I just got this too. Let the speculation begin. Portland is only an 8 hour drive from Happy Fluffy Town!
Portland Family Entertainment: http://www.pgepark.com/about.shtml In addition to being home of the Portland Timbers, PGE Park also hosted Chivas v Cruz Azul on July 7th.
Well it makes sense given that they have two fans in NY. Millie I bet is excited. You know Chicago would roll out the red carpet for a new team. We love our teams.
You know, as much as I want this to happen. I'm gonna feel bad for the fans who loyally make it to the Power games. But I WANT A WUSA TEAM!
While it would be good for Portland to have a WUSA team, I hope that they do not get one before a team in the midwest gets one. All of our teams are less than 200 miles from an ocean. We should build up support in places like Chicago, Kansas City, St.Louis, Dallas even. I just think the women's game will suffer if we ignore such a large part of the fan base in this country.
It's an inspired move on several levels. Millie is wasted in NY, but will be a huge draw in Portland, and the Power also have UP alumni Baumgardt and McIntosh. There are also several strong UP players graduating this year, and the Power is in a position to draft Aly Wagner, who is well known to WCC followers. If the Portland Power can add Michelle French to their roster (trade for Christie Pearce?), marketing should be a piece of cake. It will also help equalize the East-West coast travel factor. This should put to rest rumors of the league's premature demise.
If the speculation turns out to be true, then this news is good more ways than one. This might mean Woosa is amenable for other entities to buy in. Woosa burned up $40 mil to get this whole thing started that it would be difficult for them to make it as a stand-alone entity. By having other entities buy a franchise, they get to spread the costs and the risks of a nascent sports league. numero dos, pearce is damaged goods for anyone to take a chance on her. Someone also posted before that she just got married, so she may want to stay in the NY area. Maybe Krikorian can do something about her, since he has a knack for turning into gold someone else's garbage. But her knee and that 'nova rug may not like each other . . . Aly would be thrilled at the prospect of staying in the left coast than playing out east.
Let the speculation continue The Oregonian SOCCER NOTEBOOK 07/03/02 by JOHN NOLEN A women's professional soccer all-star game will likely be held Saturday, Sept. 21, at PGE Park ----- Is the WUSA more likely to move a team, or expand? How can they not have a team in New York? If they expand, will it be in 2003, or later? If the WUSA expands, isn't it likely to be by 2 teams, rather than just one? I love speculation.
:| :| *sigh* I'm grateful for an All-Star game, don't get me wrong. But I'd much rather have a team here. Also, what's the point of having an All-Star team here if no one really knows about the league? Well, we all know the Big Name players will be there. Might as well just have a fricken NT game. *sigh* Don't mind me, I'm just a little disappointed. Here's my take on it, even if it's a biased one: I think relocating the NY team to Portland would be a great move. NY isn't obviously getting the attendance it had hoped for, and having players whom are UP Alums would be great. Just because NY is NY doesn't mean that they have to have a Pro Sports team.
As good as a team in Portland would be, this is not the time to announce it. Not before the season ended and not now for the Power who showed what they could do on Wednesday. Also Pearce largely stopped Marinette Pichon on Wednesday. She is getting better after her injury.
Since the game will not break up the season it is OK. However, it will be, as virtually all of the all star games are, a showcase not a soccer match. It is unlikely that any real defense will be played and the laws will be interpreted to help the top stars look good. Fortunately injuries are unlikely for this very reason so the game should be mostly injury free. IT is unfortunate that here in the USA we seem to think that having these fiasco games is a good thing, they are NOT they just look silly to the rest of the world and serve no purpose for the players or the sport generally they are not even revenue producers to any reasonable extent. The league would be MUCH better served by expanding the pre-season and getting some of the pre-season game on TV, on the sports chs, at least late night on tape delay. I will, of course, watch the game if it really happens to be on TV but I still think it is a silly excuse for real substance and unlikely to produce any competitive or quality soccer and I VERY much doubt that any new fans will be created.
I think the WUSA expanding will be a great thing...so long as they expand the width of the teams! Most of the teams are too close together...they need to widen them out a little! Maybe more in the West alongside Spirit and the Rays. One in the middle of the USA would be nice too! Chicago is a great place to put a team, maybe even St. Louis!
