WUSA announced today that they will cease operations. There goes the women referees and games for the up and comers. Too bad there wasn't enough support. http://www.wusa.com/press_room/383744.html
Impact on the Officiating community It will be interesting on how this plays out with the officiating community. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a woman assigned to any MLS games since WUSA started, in any position. Now that we have 7 women with FIFA badges in this country, where will they get assignments after the WWC? The WPSL uses only local officials, how about the W-League? The play level is considerably lower, but it may be the only game in town. WPSL and W-league may take a growth boost to absorb a lot of the players, but the pay checks are gone. Some of the officials work both MLS and WUSA, however, the majority of the WUSA officials have just totally lost their games. This may result in a higher number of Natl Referees that take 2004 as the year to go emeritus.
Re: Impact on the Officiating community I thought I saw some female officials in MLS a while back. It may have been before WUSA started. I would think they would be welcomed back.
Re: Impact on the Officiating community Well Imagine that FIFA's like Sandy Hunt will start to get MLS (she was a 4th official for the Seattle-Vancouver game in Seattle). Also I'm guessing you haven't seen Persistent infringement CD that has Sandy Hunt carding Landon Donovan.
Re: Re: Impact on the Officiating community Won't happen. There are no women even on teh FIFA list that can keep up with play and the men. I don't say this as a negative remark. All of these women are good friends of mine and we have talked about this. My hope is that someone will step in and support/sponsor the league later. Maybe in 2005 it will return. Operations have been suspended this sounds different to me than folded which is not what was said. Many of us that have worked our way up to a better postion in this league will now have to fight for A-league middles. Many Nationals will retire. But, most importantly, the mentors of so many little girls will no longer be ther to inspire and give reason to be the best.
Re: Re: Re: Impact on the Officiating community The Women on the FIFA list can't keep up with MLS players??? Have you met and/or seen Sandy Hunt??? All Fifa Refs are fitness gurus, especially Kevin Yant and Sandy Hunt.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Impact on the Officiating community We have a couple of Kevin FIFA Referees, but Kevin Yant is a National Emeritus REferee, not FIFA. I totally agree with you on Sandy Hunt. I have seen her run the physical at Natl Camp and she is up there with the best of the guys.
I saw a Brazilian league game a couple of months ago on FSW with an all-woman officiating crew. If it can be done there, it can be done here.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Impact on the Officiating community Beleive me I have seen her and more. She is a very good Referee and has the experience and knowledge to officiate at that level. but the phyiscal side is not up to where it needs to be. having to pass the womens' standard is not enough. The distance run is her best run, the sprints are not good. Maybe 4 years ago in Fullerton she could run better but now... In any case, there are not any women FIFA badges that can keep up with the men. A 4th official is not good enough. No women worked the A-league or higher for a reason and it's not just because there was the WUSA either.
I've seen them too and they have received high marks. They did a great job in the match I saw and kept good control and that's not always easy in Brasil.
"The Women's World Cup will provide a platform to generate additional interest in women's soccer that could be the catalyst to more sponsor support to revive the WUSA." I think this more a result of the bad economy catching up -- all leagues have lost sponsorships for 2004 season, and WUSA was in too early a stage to weather it. I'm sure they'll be back for 2005, especially if WNT wins WWC again.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Impact on the Officiating community Stupid me I meant to say Stott. Have met them both though, nice guys! and damn good Refs.
WUSA was from the start a violation of the rules of capitalist economics. Part "The women deserve a pro league so they don't have to go international or quit after college", part "The World Cup was awesome - if 100,000 people will go see a WC game surely 15,000 will attend league games". By now the truth should be brutally obvious. The kids that made up the first huge surge in youth soccer in this country now have soccer age kids, but neither the parents nor their kids are attending MLS or WUSA games in numbers sufficient to make any money. Baseball is really the only sport that draws big pro crowds without a big college fan base (unless you go to games in Montreal I guess). What fact other than participation can anyone point to that would indicate the likelihood that WUSA would draw enough to make money? Now or in 2005? I love women's soccer and the athletes were a joy to watch. It's hard for me to imagine though that there are enough other investors with $100,000,000 to try this again without a sea change of some sort . Jim
Come now, you know how it works here in the states. Look at the WNBA. Whe you look into the stands they are only a few spectators, Why is this league still around? Because it received a major TV contrcat and has the backing of the NBA who makes a lot of $ for TV. Arena football, same thing. No spectators in the stands yet is on a major TV network. TV controls the market here. Without a major contrcat a league can't survive. The US hasn't figured out what the Europeans and the Mexicans and the South Americans have figured out. That is how to broadcast a full game with no commercials and make money. It's not the fan base attendance that drives the market.
I don't think you can count on the WNBA surviving much longer. They haven't lost their TV contract yet, but they will. Without the NBA forcing NBC & ESPN to show games, they'd be on PAX or Lifetime. But this is getting off topic. We should really keep this off the referee board.
Might I also note that the Arena League _IS_ filling arenas. It's not totally succesful, but it is definatly an up and coming league. RC
WUSA is now saying they are likely to be back for next season. Lots of interested businesses are asking about sponsorship after hearing the league shut down. They are meeting Monday to start drawing contracts. Maybe this was all a publicity ploy to tug on the emotions of investors?
No "maybe" about it. The initial press release included a quote from Hamm saying that they hoped to be back in operation for 2005, 2004 if they could attract the sponsors. The timing was all about maximum exposure. When I heard today's list of the 400 wealthiest people in the world, all I could think of was, "it's too bad that Bill Gates doesn't have a daughter playing soccer".