She said it back before the first season started as part of her PR campaign pushing the league as sustainable and what she sold the owners on as well. And she did it because they expected ticket averages to fall in the 4-6k range last year. And when they didn't they expected them to go up this year. Neither has happened. It's not shortsighted, it was actually a range they decided on after looking at the old WUSA attendance numbers which on a bad day were usually in the 6k range. WPS actually made allowances for lower attendances than what killed WUSA by expecting down to 4k. Problem is it appears interest in the women's game has fallen off even further than they anticipated it might have. Whomever wrote that article blaming the downfall on fans falling in love with not the women's game but the actual personalities involved in the 1999 World Cup may have been spot on sadly when it comes to the majority of the public and even the majority of soccer fans.
I can see Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain as unique and dynamic personalities and then you can maybe throw in Julie Foudy in there but I can't even recall much of any of the others. There is a one hour documentary on HBO called "Dare to Dream" about the 99 USWNT and they talk about how amazing Michelle Akers was so then I sort of recalled her but that's about it. I would certainly think we have enough interesting personalities and enough talent in WPS to average 3 to 4 thousand fans a game. They should revise their business plan to one that accommodates 3 to 4 thousand fans per team. If they don't and just let the league die that's the wrong decision. Isn't it better to have a league with somewhat lower salaries than NO league at all? BTW, Go North Korea!!
Speaking of attendance, AC is doing even worse lately, and if all is fair in judging viability or fandom based on attendance, come to your own conclusions: Sat, July 3: 2,122 Sat, July 10: 2,307 http://www.nasl.com/schedule/year/2010/time_zone/0
At least that's SOME good news! They showed the highlights of the AC St.Louis game and the stands looked almost deserted! MUCH worse than an Athletica game! Remember those numbers are probably tickets bought but I bet actually people at the Soccer Park was in the 1000 range. So it's clear the Athletica did MUCH better than AC St.Louis in their respective 1st seasons. I bet some AC fans feel guilty or uncomfortable knowing they killed the Athletica. It's clear that if AC St.Louis wasn't here or they came next year then the Athletica would most likely still be playing! I also fear that maybe the news that the Athletica folded had some reverberations around WPS and maybe some fans stopped showing or decided not to go to WPS games since they figured with 2 teams gone WPS is doomed. Not that that's true of course.
ouch. i just wanted to come by to say that athletica draft pick lotta schelin may be leaving OL this season, but that's neither here nor there for you now. sorry.