The time has come...

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings."

This is also a good time to think about what the WUSA fans that are not in, or close to, a WUSA city can do to help the league and what the league can, should, and is able to, do to help the far flung fans in their endeavors.

I have a couple of ideas and I have heard a LOT more in other threads and I just thought that a thread aimed at this, and this alone, would be a good idea.

In this thread I would hope that talk of play quality, expansion, contraction, team movement, trades, draft picks, referees, and other things like that will be at a minimum.

My two ideas:

1. Find a creative way to get more games on channels that most of the country can see. One game a week on PAX, or any other network is NOT enough and the games that are on strictly local channels do nothing to build the league.

2. Commit the league to the open cup and play the later games in cities that do not have a WUSA team. That means that the WUSA would play almost all of their games as an away game BUT that would be good for the league. Beginning with the quarterfinals the games should be in cities that do not have a WUSA team and should be double headers to draw the max fans.

These two would help the league get exposure and that would be a good thing.

I would like to hear other ideas and then, if there are any that are truly any good then maybe someone could formalize them and get them in front of the league.

I know that there is a supporters summit but it is impossible for many outlying fans to get there and, I believe, it takes more than just a summit to get anything to happen.

 

Re: Re: The time has come...

I was talking about the Open Cup games. The regular season games would still be as always, half at home and the WUSA playoffs would not change.

I also siad that most of the WUSA games, again in the open cup, should be away, I did NOT even say that all Open Cup games should be away, however that would not be bad for Women's soccer.

I did say that from quaterfinals on the open cup games should be in cities without a WUSA team.

Nothing would change for WUSA games but there would be a participation in the Open Cup, something that women's soccer needs.

 

Mel, Do you know what the Open Cup is? If you do sorry for this short, well short for me, explanation.

An Open Cup is a competition that is open to virtually all teams under a particular umbrella. Like the US Open Cup for men is open to all men’s teams correctly registered in the US, and some in Canada as well.

Open cups are, in some cases, more important to teams that their regular leagues but, in most cases, they are considered "second" or even "third" tier competitions and opportunities to give the reserves playing time in meaningful games. Also they often serve as a way into some of the more prestigious club tournaments and higher level cup play.

The US Mens Open Cup has been won by teams from amateur to A-League to MLS. The A-League even have a few Open Cups since the MLS has been around.

It is a single knock out tournament that is played, mostly, through the same period as the league regular season and the games are scheduled around the league games. Sometimes league games are declaired to be Open Cup games as well. This happened in the A-League this year several times.

In the US the open cup games are, generally, not televised and poorly attended BUT they do provide great entertainment and the women could use them differently than the men.

The women could use the open cup games to get exposure of the WUSA to cities that are not ever likely to get a team BUT have a W-League team. Believe it or not a LOT of the W-League fans have never seen a WUSA team play.

If the tournament was set correctly the teams would have minimal travel until the quarterfinals and most of the teams in the quarters would be WUSA teams. I think there are only about two or three W-League teams that could have a chance to beat a WUSA side.

It is mainly about getting more games and placing those games in front of a public for whom it would be new.

As far as the number of games, the men do it and it does not seem to hurt play that much. In Europe it is MUCH worse. Of course in Europe most teams carry almost two full teams of players on their roster.

 

The Women’s Open Cup has been played every year since 1996 here is the final results from those competitions.
==================
US WOMEN'S OPEN CUP
1996 Dallas Lightning 2, Sacramento Storm 1
1997 Sacramento Storm 3, Dallas Lightning 2
1998 Los Angeles Ajax 5, Dallas Lightning 0
1999 San Diego Auto Trader 14, Patrick Real Wyckoff (NJ) 0
2000 Ajax Fram (Manhattan Beach, CA) 2, Detroit Rocker Hawks 1
2001 Detroit Rocker Hawks 1, Southern California Blues 0
==================

The WUSA chose, for whatever reason, to not support or play in this competition.

When the MLS started they chose to play in the men’s version of the same competition and it has been quite successful.

It is not easy to find much info about the US Women’s cup due to the fact that women’s sports and soccer both receive short shrift in the media so it takes quite a bit of effort to find anything meaningful and there are virtually no news stories. This works both in favor and against this being a good venue for women’s soccer.

We can debate the pros and cons of the WUSA participating in the US Open Cup but I would also like to hear other ideas to expand the fan pool of the WUSA beyond the cities that have teams.

As far as plans for the WUSA to play in the cup. I really doubt it because it would require that the league think creatively and look beyond the immediate gains.