Still, the thread title should probably be changed to "Who will come" since it's obvious the majority of the drafted internationals aren't coming.
I do think a good number will come over, but I don't know how many of the top names people are familiar with will come.
An update from the Japanese draftees...the Nadeshiko League recently had their annual awards. Sawa won MVP. According to this article, it seems like its very likely that the Nadeshiko players will be playing in the US. There is a quote from Sawa saying she wants the challenge--her representative (agent) is in talks with the Freedom but the details remain unclear. I believe there's also a quote from Ohno about the physical style of the American game (compared to Japan) and has a "cautious attitude" about going overseas. Mind you, I do not speak/read Japanese and picking all this out from translations. But, the whole tone of the article gives me the vibe that Sawa (at least) is giving "parting words"/comments at the awards ceremony as if she won't be playing with NTV Beleza next season (although, her agent is also talking with the club).
Brilliant keeper. Great personality. Winner on and off the field. Would look good anywhere in the WPS.
This was Stensland's quote on why she didn't sign with the league: Although, Mykjåland had an interesting comment. She said that things were a bit of a mess in relation to the U.S. league. So, I don't know if that means they weren't organized or bombed the negotiations or ... ? So, nothing about the salaries or they think another league will be better. I thought it was interesting to hear what their reasons were.
In the longer run, the money and market behind the WPS will blow the Euro leagues out of the water. Just trust and be patient. Attempting to bring in too much and sky salaries in the short-term is a risky proposition and could be very damaging. The talent band in women's soccer is very thin anyway, and in a few years they will all be here...
I applaud your optimism, but I can't say I totally agree. The market in the US is overall bigger, but I don't think the soccer market is as big as Europe. And as for money, depends on the team. Some WPS teams are fairly low money affairs comparatively to both other WPS teams and Europe. And I don't think they'll all be here eventually either. WPS isn't WUSA, and likely never will be. WPS players are being paid ridiculously small salaries, south of 35-40k. And it's not year round payment either.
One problem I see is that a lot of the European women's teams are affiliated with the men's clubs. Those organizations have huge amounts of money and the US will not be able to compete with them financially for several years to come. Also, third party sponsorships, like apparently is happening with Marta at Umea, just don't happen in the US. I do think that some will come over, because ultimately, I think the US league will have the most talent, therefore a bigger challenge for those players. But I certainly don't think bringing all of the talent over here will ever be easy.
you are way off. six months ago you could hear talk that chelsea will invest big money in the league. now chelsea, who are a much bigger brand than the wps, are having serious financial issues to the point where scolari will not have funds for transfers available to him. and roman wants his loans repaid starting in june. big problems for chelsea. and wasn't adidas getting behind the league? what happened to adidas? simple, germans will not support the wps, they want to win at home in 2011. so that leaves nike and puma. nike is not allowed to be involved in the mls AND has to protect their usl assets so they wont get involved with the wps. that leaves puma but puma is small potatos. so where will the money come from? auto industry? airlines? credit card companies? banks? coke or pepsi? They ALL are having problems and are cutting sponsorship budgets. if each team can get 200k cash in local sponsorship, it will be a bastille day. 5k PAID fans per game? it WILL NEVER happen. even the league officials KNOW it. a minimum of 1M in losses per year, per team is the bottom line short term. wnba has the nba to underwrite their losses. who does the wps have?
Repped! I'm always struck by those who assume that just because the league is in the USA that guarantees success. This was tried before any didn't threaten the European leagues much. Heck, if anything, the Euro teams and players got stronger..
I think it's correct saying that just because the US is involved doesn't necessarily guarantee success. But the reason the US league might fail would not because they can't compete against the European leagues, it would be because the US league can't compete with other American sports. The competition for the US sports entertainment dollar is probably the toughest in any industry in any country in the world, especially in the present economy. While soccer is the number one team sport in almost every country in the rest of the world, it is like 4th or 5th in the United States. Even if 1/100th the money that is spent on US football was spent on US soccer, it would be a different story. The unfortunate fact is that a large percentage of Americans have never adopted soccer, even though millions of youths play the sport around the country. Among the people who do follow soccer, they are a very strong and loyal group, but still in a minority. I am going to support the WPS, no matter what. My hope is that the WPS gets all of the top US and Canadian players, and at least a few of the best players from around the rest of the world. Maybe, at the some point, we will see some world superleague, so that we can occasionally see the world's best players on the field at the same time. When you stop and think about it, there are only going to be about 140 roster spots open this year anyway. There are only 35 potential roster spots open for non-US players this year. That's not that many. And even after expansion to Philadelphia and Atlanta, and possibly Dallas, there would only be about 200 roster spots, with 50 non-US players. Considering the talent available in the US, then considering the talent from Brazil, Sweden, Norway, England, France, Australia,Canada, Korea, China, Nigeria, etc., the WPS would only need to get three or four players from each of these nations to fill their rosters. I didn't mention Germany because it's pretty much a given that none of them will come over. Like I said, I'll be watching no matter who comes over. I am very hopeful that there will be a few thousand fans like me for each team.
