Anyone hazard a guess (WAGs accepted) what size crowd in attendance at a WPS game represents break-even for its Club? Is the CRS break-even attendance figure likely higher or lower than league average? (Anyone know the average crowd-size Athletica was drawing?)
With the costs of stadium,players,travel and front office I'm sure it's more than whatever the WPS average is now, around 4,000. It has to be 6,000-8,000 or probably more.
The assumption of the OP is that attendance is the money maker for the league -- in other words attendance is what pays the largest portion of the bills. In most sports it is sponsorships (and for the bigger teams/sprots merchandising) that pays the larger chunk of the bills. Not attendance. Sure great attendance makes sponsorships easier to sell (and at a higher price) and for teams lucky enough to control their venue the concessions can make money, too. But attendance is not a big enough revenue generator by itself to support any team/league.
This is true for the american football,baseball and the NBA but leagues like WPS and MLS rely more on attendance. The big 3 also get more merchandise money.
I think you must be correct. Same going for TV revenue. FSC is making a great contribution to the league, really, by televising a game-of-the-week. Don't know how much they pay for the "privilege" (you'd think they could almost charge the league a broadcast fee). Ultimately, this too will be determined by crowd-size, I believe. Short of it is: the whole enterprise must demonstrate that it is creating interest by filling at least some minimum number of seats. I applaud CRS; I think they have been quite creative with promotions and the like. And you can't beat the quality of the venue. Sure hope the league manages, somehow, to benefit from the World Cup. I read this morning that 18 million Americans watched the Ghana game. That's a genuine "spark of interest" there. And Soo-o-o-o many young girls playing the game now. I know CRS is working to stimulate interest with the schoolgirl clubs, but it really seems to me these are the families where the future crowds are. Hope it blossoms into something!
From a story in April http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/14/women-professional-soccer-business-sports-soccer_2.html ...With no national TV money--the league collects no rights fees for its weekly games on the Fox Soccer channel--the key lies with "each local owner filling the stadiums to capacity and then growing into larger facilities," Antonucci says. ...