Anyone else find it odd that there's no mention of WPS or the Beat in this article? http://www.ajc.com/sports/business-group-looks-at-572467.html
Good question. I'm guessing it is b/c the article seems to be about a particular money making exhibition event & particular organizers who are interested in men's soccer and don't think about women's soccer much at all. Have you emailed the author of the article to point out their error of omitting the Beat from their discussion of pro soccer in Atlanta? Doug Roberson droberson@ajc.com wrote the article.
well Fitz was mentioned a member of their "soccer cabinet". its' a start, but i agree, also a slap in the face to not even mention WUSA or current WPS.
Fitz is also listed as the CEO of the Atlanta Beat at the bottom of the article. I don't think it's a slap in the face necessarily. I guess this is going to sound horrible no matter how I put it, but ... Women's soccer isn't exactly a profitable venture. It's not going to get a large number of international travelers to come to Atlanta to spend money, which is kind of the point of the panel and the article. Attracting big matches and well-known teams to the city in an effort to drive tourism. Then again, if it's any consolation, they also didn't mention the Silverbacks, who have been around for quite some time and have their own stadium.
True. I didn't think it was necessarily an insult--particularly given the article seemed spurred by the Club America vs. Manchester City exhibition. It is "natural" for an article about a men's exhibition (being held solely to make money) would talk about the potential to make money from other men's soccer ventures (ie MLS, even though multiple MLS teams are yet to be profitable).
OK, I guess it's even more sad that we can justify it and not come up with any real outrage at being slighted, or rather overlooked. Just an example of where women's soccer sits in the food chain, I suppose and if no one other than me wrote to the reporter or takes other actions to make some noise, we'll never move up. It's ok. I'm over it, I guess.
So, tell me, how would you have wrote the Beat into the story? How would you have done things differently?
Well, to give recognition that there is a women's professional league team in (actually near) Atlanta I think in paragraph 5 that begins Atlanta is considere one of ... he could have worked in that there is a Womens professional league team and it has been on Fox Soccer channel, not one of the big 4 networks or one of the ESPNs but its TV. In the para that begins "Despite recent interest" where he talks about fight history, he could have said the Atlanta Beat of the Womens professional league is already trying to do that. Fighting the unfortunate history of the demise of the WUSA team of the same name and fighting for a different result. Or when he talks about attendance he could have mentioned that the new Atlanta beat team despite being in its first year and expansion team is among the top three teams in the league in attendance numbers. One of the bullets toward the end could have said Atlanta residents can show their support of soccer by attending Beat games and thus show they will support professional soccer. And he could have called for a US women's national team game in Atlanta as well as a men's game. That's all I have.
Point of order. As of July 19, Atlanta was 5th in median attendance (not counting STL) and 4th in average attendance based on the numbers compiled from boxscores. You can check out the attendance thread for more discussion of WPS attendance. /Point of order