NPR reports WUSA to have full season in 2005.

I personally don't know how this league will make it unless the players decide to take a lot less and they operate it on a shoestring.

 

didn't click on the link, but assuming your summary is correct




wouldn't be the first time NPR is wrong

 

3 1/2 minutes of speculation. No specifics whatsoever. Considering that the WUSA website lists several contract employees who are no longer with the league - not to mention anything whatsoever regarding the possibility of a relaunch, I'm guessing this is a red herring. Sort a cheap "whisper campaign" to try and raise the buzz level.

 

I'm generally a fan of NPR, but this piece was poor reportage. The main interviewee (sports director for one of their affiliates) called DiCicco "DiCiccio", and referred to the current WNT tour as a WUSA tour.

I believe they may have gotten an Olympic boost in the search for sponsors, but that doesn't equal breaking news at this point.

 

Yeah, hearing the report tends to make me believe that NPR just mangled the projected start year of a relaunched WUSA along with pretty much every other fact in that report. I'd be shocked beyond belief if there was a full WUSA relaunch in 2005.

 

I'd be shocked if there was ever a full WUSA relaunch.

At this point "the WUSA" is standing in the way of professional womens soccer in the United States.

It is a failed brand. Some of the team brands (like Washington Freedom perhaps) can be saved. But "the WUSA" is poison. Commercial partners won't touch it. But no other group will step forward to start another professional league until the WUSA goes away. It sort of a "******** or get off the pot" kind of thing - except that the only real option is to get off the pot.

The fact is, the WUSA is dead. Any teams that do come back are only going to have faint resemblence to the teams that were. The vast majority of players are irretrievably gone. Last Wednesday, I talked to Kelly Cagle - who quit the Atlanta Beat to become coach of Virginia Tech. These women have moved on with their lives.

It's time for the WUSA to get out of the way, too.

 

Now I can't get the memory of that picture you posted of Kelly Cagle some time ago out of my head, thanks!

I've heard from people close to the Fed that there will not be a WUSA season next year. If there was an Olympic boost, I'm not so sure its that significant given the dismal failures of the festivals. I think its time to start thinking about a new league.

 

If MLS were to add a women's auxillary league of 10 teams attached to MLS teams, and simply brought in the best women available under the same guidlines as the men's teams, you would never hear of the WUSA again -- at least not in a serious discussion of women's professional soccer.

At the most, 10 vets could be seeded - one per team - the rest of the players should be newbies, up-and-comers, and foreign 'stars.'

-- and maybe the entire Danish National Team.

They should play double-headers with the men -- or go to Sat-Sun schedules.
There should never be a head-to-head conflict in tv coverage. Unfortunately, I don't think MLS sees a real future in this or it would already be piecing together the auxillary league. Maybe MLS is just waiting for Brandi-Julie to hang it up, but that's really unnecessary. No woman interested in playing pro soccer will let either of them dictate where they will play.

However, MLS's plate is full right now -- new stadia, new teams, the turnstile of Yanks abroad taking some away and returning others. A women's auxillary is probably out of the picture.

 

Any womens league attached to MLS is years away. MLS is going to have enough fun next season with expansion and reserve teams. Throw in another expansion in 2006 or 2007, and their plate is more than full.

That doesn't mean individual MLS groups with SSS might not be affiliated with a new women's league, but that's not really germaine at this point.

Of the 140 WUSA players from 2003, I'm guessing that no more than 50-60 would be around for a 2006 season. A lot of the fans around here really don't seem to want to believe that the WUSA that they knew is gone forever. For the most part the players we watched and followed have had to find paying jobs, and few of them will likely be interested AND able to quit them in order to join a league where the wages will be even less. The next professional womens league will be mostly internationals and 22-24 year olds.

 

Several of the women in the WUSA went to the W-League to keep playing. That may be business model to pursue. There is a structure there and maybe that league could spawn some top level clubs. The Freedom is keeping their name out there with games by their reserve team. Which is still a high caliber club compared to what places like Nottingham Forest -- for that matter the same Freedom reserves that basted the Forrest women 6-0 could only manage a 1-1 tie with W-League Majestics.

I hope that there is a way to establish a true division 1 woman's league but it may only be possible under the MLS umbrella and that will be some time off.

Go Majestics!

 

To echo Andy's sentiment, I'm waiting for WUSA to go the hell away so a competent organization can step forward. Andy knows the numbers, etc better than I do, but I believe MLS will have 8 soccer-specific stadia in place by 2007 and that that may be the time for a WMLS to pop up (if no reasonable alternative gets off the ground by 2006).

As Andy said, don't expect too many WUSA players of the past to chuck newly-found jobs for a resurrection of WUSA.

 

Actually, a lot more regulars showed up for the Nottingham Forest game in RFK Stadium than did for the games with the Majestics, so the results aren't comparable.

 

Actually - an W-League team should've been able to pummel the Notts Forest Ladies 8-0. I really find it incredulous that they were a coached soccer team.

No wonder most Brits I've met have a low opinion of "chick soccer."

It was one of the appallingly bad teams I've ever seen in my entire life.

 

Good thing they did not play the NJ Wildcats then

 

Can anyone tell me how much of a factor the Women's Premiership is in England?

 

It isn't. It gets some publicity, but the league as a whole is probaly treated about the same as the sixth level of men's leagues.

Notts Forest Ladies, btw, don't play in the Premier League or its two regional feeders. They play in a local Nottinghamshire league. Hardly surprising they got caned over here.

 

It would be smart for both groups to work together.
With Men's qualifying schedule this would be a good oportunity to get some of the younger women players out in public, if they would do something like schedule double headers. That would help expose the game!!

However, I think its very unlikely that the two will work together.
MLS only recently became a self sustaining market. WNBA survives only on the NBA profits. It would be the same thing with an expanded MLS. However I really do hope to see them get a womens professional league back.