I think the WUSA needs to go inside USA to cities like Denver, Chicago, St Louis, etc...before they go to the coasts again.
The news just came across - it is indeed an All-Star game: "The WUSA and Portland Family Entertainment have scheduled a "major soccer announcement" Monday morning in Portland to unveil a "new soccer initiative." The news, several league sources confirmed, will be that the league's first All-Star Game will be held Sept. 21 at PGE Park in Portland, Ore. PFE operates the former Portland Civic tadium. The game will begin at 1 p.m. PDT and be televised on PAX TV." They may be playing in Portland though to see how much interest a WUSA team might draw. So, for the Portland residents it may be more important for them to support the fact that the game is being played there, rather than the quality of the game itself. Although, if the one in Florida last year was any indication, the players don't exactly slack off.
ACK! That was absolutely the first thing I that crossed my mind this morning when a friend of mine alerted me to the rumor (and the second thing was that Tiff might get to go home as well). I think it would be awesome for Frenchie (and Tiff) to get to play at home, closer to her friends and family. If the WUSA is a dream come true for many of the players, why not be as perfect a dream come true for as many of them as possible? Of course, selfishly I'd personally be very(!!!) sad to see Frenchie leave San Jose. Then again, good point about Ian--the way we're (not) playing Frenchie right now we hardly "deserve" to keep her here anyway. UGH! However, it sounds like this is all actually about the All-Star Game at this point, rather than a team being placed in Portland. Still.... Disclaimer: What follows is complete and total speculation and random thoughts that are mine alone, and which have no basis in fact (aside from my ABL example)! So now that I've said that, if you repeat the following somewhere else as gospel, that's your own bad! Actually, thinking about the possibility of a team in Portland (and seriously, I'd love for Portland to ultimately get a team--I thought they should ahve had one there to begin with--and I'd hope Frenchie could play there) led me to this set of questions... I wonder if any of the players (esp. the founding set of players--official founders/allocated players) have clauses in their contracts whereby they can request or almost force a trade to a home city if the WUSA puts a team there. I'm NOT saying that I have any indication AT ALL that the WUSA would (be stupid?) enough to do that--this is all just spinning out of my own head. However, there is a precedent for it in pro sports. For example, there was a big brouhaha back in the days of the ABL (American Basketball League) when they placed a team in Long Beach. Natalie Williams played for Portland at the time, but had a clause in her contract with the league stating if they placed a team within a certain proximity to her hometown of Seal Beach (right next door to Long Beach), she would have to be given the option of going there. She managed to force a trade from Portland to Long Beach, in which Long Beach's star player (Yolanda Griffith) was abruptly shipped to Portland. While that particular scenario was handled very badly by that league, on some level it the basic idea made some sense. Frenchie or Tiff would be great draws in Portland, since they're "local heroes". Obviously, it would therefore make sense for one (or better, both) of them to play there, as much as it makes sense to have Chastain/Venturini/Beene (all No. Cal. locals) in San Jose, or Foudy/Fawcett/MacMillan (So. Cal. locals) in San Diego, etc! If the league expanded to Portland, rather than just relocating a team, I just wonder how the WUSA would go about allocating those first few players (and compensating their original teams) before holding an expansion draft. Or if, for instance (since it's the example we're all talking about), the Power is relocated, how much pull would Frenchie have to be able to swing a trade if she did want to play at home? Would she get some extra consideration because her playing in Portland would be good for the league (put a few extra people in the seats in Portland, and keep the league tradition of having hometown heroes at home), and would the WUSA powers-that-be try and pull some strings to get it done? Or would it simply be as much of a business decision as trades are now, and Frenchie would simply hear "that's nice, but we really want to keep you, so a CyberRay you will remain"?
Believe me when I say I hope you do get one. Carol Lindsay is right....you Portlanders need to show up in big numbers to this All-Star game to prove WUSA can be a draw. Is this turning into the Official (Don't Laugh) Expansion Thread? There's been talk in the local media about a MLS franchise here in Oklahoma City. Getting an ownership group and a SSS built is not out of the question, but a real possibility. If a MLS team comes to OKC then a WUSA team ought to find a home in Dallas......then I can die a happy woman because my life will be complete.