it. I'm sure they could but it could really slow down the game.

 

In Canada it looks like 8 W-League teams, and multiple men's teams between MLS and USL in Vacouver, Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal etc. Lots of outdoor play so far as I can see.

 

Is Vancouver primary French speaking? You have a Canadian WPS club in providence which uses french primarily, and I bet you could draw Necib to the WPS. I'm not saying make players play somewhere, saying owners identify the best draws for their locatoin of the country. If i have a franchise in south cal, alex morgan and christen press (esp if she fools around and wins the gold boot) would be my two forwards. that's more marketing power than marta since girls can identify with them as locals, american, etc. i think you solve the marta riddle by approaching santos again and working a deal for them to play in south florida. obvious, they will use their copagaz and lupo dollars to sign marta away form sahlen. no one is stopping sahlen from having morgan, sinclair and marta on the same roster. it makes sense for owners in some areas to put the right girls on their roster. then again, philly has done a horrible job with Farrelly.

 

That would have to be Quebec somewhere, like Montreal or Quebec City (both of whom have W-League teams in the area, for what it's worth).

 

What about the old argument about saving on travel costs? I wonder how

these east coast teams travel: bus/train or plane

 

People in the know have said repeatedly that travel costs are not a major concern.

Think it depends. The Freedom traveled to Philly and Jersey via bus, to Boston and Atlanta by plane.

 

Just by the way, Necib speaks fluent English. She tweets primarily in English because that's what most of her followers seem to speak.