With the economy as bad as it is, I have other concerns for my cash. Most parents of soccer players are paying club fee, traing fee ODP tryout fees... Not to mention what is spent on tournaments. The last thing is going to see a game that the kids are not even going to watch because soccer is a social sport for these girls, not a spectator sport by any means
Yeah the sad fact is WPS is going to have a hard go of it. But the fact they've stuck with it this far means I'm going to go and give them my spectator dollar when I can. And hopefully their on field product is top notch. If they can get some of these internationals that's great. But as I've said since day 1 it was a mistake to position these internationals as if they're part of the clubs that drafted them when to date, none of them are. It looks like the league just can't get it done. But to be fair when things like the Arena Football League on the edge of collapse I'm not sure I can get as riled up against WPS anymore for failing to bring the internationals in. The fact they're still alive at all is a win.
there aren't really that many big clubs who are into the women's game, and salaries of 40K USD for playing football in the US are enough to tempt many players even in those clubs... albeit only for those who don't have families and /or day jobs to throw into the balance. it's not only the lure of stiffer competition than they get week in week out, but also the personal adventure of living in the states for a year or two. there's a race, or actually two parallel races going on: which will grow faster, soccer in general in the US, or women's soccer in particular in europe? the best first step for the WPS isn't trying to lure big stars right away: it's to get a competitive league and girls' academies going. and maybe invite some of the big euro clubs over for friendly tours. beating arsenal on the pitch would bring more credibility than signing kelly smith! no need to sign big names when you can make your own!
Well, actually OL is the only club where the Mens club has been willing to put up anything that can be called a substantial amount of money, even with the modest standards of the Women’s Soccer.
Are any of the English teams (eg Arsenal) putting out much money for their women's team? I haven't seen any numbers on the salaries over there. They're definitely putting out the bucks at OL.
BIG bucks? compared to men's football even OL ladies' budget is chicken scratch. aulas is about as cagey as he comes: he made his money the old-fashioned way (and i don't mean getting sweetheart deals on the massive privatisation of soviet industry) and he figures that if you can be european champions at that price you gotta go for it. OL is planning on taking the men's team on a US tour next summer and if there's a chance of getting paying matches for the women i would hope they would go to.
Agreed it's chicken scratch compared to the men's team, but I heard $150K transfer fee and $150K salary for Schelin. We've heard some fairly high numbers thrown around for Marta that WPS is probably not going to be able to match, even if Marta is inclined to come over here. That's big bucks for women's soccer if those numbers are correct. I've got a feeling that only one or two players on each team are going to be making $100k + in the WPS, if that. You start trying to figure out a budget for a WPS team and they are talking 4000 average attendance at (I'm guessing on this so don't jump on me for that) roughly $15 average ticket price for maybe 11 home games. That comes out to about $700-$750k total. Then there will be some merchandising and jersey sponsorships, etc., but I can't believe it will amount to a lot. So if a team has a million dollar budget with some of that going to coaching and front office, the average player's salary is going to be only about $40,000, even less if you shell out big money for one star player.
Problem with that analysis is that you're overestimating the average player salary for WPS. During the FC Pride name announcement they asked Barnhardt what she'd be paid (and she's likely our starting keeper) and she scoffed when they said $40k. She's being paid a fair bit less than that. And I'd estimate she's an above average salaried player. This league isn't paying these ladies much. They'll likely all still need day jobs to make ends meet be it in another soccer league or at some other profession.
Well, that's another question, although I know I'm straying from the original subject a bit...are any of the WPS teams teaming up with local corporations to help the players get other jobs that they can work around their soccer schedules and during the off-season. $40k is more than I make, but it isn't a lot these days. I realize this could be quite a bit harder with some of the internationals because of language barriers, but it seems like that is something that teams could do to help both the teams and the players overcome some of the financial burdens. I also hadn't realized that any of the players had signed yet. I haven't seen anything mentioned about signings.