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"And in an expansion of her current role, she will provide personality-driven features for ESPN studio programs -- SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown among them -- and serve as a spokeswoman for select company initiatives." Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown? Yikes.
She was the only good thing about ESPN's coverage of the WC last summer. The studio segments were absolutely brutal with asshats like Chiniglia and Wynalda whinging on and on. Foudy gave solid commentary, and was dead on compared to the rest of the asshats they had on-air.
Indeed. It always amazes me how many posters here get their panties in a wad because Foudy and others took pride in their own efforts to get a women's league started - as well as pointing out the obvious that the WNT was far more successful and popular around the turn of the millenium - yet totally ignore the fact that all the evidence points to the fact that she is very knowledgeable of, and a huge fan of, the men's game. The old 91-99 WNTers like Foudy are like the 30 and 40something men's posters. They grew up attending and going to NASL games. They watched Soccer Made in Germany on PBS. That's what got them hooked. They are fans. And they know the game.
Andy, my opinion on this has nothing to do with the stuff Foudy allegedly said about the men's game (that's another kettle of fish, and I do think she ignored a few of the sacrifices the men of 94 made to get this thing rolling). My opinion has everything to do with the fact that she seems totally wooden in the studio. I would vastly prefer to have Wynalda in there rather than Foudy. Wynalda can be an ass sometimes, but he keeps things moving and seems comfortable in front of the camera, as well as eminently knowledgable.
Fair enough. I think Foudy, though, has improved by leaps and bounds since 1998's World Cup 2night show on espn2. I see her more as a "work in progess" than a final project. Her voice really became grating after a short period back in 1998.
There is an argument to be made that, at times, that pride turned into hubris and may have led to a lot of the problems leading to the WUSA's demise. I do think they overestimated the impact of the 2000 Women's World Cup. I do think they oversold the gender aspect of their endeavors and undersold the athletic aspects. I do think players like Foudy and others extended beyond their areas of expertise when setting up the post-2000 business plans. I do think there are legitimate complaints about the current implementation of Title IX, for which Foudy would certainly receive some of the criticism. To give Foudy (and others) a free pass by writing off all criticism as coming from the "He-man women haters club" does very little for improving and growing women's soccer. I thought Foudy was fine during the World Cup, but then I think Brandi's problems on the sideline stem more from uncomfortability in speaking rather than not having the sufficient knowledge.
Foudy is partly responsible for WUSA wasting $100 million soccer dollars. If WUSA wouldn't have been as stubborn in their early launch - WUSA, MLS, and the USSF would be better off today. Instead - MLS and USSF took their hits - and WUSA is gone and the prospects of another pro women's league has taken a big step backwards. The fact that MLS and WUSA couldn't leverage their staff, venues, and tv deals was a big missed opportunity - and directly responsible for WUSA going out of business. With the bridges that were burned during the process - now WUSA is left an island submerged below the rising tide of interest in soccer in this country. It didn't have to be this way and even dudes like John Hendricks who is now going to be a DC United investor see things that way. Had WUSA taken a more collaborative approach with MLS and the USSF - you'd still have a women's league - and MLS stadia projects would likely be further along. I mean SAS stadium is about the only artifact form WUSA's $100 million dollar existence. And it's too bad becuase - say for example in San Jose - the Earthquakes might have been able to get a better deal had they partnered with the CyberCats to host games on the same day. That might have kept AEG from having to move them. Also with a plan to get a new stadium - having both teams might prove a better reason for San Jose politicos to offer better terms/incentves to build a new stadium. MLS and the USSF ultimately survived - but it got ugly for a while as WUSA pissed it's money away. I tend to think that people like Foudy pissed at the USSF about contract negotiations and MLS about their original right to develop a women's league - all of this stuff prevented them from having a objective business relationship. All in all - Foudy is a smart lady and was a great player - but I don't really care for her as a broadcaster or sports org. leader.
Even if all that is true, that doesn't mean she's not a good TV personality. I thought she was fine during the World Cup. There were a couple people on ABC/ESPN who were much worse (all of whom were men). Now, what she can add to NFL broadcasts I have no clue, but we'll apparently find out.
"There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom ..." Those looking for Signs That Soccer Is Making It should be happy. Between this and Wynalda's encroachment on non-soccer ESPN programming (such as his guest stint on Mike and Mike), "soccer people" have broken out of the box.
As for Foudy being involved in promos and stories on non-soccer programming, I saw her on TBS one night a few years ago with Charles Barkley on an NBA broadcast. She and someone else from the USWNT promoted an upcoming game at halftime of the game; the banter was fine. They had a bit set up where Barkley challenged Foudy to get a shot past him standing in a "goal" barely wider than his body. The look on his face when he realized the ball was past him and he hadn't even seen it coming was priceless.
