Cool! It'll be interesting to see if fans of the team formerly known as the Atlanta Beat will support this new team IN PERSON or if they fall off the women's soccer league bandwagon that was hip from 2001 - 2003. Also I wonder if any former Beat players will play on this team.
how is this different from the WUSA? is the WUSA coming back? will the stars like Cindy Parlow be playing in this league?
First Question: WUSA - fully professional. Players earning a living playing soccer. Median age around 25. W-League - fully amateur. College age players playing in a structured summer environment that doesn't risk their college eligibility. There are NCAA mandated requirements to the number of "over-age" players. Unlike the pre-WUSA W-League, there are no players in the W-League receiving payments for playing. Second Question: As a viable soccer league? Probably not. As a series of poorly run, poorly attended "festivals", maybe, maybe not. At this point, I'm guessing that the continued existence of the "WUSA brand" is only preventing a possible new professional league from starting. The WUSA as we knew it is forever gone. While future teams of similar names may exist, they will be successors in name only. Third Question: Unless Parlow lives in Atlanta and is willing to play for free, no. Some national team members are on the rosters of various W-League and WPSL (a similar west-coast league under different ownership www.wpsl.info ), but few actually played more than a handful of games. The W-League and WPSL are designed for college players to continue playing in the summer.
Article about Atlanta's new coach: http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/111217785712050.xml
http://www.atlantasilverbacks.com/c...cgi?id=EEpAlElykkudhFZwgP&tmpl=viewnews_women They've signed 7 former WUSA players to date: Melanie Wilson, Kerry Gragg, Lisa Kryzkowski-Cantrell, Leslie Gaston, Nel Fettig, Marci Miller, and Tara Minnax. And here's the coach announcement on the Silverback's site. http://www.atlantasilverbacks.com/c...cgi?id=EEEEEZukkFyiGovoDT&tmpl=viewnews_women
Hampton Roads Pirhanas seem to still be holding on to some former WUSA players. They signed Australian Kelly Golebiowski a couple of months ago. They have a number of players listed on their roster page with WUSA experience, but it looks out-of date.