Why aren't they putting a team in Philly? Didn't they have the best attendance in the WUSA? (and the NJ Wildcats- which was played in Trenton, but still brought Charge fans over- had a great attendance too)
Re: Seriously, am I the only one who Rs the Effing As around here? Eat some razor blades and bleed to death.
Re: Seriously, am I the only one who Rs the Effing As around here? That would be preferable to hearing you whine and having your facts wrong. But thanks anyway.
They should play in their bra's and the bra's can have sponsors on it and the team crest. Only way a women's league is going to attract any attention. I would love to be proved wrong but I think MLS owners should spend their extra money on expanding the salary cap instead of funding women's teams. I'm not entending on being sexist but shouldn't we just worry about getting MLS to the next level. Instead of funneling money in a totally different direction for a idea that has already not worked recently. What big plan is going to bring more then 4,500 people to the stadium? It's not like there are big women stars overseas that people are just dying to see. The question is how do you market this? I don't know. I tend to agree that if you were going to do anything. Just make a women's MLS league, same jerseys, same everything, and they play on a Sunday before the reserves. The WNBA isn't working that well either, people won't spend the money to go including women, so really I don't understand what the big rush is to have another women's league. You don't see other countries dying to get a women's soccer league going. Even when they are in a better stituation to do so. So, why us?
I think we need MLS to get bigger, better and more popular before we bring in a "girls" league. It will do nothing for the image of the sport in our country. Until MLS and the USMNT gets stronger this is likely to promote the idea that boys play football and other "real" sports and girls and spoiled suburban kids play soccer.
Those double headers skewed attendance numbers for the Freedom. About 5,000 people would be there for the first game (Freedom) and all the United fans would show up later and they would have 15-20k for that game. Then the Freedom would claim that number for their attendance. MLS as a whole should steer clear of this. If an individual team owner wants to invest in a womens team be my guest. But let's not have two leagues under one banner.
Check me if I'm wrong....isn't that what's happening here? I mean, there's AEG and then there's......well, AEG.
nothing against women's club soccer....won't watch it, but have nothing against it.... but i really think MLS has to get their house in (better? more?)order before supporting the WUSA v. 2.... ONce our teams are strong enough to compete in Copa Libertadores/Copa Sudamericana..... or to win the CCC in this age of WCC with all those millions of bucks ON A REGULAR BASIS.....THEN i think we could really get into this whole WUSA thing with little worry..... An optimistic take would say this could be the case by 2010.....
Let's go through this again, shall we, before this "MLS is starting a women's league" thing gets any further along: Six ownership groups (well, 5 2/3) have been identified: 1-AEG (Territory: Greater Los Angeles , CA) AEG is obviously heavily invested in MLS. However, if there was going to be one MLS ownership group who you'd figure could swing the $2 million or so a year it's going to take to do this, it would be AEG. No harm, no foul to MLS, I don't think. 2 - John Hendricks, Freedom Soccer LLC (Territory: Washington D.C.) DC United Holdings was, at last report, looking to "extend ownership interests to John S. Hendricks, founder of the Discovery Channel, who was also a founder of the Women's United Soccer Association." Has he, in fact, bought into DC United Holdings? In any case, he's not DC United's majority investor. Doesn't appear to harm MLS. 3 - Jeff Cooper, St. Louis United Soccer LLC (Territory: St. Louis , MO) Looking to get an MLS team for St. Louis. Not currently an MLS investor. Again, no harm, no foul for MLS. 4 - Soccer Initiative, LLC (Territory: TBD, pending its final decision to select a market, but rumored to be San Francisco Bay Area). I don't know anything about their ownership. Is Wolff involved? If not, again, no MLS involvement. 5 - Jack Hanks and Brent Coralli, Dallas Franchise Group (Territory: Greater Dallas area, TX). Not owners of FC Dallas as far as I know. No MLS involvement. 6 - WGLSI, LLC and an additional investor TBD (Territory: Chicago and Bridgeview , IL) Peter Wilt is helping this group out, but he's not an investor, and, in fact, they don't have a primary investor yet. It's unlikely it will be AEG, I think, which means....no harm, no foul for MLS. Aside from the synergies that will come from WUSAII teams playing in MLS stadiums and sharing some resources, this is simply not a case of MLS starting a women's league when it still has to get its own house in order and you all need to stop harping on that.
Kenn, your logical arguments backed up by facts are interfering with the knee-jerk reactions on this thread. Some of the posts reacting to an announcement of mere intent to start a women's professional league remind me of a Jim Rome anti-soccer rant. Hypocrisy and hyperbole....
Why are you mocking womens soccer when 2 women just beat out about 20 men for entry into the US Soccer hall of fame? Mia Hamm is still the greatest soccer player the US has produced...
Mia Hamm isn't even the greatest women's soccer player the US has produced. She couldn't carry Michelle Akers's, erm, jock.
Why dont you poll some womens soccer players & find out who they think is better? How many girl soccer players do you know who want to grow up & be like Michelle Akers? Why dont you poll the avg. American & ask who was the greatest player: Mia Hamm, Claudio Reyna, or Brad Friedel?
Nice second try, but trying to get some yahoos to understand this is like getting the good citizens of Salt Lake City to understand that using a tourist tax that can only be used to sponsor tourism boosting projects to buy land and provide infrastructure for the Real Salt Lake stadium is not taking money away from their schools or health care. It can't be done. Even though some of the hoped-for initial eight are likely to be owned by USL owners...as in Rhinos, Railhawks or Silverbacks. But understanding that would require enough interest to do a bit of research. Much easier to rail that 'they' aren't putting a team in town X and that MLS has no business starting a women's league. Sheesh. Man, you've got that right. What a warrior.
Umm, I wasnt asking who was the most manly Womens soccer player, I was asking who was greatest. Ask any girls soccer player who they think was the greatest womens soccer player and 99/100 will say Mia Hamm. And how many other US Soccer players do you know have appeared in a TV ad w/ Shaq?
Well then they are wrong...Akers will always be the greatest, Hamm was great but was a lot more hyped / marketing-friendly.
Hype? Mia has more Olympic medals than Akers, more caps than Akers, and more international goals than any player in the history of soccer- female OR Male. I guess Michael Jordan & Tiger Woods were just products of hype too...
I have - they pick Akers by a slim margin What does that have to do with greatness? How many kids want to grow up to be like Ty Cobb or Pete Rose? The "Average American" had never heard of those people.
How many knockout round Olympic and World Cup goals does Mia Hamm have? How many knockout round Olympic and World Cup goals (in fewer games, mind you) does Michelle Akers have?