What happens with the WNT after the Olympics are over?

Well if you recall up till last summer's World Cup the attendance at Women's games barely reach 7-9,000. There has been a spike in attendance for WNT games in the last year or so.

And, IMO it has to do with popularity and "cult of presonalies" Morgan is the new cute face of the WNT. Solo is on all the tabloids. Throngs of kids get their balls and jersey's signed. "Clueless" soccer dads get to bond with their daughters. Fan interest is up. And not always because people want to see a great soccer game. Otherwise Sahlen's stadium would have been filled for every WPS game.

 

Not really. Look at the venues and attendance numbers from the 2008 tour:

They've almost beaten the best attendance from that tour in one shot. The excitement dies down pretty quickly on these things. Small venues with a decent crowd are a lot better than huge venues with everyone in the stadium having his/her own section.

 

If people would go to Wrigley Field to watch a great baseball game there would be barely a couple of thousand in the stands. But they don't. They go to party, go to the bars surrounding Wrigley Field , drink many beers and stare at the ivey. It's an event.
But unlike the suckful Cubs the USWNT is actually a winner.

 

Rochester is first b/c it's Abby's hometown and they knew they'd sell tix. The WNY-MJ WPS game three days after the WWC last summer sold 15404 (figure pulled from here ).

And USSF charges more (much more) than WPS did for tickets. I'll be interested to see the tix sales figures for the other games.

 

Meghan Klingenberg has joined Tyreso FF in Sweden.

http://www.tyresoff.se/web/article.asp?artID=300 (in Swedish)

 

You could also, I suppose, look at Last year's victory tour matches in KC (16+k) or Portland (18+K).

The Portland venue was just about at capacity, as they didn't yet open all the seats for crowd reasons.
There are a bunch of mid-size stadiums that are great venues for those size crowds.

I think if you properly promote the games and are smart about the venues you can make money and have great crowds. Last year, I believe they abbreviated the tour rather than put the games in venues too small to actually serve the purpose the matches are designed for, which is to make bonus money for the USWNT.

So I think venues too small are counterproductive.

 

Does anyone know or heard rumors of where more games will be played for this after-Olympic tour? Will there be any trips to Seattle-Portland? Chicago? Florida?

 

When I went to the game in Phoenix, Arizona last November, well after the WWC, we got over 18,000 at our stadium and there were chants all over the place. I never saw so many people excited to be at a women's sporting event in my life, at least "in person". So the theory that the audiences "die" down after the first game may not apply with these particular group of team USA since all the friendlies since the WWC have been pretty good in ticket sales. I'm still hoping the Home Depot Center will get a good crowd.

 

What, no mention of the Germany matches?

http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Womens...WNT-to-Host-Germany-on-Oct-20-and-Oct-23.aspx

 

I hope Pia tries some new formations for this match.... try a new holding mid, a new center back, new right back.... Morgan and Leroux/Press up top for at least a half.

 

This is the victory tour. It is for the players who won to make their bonuses. There will be no experimentation with new players.

Do you give your year end bonus to new employees where you work?

 

No TV ?

But I'm impressed, not the typical MO for these tours which involves patsies for the games. But win or lose, the Olympic players will get their extra bonus paychecks for the games.

 

wait, how many months will this victory tour be going on for... jesus. milking it ladies!

god damn, clive! god damn! the team can still try new position/formations- say, becky at center or kling on left (if she's there) or press or leroux for longer than 20..
maybe mitts can play her first 90 minutes in 2 years? ;-0

 

2004---Olympic final was Aug. 26; victory tour was 10 games, Sept. 25 to Dec. 8.
2008---Olympic final was Aug. 21; victory tour was eight games, Sept. 13 to Dec. 17.

I doubt that it's the players who are milking it. I suspect that the people milking it are the same ones who had them put on those dumb shirts after the final.

 

The number of games in the victory tour are in the player contact, and that depends on how well they did. I'd have to dig it up, but I vaguely recall that a gold is at least eight games. that is variable. If they don't make money or have trouble booking venues, it could be abbreviated. I think a previous WWC tour was cut short. The tour was instituted because the previous success bonuses were so paltry on the women's side. The players wanted a cut of the gate instead, so we have his system.

