Why all the teams are in the East bay? I live in LA and want to support them but it's ridiculous to go across almost the whole US.
Why is any pro sports team located where it is located? Because that is the place where an owner or ownership group with the cash is located. Why is there a WNBA team in Tulsa? Because a group of folks there bought one. If you want a team in your area, then figure out a way to get a large money investor interested in buying a team.
Maybe they can move some of the matches to the middle and the west US, I'm sure there are fans across the US and it will help WPS to get more attention.
The problems with that are -it incurs extra travel costs -if done for regular season games, it takes away precious gameday revenue -if done as friendlies, that's just extra coordination and all the costs that go with it (nor will it mean as much to the players or the fans you'd be attempting to cater to) The main thing WPS needs to focus on is building up strong local fan bases, to guarantee the individual teams are able to stay, before they put effort into expanding their national fan base. The problem right now is not the league as a whole - the league "office" right now is actually profitable right now, if I've heard correctly - it's the individual teams we worry about each off-season.
The league office was able to break even for its own expenses (and send some but apparently not enough cash to teams) prior to the owners deciding or needing to clear the decks. It is very much the individual teams that need the infusion of sponsorship money and new investment.
I agree your point. But also, let middle&west US fans be able to see their matches are really helpful to build their new team and help WPS develop.
There was a team in Chicago. And St. Louis. Those are midwest cities. CRS is now a WPSL team b/c of financial issues (a new investor walked & the Toyota Park rent bled them dry). The St. Louis team folded because Cooper also wanted a NASL/USL team and brought in new investors that sold him a bill of goods so the WPS team was bled & folded to save a NASL team that also folded.
If that's the case, we're screwed. I could be dead before MLS becomes huge. Anyhow, I'm not aware of too many European women's leagues failing, though they're not as ambitious as the WUSA or WPS. And I think - thanks in large part to the USWNT with some help from Title IX - that women's soccer has a unique position over here. It can stand on its on so long as the organizers don't have the same delusions of grandeur that the WUSA founders did. In any case, there's no point in looking for help from MLS because that's going to be a long long time coming.
Most of the European leagues are semi-pro like our WPSL, some of them got big men's club so they got a lot of money to spend like Lyon.
The Philadelphia Business Journal has a good article on this topic today, featuring an interview with Independence CEO David Halstead. He seems like a straight shooter with realistic goals. Though I wish his goals were a little more bold, I would rather it be this way so the team does not wind up folding like some of the others. The move from West Chester U to the more centrally located Widener U has created a slight up tick in attendance. But it's so hard to fill the seats (which helps obtain sponsors) with such a limited staff and marketing budget. http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/john-george/2011/07/world-cup-fever-boosts-womens.html Because of limited resources, the team has to resort to free marketing opportunities. I saw four of the Independence players — Kai, Val Henderson, Lohman and Sanderson— walking into the Union v Everton friendly Wednesday and they were tailgating with the supporters group, Sons of Ben, and then goofing around with them during the game. But they were also marketing the team, as you can see in the article below. All week, the team has been using its Twitter feed to encourage fans to call in during specific times and speak to specific players (ARod, Tasha, Val etc..) to buy tickets. They are even encouraging people who don't live in the area to buy tickets and donate them. Good use of soclal media and something they have not done before to my knowledge. So good on them. http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2011/07/22/independence-players-get-the-rock-star-treatment/
Well they did have the LA Sol for 2 years. I guess travel expenses killed them off. Same with San Fransisco, Chicago and St Louis. Is hard for teams averaging 2,000 fans per game to pay to fly across the USA every month or so.
LA only lasted one year, St. Louis slightly more. The others lasted two. Anyhow, most of those in the know on the subject have said that travel expenses are not a major factor - apparently it's just coincidence that all the current teams are on the east coast. Let's hope that changes in 2012.
I'll click on the sponsors, buy the jerseys, and watch the games but I live in Los Angeles, and if they don't get a team out here soon I'm going to go crazy! There's a huge soccer community here and none of us can go to any of the games unless we fly 5 billion miles across the world to see these teams. When the LA SOL were here, I got season pass to every single game, bought a jersey and wore it every single weekend, managed to convince 50 friends and family members to go to live games with me and even traveled to San Francisco to see the bay team with friends and family. BTW, the Sol didn't fold because there weren't enough people going to the games. As a matter of fact it on average around 6,000 - 7500 fans a game and the team was ruined by company AEG. I guarantee you, if WPS brought a team back to LA during this post-WWC hype you'll see a lot of new fans in the stands including celebrities.
