Oh give it up already. In neither yours nor my lifetime will we see soccer leagues here in the US play in the fall/winter. Not if they want to survive more than a year or 2. Competition and weather make it a bad idea. But I do think that once there are enough SSS out there, we will see a return of a womens soccer league. Hopefully run by someone who understands a budget, doesn't blow through their capital and has a firm realistic grasp on the potential attendance.
Take a look at my post on this very subject in the Earthquakes forum https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70803&perpage=12&pagenumber=5
I think it hurts more then helps. As mentioned many times before, a league folding is not going to be good on the sponsorship front especially for soccer. The NFl subsidized/loaned the CFL money to keep it a float. Not to buy them out or to open the Canadian market, doubt it need it, but saw it as an opportunity to promote the game of football and in the end the NFL. Same with NFL Europe and the Arena League - a way to promote the game. It is not like the WNBA is making money or trying to bring in the lesbian crowd. It promotes basketball and more importantly it keeps their three initials in the news during the offseason.
I like how you insult me, then call for more humility and common decency. How about less hypocrisy too? Don't take me for someone who's doing cartwheels over the demise of WUSA. I just think they had a poor business model that was set up to fail from the beginning. As for PAX, I don't know where you got your information from, but I find it hard to believe that WUSA couldn't negotiate a better time slot on weekend afternoons. PAX isn't exactly booked during these times. You do make some good points about MLS's financial status. True, they're not out of the woods yet, but I think they're taking the right steps. Do you really think they could keep doing this if they merged the two leagues?
The whole POINT of getting SSS' is to eventually play fall/winter, with the rest of the civilized world. MLS brass said as such. Otherwise, we should just play MLS between March-August so we don't have to see football lines on the pitch during the season.
I dunno. THe evidence is mixed. San Jose went down by alot in 2001 (mostly, many will agree, due to the end of the padding era), but way up in 2002 (while the Cyberrays were increasing their crowds) DC went up alot in 2001, down in 2002. (note that the Freedom pulled their biggest crowds in 2001). New England increased in both 2001 and 2002. I'd say, given those numbers, there isn't much of a direct relation-- other factors are probably much more important (that's how you can get attendance declines for the Freedom not helping DC; and attendance increases for the Cyberays not hurting the Earthquakes). Did WUSA have some effect? Certainly there had to be some crossover. But with the evidence on hand, it's tough to draw much of a conclusion.
This is what baffles me. It seemed every Sat. there was nothing bu infomercials on PAX before and after the WUSA matches. I would cartch a bit of WUSA by switching between MLS (non-Metro) and WUSA, just to compare telecasts and quality of play, and to get the score. I thought the few Power matches I caught on MSG looked better -- just better produced, whatever. Anyway -- with so many time slots available, why go head-to-head with MLS? I'll admit, sometimes I envied what I saw when the MLS game was out of Cardinal Stadium or the Dragon, and the gals were playing in Atlanta or somewhere on a big, grass field with only soccer lines. And I always marvelled how much bigger Spartan Stadium's field looked when WUSA played there -- all things being relative, I guess.
Prove it. Find me a quote saying such things about a winter league. P.S. Have you been to NYC or Boston or Chicago in February. It would be absolutely unbearable for soccer. And some Scandinavian countries have a summer league. Are they not civilized. P.P.S. College and Pro Football would crush MLS if they moved in on their turf.
I have to agree with Matt on this one! I agree with SignGuy that some MLS officials have expressed the notion that going to the fall/winter schedule is in their long term plans, but those officials DID NOT SAY that was the point of getting SSS's. The SSS's are ALL ABOUT REVENUE. and the powers that be have been clear on that. SSS's bring more money in that now, you can control, parking, you can control concessions, you can control all gate receipts, and you can schedule other events there with the profits going to the team. There is a big difference between being a lessOR and a lessEE!!
I'd be interested to see any quotes to that effect. I was under the impression that the whole POINT of the SSS' was to stop paying rent, and to control ancillary revenues. The clubs with SSS' make money as separate entities. The rest don't.
It's obviously not the whole point, but in Garber's interview on FSW this year he certainly made it sound that once enough SSS come on line the league would switch seasons.
I wouldn't want MLS to play fall/winter anyway.....already such a congested sports schedule.....Plus, I prefer soccer in nice weather......I don't care what 'the rest of the world' does... On topic: WUSA's demise will have little affect on MLS....because Women's sports have problems catching on in this country..period.......granted they are both (MLS and WUSA) 'fringe' sports but, as it has been said before, MLS has a better business model. The WNBA got to hitch its cart to the NBA but, from reports I have read they are trying to distance themselves from it...because it is a financial drain... I hate to say it but, Womens' professional sports = bad news.