It was Mike and Mike (without Mike or Mike). They talked about sports and pop culture - just like Mike and Mike do.
We seem to be avoiding the very large elephant in the room, which was really directly responsible for the demise of WUSA: The fact that there was precious little interest in the product. At least, not enough interest to sustain it as a national, decent-salary-paying league with designs on bringing the best women's players in the world in. All that other stuff is mostly details. They could have done everything right and it still probably wouldn't have been enough to avoid the big elephant in the room.
What? Don't you read these boards? If only the leagues would spend more on "marketing," they'd be bigger than the NFL!
Indeed. The evagelists at WUSA (read: Foudy and co.) managed to hookwink the likes of Comcast, COX, and Time Warner/Turner that WUSA could average a 1.0 TV rating on TNT and a 1.0 TV rating locally during prime time (Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia even went as far as scheduling WUSA on Monday nights and assigned its A-Crew to the matches during the first season.) Instead, WUSA averaged an 0.3 on TNT. Local ratings were below expectations everywhere with the exception of San Diego. Predictably, Turner and Comcast wanted out. After WUSA's 1st season, Oxygen executive Lydia Stephans courted WUSA, offering bartered airtime on Saturdays and Sundays at 5-7pm ET. Of course, WUSA dismissed Oxygen as "too small" and bought time on PAX instead to go head-to-head against MLS on Saturdays at 4-6pm ET. The result: WUSA averaged an 0.1 on PAX. Predictably, Time Warner wanted out and COX chose to put the San Diego franchise up for sale. Even Hendricks and Hostetter saw the writing on the wall and chose to put up the San Jose franchise for sale. Comcast even went as far as sending the Philadelphia franchise out to visit the then-under-construction Home Depot Center, presumably so that AEG can "kick the tires". AEG ultimately passed. By the time WUSA folded, 5 out of 8 franchises were for sale: Philadelphia, Carolina, New York, San Diego, and San Jose. -- WUSA pretty much did everything wrong: 1. It overspent wildly, thinking that the product would sell on TV like the NBA (not the WNBA, but the NBA). It didn't. 2. It overpromised both investors and TV networks and underdelivered. 3. It stubbornly cling on to its "go big or go home" strategy even after the 1st season by dismissing the likes of Oxygen, instead choosing to buy time on PAX, a channel whose ratings are published every week for consumption by the general public. Once a steady string of "0.1's" were posted, WUSA's goose was cooked. 4. The hubris displayed by Foudy, Brandi, et. al. before the 1st season (i.e. saying to the media that WUSA was the only "world class" soccer league in the U.S.) made AEG into an enemy. There was no chance AEG would buy even the scraps of WUSA, much less a WUSA franchise, once those things were said. Interestingly, the window of opportunity is now slightly ajar for the WSII, given how the USMNT flopped at Germany 2006. (Even Electronic Arts chose to ignore the USMNT, preferring to use Mexican National Team member Jose Francisco "Kikin" Foncesa as its spokesman for the FIFA Soccer video game in the U.S. market.) However, WSII is again thinking big, with 8 franchises scattered around the U.S. (in order to meet US Soccer Federation requirements for "1st division" status.) Travel cost alone would strangle the WSII enterprise. WSII should be a weekend semi-pro bus/vanpool league, not a transcontinental airplane pro league. Having to fly teams between LA and NY for a league that would average at most 5,000 paid spectators per game is insane.
Obviously the people running the WUSA had a business plan that didn't take reality into account. I think that's been established. I think it's ridiculous to believe that men's and women's soccer are at odds in this country, and that the women can only succeed when the men aren't "doing well". You'll note the NBA launched the WNBA when the former was popular, not when it had it's final series airing on tape delay. And while it's important that the new women's league, if it happens, take things like expenses into account, it can lower those by getting MLS and USL teams involved.
The US soccer business tends to run in cycles: the women tend to get the attention of sponsors and the media when the men are down, and vice-versa. The men are now in a "down" cycle after the debacle of Germany 2006. That means the women now has a shot at getting attention. It is a long shot (given that the 2007 WWC and the 2008 Olympics are both in China, which presents a serious time zone issue for the U.S.), but it is the best shot the women have since WUSA folded in 2003. The lack of a chrismatic spokesperson for the USWNT (a la Foudy or Brandi, and Mia to a lesser extent) is another (relatively minor) problem that has to be overcome. Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly just aren't cutting it at this point. Heather Mitts? At best a "B-minus" as a spokesperson even though she has professional media experience, as she is way too low-key and way too bland in my opinion (perhaps Mitts is too afraid to offend anyone?)