School girls and soccer parents are worthy enough of having a league to follow? The WUSA's following, granted, was smaller then say the NFL's, but that fact that big hulky men weren't getting into it, doesn't make it less of a sport, nor less deserving of being watched. And alot of school girls and soccer parents loved watching it.
It's apples and oranges. If I've learned anything on these boards and in life since becoming a soccer fan... it's that soccer fans, men and women should support each other. Together, we are still greatly outnumbered by non-soccer fans. A house divided... I feel soccer as a whole is a viable product. So many kids today play the sport and it's my belief that it will take the younger generations to allow soccer fandom to reach a descent height in this country. So until these kids reach adulthood, it's up to the rest of us to keep it going. I don't think mutual support is a bad thing. If you don't like women's soccer, fine. The least you anti-women's soccer fans could do is not hurt it by getting on the bandwagon against it. I personally will keep supporting soccer as a whole and hope that it mainstreams soon...men's and women's soccer. via la futbol! Allow dissention to die!
Re: a dork - but a gutsy one No we don't. Since when is ignorance and prejudice noble qualities deserving of props?? He is completely wrong about the people attending WUSA matches. In my section (116) at Herndon Stadium (home of the Atlanta Beat)... There were a very few that fell in his category of WUSA fans attending matches. To my left...a man in his 70's who loves soccer...beside him...a man in his 30's who is a soccer coach. To my right... a group of seven 20 somethings...five men, two women...all without children. I could go on...but out of that entire section of season ticket holders...there couldn't have been more than 15 kids! The Beat had a special area behind the North goal for adults over 21 called the Kick Back Zone... I called it the Beer Garden. There were a sh!t load of adults there without children ...drinking, hooping, hollering and making a good run at being sports fans. You people should not speak on matters for which you have no knowledge. The WUSA was not run well, but their fans were loyal and I believe, in time, they would have been bountiful and full of Adults just wanting to cheer a sport they love. It was affordable, good fun.
XYZ has made very clear points. I bet at this moment there would be numerous logically inconsistent and inaccurate bashing-WUSA articles by troll writers on troll presses that we should just ignore. Rather, I want to suggest something like this: Let's face it, the WUSA (and women's sports in general) is not for everyone; majority of people, both women and men, don't watch it, and maybe we can't really change this fact. However, it CAN find a right niche which makes the league successful even in a small scale. Having said this, I don't think the WUSA (and the other women's leagues like the WNBA) hasn't done proper marketing to draw the potential audience group - most namely, BOTH female and male professionals, in their 20s to 40s. The more progressive and alternative marketings should be one of the topics to discuss.
I think, and I will stand by this, that the WUSA's problem was it wanted to be a big league without having to go through any of the pains. It felt that it was entitled to big league play and big league marketing and big league TV rights. All the while, it did not go after the primary sports demographics in America, it went after the soccer moms and soccer kids. (Many of whom , at least the moms, are sick of soccer after taking Mary and Jimmy to practice four total times a week, watching two games on the weekend, and praying that neither of them make the select team which would be two more practices a week each and a potential game on Thursdays or Saturdays) You want a sports league to succeed in America, you must go after the male, 18-40. Must. There's no way around it and no league will succeed without targeting that demographic. Jarrod
I generally agree with what I have quoted here, the rest though is absolute horsesh!t. You've got to build your base from those fans that are most sympathetic first, then go to those who are most antipathetic. You are correct in saying that they thought they had the world by the short hairs (I am paraphrasing) and that all of the people who went to WWC 99 would come to WUSA games as loyal fans. Just one step at a time, just one step at a time. They tried to get everything in an instant, as if it was Nescafe.
Well, they do, sort of. The USWNT regularly plays selected U-16 boys teams to tune up for big events. The women usually lose, sometimes win. That should give an idea of what to expect should a WUSA team line up against a high school team, let alone a college team of 18-21 year old men. A match between Galaxy any womens team could not be played. There is a law in this country against murder.