So I'd say the tour probably continues to the end of the year.

After that they can get down to the business of finding new players. This tour is still the group that went to the Olympics.


They may add players if there are injuries or players have prior commitments, but I bet the alternates get first dibs.

And yes, you will probably see Mitts. This is her last go-round, as she announced she is retiring.

There is the added complication the the player agreement ends at the end of the tour. Also, Pia might leave, so then Jill and April will decide which Boom-Ballers they want to add to the team.

 

i guess i didn't pay attention to the previous victory tours that go months, standard.

anywho. i'm stoked (sorry, been in socal) STOKED to see Germany play.

 

i'm not sure these are good games. the uswnt usually shows up a day or so before the games having celebrated a bit too much, while the euro teams are in their club seasons.

i always like to see germany tho. but i don't see any tv listings.

 

Well I hope they come prepared for Germany. Points against top 10 teams are bonus points. And we get them at home, which means they get more from a win and less from a loss than we do.

Also, we got pretty good separation from them in the ranking points with he Olympic matches, and they will come out guns blazing. It's one of the few ways they can claw back for three years..

A win for us really puts them in a hole.

 

And Barnhart continues her lucky streak with surgery:

http://equalizersoccer.com/2012/08/31/nicole-barnhart-out-month-knee-bone-spurs/

 

Well if the matches are televised - the first Germany match is on a Saturday - so its NBC or NBCSN - definiately not ESPN or ESPN2 as they will be showing football all day/all night. Maybe FoxSoccer televises it - early promotion for their coverage of the 2015 Womens World Cup? Since the second Germany match is on a Tuesday and its in basically ESPNs backyard - Hartford - look for it to be on ESPN or ESPN2.

Update #1: Unless the first Germany match is at night and not the afternoon - then NBCSN is out as they will be televising a college football doubleheader (Penn-Yale then UNLV-Boise State) from 12:00 pm ET to 7:00 pm ET. Maybe a 7:30 pm ET/8:00 pm ET start for the soccer match? NBC has a Notre Dame-BYU football game at 3:30 pm ET so they could televise the match if it started at 1:30 pm ET or earlier.

Update #2 - As for Tuesday, ESPN2 is out - a college football game starting at 7:30 pm ET.
Maybe ESPN at 7:00 pm ET? right before World Series Of Poker at 9:00 pm ET? No NBCSN as they are scheduled to televise a NHL game between Detroit and Columbus at 7:00 pm ET. However there may be no hockey for a while due to a potential lockout so does NBCSN jump in and show the match? And of course no way NBC shows the match. Since its a Tuesday night and not during the weekend, FoxSoccer may also be in the running to televise it as well.

 

Don't they have European Championships next year?

 

Yes, but they have to play as many poor teams as good teams. Hard to make up ground, I think.
And it is harder to gain points against lower ranked teams. The USA match is their best shot.
Also, tournaments gain more than friendlies, but not as much as WWC or Olympics.

 

Actually the average ranking is probably higher in the Euros than the WWC and for sure than in the Oympics, very few team not in the top 25 in it, but yes a lack a bit on the real top.
But given that Germany will have probably 6 full championship games with top 25 opponets and probably about three of them with top 10 I think that will give them quite a boost (if they do it well) even comapred to a friendly with no1.

 

I think you have to look at ranking points rather than ranking to see we're Germany can make gains. They are almost 60 points behind the USA. A win gives pretty big gains, especially with the top 10 bonus.

Once you get past France and Sweden in Europe, all the teams are 100+ ranking points lower. They are supposed to beat those teams, so the ranking formula just doesn't reward as much.

 

The fact that they haven't set the time yet for these two matches against Germany, tells me that there's still hope they can be televised.

They are set for Oct. 20 and Oct. 23.
But the time for each day says "TBD" (to be determined).
Maybe they're trying to work out a time (afternoon vs. evening, and the exact time of day) with the networks (ESPN-2, Fox Soccer, NBC networks, etc), but the dates are set in stone (just not the time yet).