I saw this in a post about the demise of the WUSA: "There are going to be a thousand posts about how sad everyone is and what a shame it was and all that, but there were plenty of us around here who strictly dealt with the facts, weren't all that excited about watching women playing soccer, and just in general didn't really give a crap." I find this ironic with all of the people getting mad about the way soccer is percieved in America and complaining about how it is the world's sport and everyone (media, ESPN, sports radio, non-soccer people) should accept it and love it. It seems to me that this is the attitude that many on this board complain about. The way I see it, this sucks! I am a soccer coach and have coached both women and men and now those women (u14-college) won't have a pro league to dream of. This also just fuels the fire of the anti-soccer crowd. It's very sad and anyone who gloats over this (as this poster did later in his post) is just a complete idiot.
There are a lot of idiots in the world. In fact, they're the majority. Having said that, I do share in your pain. Yesterday sucked and today is not much better.
There will be a league. There has to be some business model that can at least break even on 4,000 or 5,000 fans a game, which is less than the league average. The problem with the WUSA was that investors and founders thought that WWC-level crowds would be flocking to see the game. It may be modest, but there will be a league (well, there is the W-League already, and there was before the WUSA - check it out)
Here's a key question, though. Can a "modest" league attracting 4-5K attendance per game be percieved as "big time" enough in the American sports lexicon as to attract the quality investors to make it profitable...and attractive to the jaded ticket buyer? Are WUSA-II and women's soccer backers content with a "modest" league -- having reached for the moon and missed the first time?
It sure would have helped if they had started out more modestly in 2001. Now, I don't think the creators of a new league have any other choice. They may not be satisfied with the choice, but it's a bit closer to reality.
Yeah, there are enough folks gloating over the demise of WUSA to make you wonder. Just pop on over to the Crew boards. Those guys are too chicken and pompous to post on the WUSA boards, but are they ever slapping each other on the backs. I coach two women's teams. They were really down in the dumps about this news today. The local team really did their bit to reach out to the soccer playing community, including practice with the women and meet'n'greet at the games. WUSA will be missed.
Roel, Consider the source. What else would you expect from some of those guys who are Crew fans? They don't understand that something like this is bad for THE GAME in general. Only two teams? I thought you coached more than that from the numbers that you used to bring to the Quakes games.
Patience, patience. Leagues take generations before they can build up to "big time" status. MLS is not there yet by any stretch of the imagination, but its business model is more realistic and so it can withstand these lean years in the prospect that perhaps in thirty years it can compete with the major nations of the world. WUSA wanted it all right from the beginning. It predicted increases of attendance of about 10% per year, every year, for seven seasons, when a 3% steady increase is ambitious. It had the mentality that "if you build it, the sponsors will come," naively thinking that corporations would think the "goodwill" aspect of the game would negate the fact that nobody showed up. It neglected to notice the fact that a major source of income for small leagues -- selling players to bigger leagues -- was not part of the business plan. The next iteration of WUSA should consider that 4,000 people per game is a good start, and is plenty to get a league off the ground. It may not be much initially, but if it sticks around for twenty or thirty years, then it can grow.
But in this day-and-age of "I want it all now", will a modest league like WUSA-II be "allowed" by the powers that be to become "big time" over time? Or will it always be viewed as "small time" because they play in high school and small college parks? And will investors be intrigued by a league that starts small and thinks big, even though it may never be "allowed" to become big? That's what would concern me...
Starting small is sometimes necessary. You don't need scores of multi-million dollar investors from day one to get a league going. Maybe 6,000 people per game is all a women's soccer league can draw for now. Use that as a starting point and go from there. Making forecasts of a 10% attendance increase per year will not have any effect on reality.
See that's the mistake of the original investors. Being percieved as "big time" does nothing to make your league profitable. Think about it, WUSA averaged almost 7,000 fans per game. A very conservative estimate of $10 per ticket puts income at $70,000 per game. You telling me that won't cover salaries? And yet the league lost over $80 million in 3 years? Somebody with a long term timeframe and the patience to start small could set up a league right now that would likely break even, but they'll have to come to grips with certain realities; - There will be no TV revenue until after the sport has developed a strong fan base that demands it, which will take many years - Players will be part-time professional athletes - competition will be largely regional, with national clashes limited and primarily in playoffs What kind of league can work - probably something that is a mix between the W-League and the WUSA. What the WUSA showed for sure is that 'jaded' or 'casual' tickt buyers are not coming to the sport anyway. But there is enough hardcore fans to support a modest enterprise. All of the surviving major sports leagues started out as "minor" leagues. The only exception is MLS, which has had to revert to the minor league model of slowly building local fan support and relying on less expensive talent and cutting costs as the means to survival and growth (and lets not forget that the fate of MLS would certainly have been the same if not for a certain billionaire investor, something the WUSA surely did not have).
I've coached boys, girls and now women. Coaching women is great! They drive themselves, take care of the paperwork, and best of all, their parents don't get in the way! I only got three group events going for the CyberRays this season, and another three for the Quakes. I've not seen enough soccer this summer. Too busy coaching!
I'm glad to see that my post was the core of its own thread - how flattering! I wouldn't actually say that I was 'gloating', since gloating would have implied that I really cared about the league staying or going. And that's my point - I didn't really care at all, sentiments shared by many others on these boards. There really wasn't that much to care about. It's a matter of taste. Are the broccoli lovers out there going to chastise me for not eating my broccoli? What I love about America is having the right, unless of course sympathetic moderators choose to yellow card people with opposing views, to express my opinion whatever the hell it may be. I really am not too concerned about what you people think as there are plenty of other posters who share similar thoughts and ideas as I do, which makes this discussion all completely superfluous. I won't change your minds and you won't change mine. Many of you think that the demise of the WUSA is a negative about the sport of soccer - this is false. MLS is on its way to being profitable and all numbers are pointing upwards. WUSA made the mistake of thinking this country was ready to throw their dollars towards a women's soccer league -wrong. Maybe, someday, but not now, and not with all the other top-level sports out there. WUSA folding really doesn't have anything to do with the perception of soccer in this country whatsoever. This is a story that will completely revolve around the fact that people won't support women's leagues in big enough numbers to make it prosper, which is what every investor is after. Soccer will be fine in America. MLS will be fine. Of course, the more crap I read from people about how tragic this is and how hurt they are, the more I do feel like gloating, and if you do bother to read all the other threads on this subject, you'll see I'm not alone.
One more thing. I also hope that our USWNT wins the World Cup. Why? Because I'm an American and love to win. Male or female. The World Cup is about national pride. Leagues around the world are about money. There's a very great distinction. I cheered till I was hoarse in '99 at the Rose Bowl when our girls won the World Cup, and I hope they win it again this year. But that's the beauty of the World Cup - it's only every four years. That's enough for me.