It's still an owner driven league. If a team has the right owners, they will survive initial hardships and losses. If they have an owner that's in it on a whim or doesn't have a long-term plan, then forget it. In each of the cities were the teams folded (with maybe the possible exception of Gold Pride), the teams could have survived with a different ownership group. But I have no delusions of St. Louis ever getting a women's professional team again. The corporate community was lukewarm at best, really very sad overall. Attendance was okay for most of their run and would have been considerably better if the team had been marketed one iota. As much animosity as I have over the whole Cooper thing, he has been the only person to really step forward and show any interest in bringing soccer to St. Louis. Glavin and the Lions are what they, no disrespect intended, but that's as big as St. Louis can ever expect. As far as this WC having an effect on the league, I only see it being temporary. As someone said the other day (think it was Ray Ratto), the United States is event driven when it comes to anything outside the four major sports. They get excited about events and then they don't get excited again until the next time the event comes around. Think Olympics for several sports and World Cup specific to soccer. While it's nice that we have a bump in attendance and in interest right now, it probably would have been better if this happened right before the start of the WPS season to bump up season ticket sales. The improvement on single-game sales will help, but I don't think it will last that long. I like that there is being more interest being showed. I like a lot of the ideas that are being discussed in these forums. A lot of you are putting a lot of good thought into this and coming up with some good stuff. But I'm just not very optimistic at this point.
I clicked on all the sponsors some kind soul had the time to link on this thread and gave some good positive comments thanking them for all the support. I couldn't get access to the citibank link though for some reason. Maybe I'll try tomorrow in case their website is under maintenance. I hope others on here do the exact same thing, every little bit counts!
..and I have passed the mantle on to Kool-Aide - my work here is done As for the WWC's effect on WPS, I thought I read somewhere that Rachel Buehler was single-handedly responsible for destroying WPS
Expanding on this idea, why not have 4 American squads where the players all hail from the respective geographic region? So a USA West team, a USA South team, a USA NE team, and USA Midwest/Central team along with the pro Canadian team and a Japanese/international squad based out of/around NYC.
The best scenario would be for owners to sign the star players from their regions/states/etc, just give each team that POSSIBLE Abby affect which happens in Rochester. It still comes down to the owners to make the signings. if they don't want to, so be it. i'm killing those right off the bat who will post the league can't make teams sign whoever because they were born here or there. it's their option. WNY - signs Abby vs 2 games a yr. Come see her 9 games a season. They'll still get the 15000 if the USA wins the olympics, but should draw better than 2400 a game or whatever. Worst game was 1250 or so. Santos FC - IF they want in the WPS, then cut the BS. Put them in Miami with their full squad, and require them to carry 6 non-Brasils (intl or NA players). Rincon would be good fit for this club to pull in Colombians. LA - If they come back, Morgan should be top to sign on their list. Seattle Sounders Women - Hope! Nothing else to say on that. Vancouver - Christine Sinclair, Katrina, Kelly Parker, etc Portand - Schmidt. Mexico Club - Could be based out of Chula Vista and carry Campo, etc. People have talked about San Diego NY - if Riley is in, maybe he carries several of the japanese stars on his roster. Get the idea. Again, no one would make the owners do this but this makes since to build the brand and sell to the local community. It's amazing during the WC a lot of international posters thought this would be a real good deal for the WPS, given it would give the WPS that international feel esp when you match up santos, canada, vs USA based franchises. Again if Sahlen wants marta, morgan and sinclair, no one is stopping him but it makes sense if a vancouver and cal franchise would go after sinclair and morgan as their hometown star attractions. i know if i was an owner in LA i'd have morgan #1 on my list as a signing so sahlen would have pull out his check book in a bidding war. i'd back her up with a-rod and press. now, there is a nice marketable homegrown california girl front line from USC, Cal and Stanford which would sell a hell of a lot better than Marta at FCGB. i bet they put more people in seats vs signing marta for a 500k. no knock on marta, but the owners have to think out of the box. crazy expensive rosters for a chamionship in the wps doesnt mean much, given the state of the league vs putting a product on the field you can sell and market to 4-6k weekly ticket buyers.
Some of them got big men's club (mostly Engklish clubs and Lyon), but only Lyon of those gets a lot of money. The English clubs get peanuts, and the Germans and Swedish top clubs have no or almost nonmoentary support from men's club,
I went to LA SOL games too... I was, at first, upset with AEG...But, now, I feel less so. The fact was that SOL lost a huge amount of money. The guy, involved with SOL, stated that AEG absorbed most of the loss... AEG kept its word...It wasn't going to put money into SOL for more than one season. I don't blame a businessman for being unwilling to stick with a money-losing business. If the USWNT had a friendly now in LA, I am sure many fans will show up...But, a WPS team...I am not convinced.
WPS needs a benefactor like Lamar Hunt. It's well known that if it wasn't for billionaires like Lamar Hunt MLS would've folded a long time ago! WPS teams are SO much cheaper! It only costs about $2 million a year to run a WPS team if that much! A benefactor who's only worth a few hundred million could support an 8 team WPS all by himself! He couldn't do it forever but he could give a 5 year or 10 year committment and then taper off. You would think the World Cup would've raised interest for new owners so we'll have to see how it develops in the off season.