I have reached the point where if teams don't care enough to seek media coverage, then I don't care if they play. My point is that the Utah Spiders of the WPSL are almost done with their season, have one loss, and don't get any coverage in either major local paper. With the coverage the other men's minor league soccer teams get, and the fact that the teams web site is always down. I can only guess that they have enough fans and that they don't want any more. The team is doing great and Salt Lake, like most cities follows winners, but the Spider people don't even care enough to send the local press their results. So I hope the fans in California and the rest of the country enjoy your repeat WPSL champ because the home fans don't even know they exist.
I know what you mean. Until this morning, the coverage of the SDWFC by the local newspaper has been pitiful - the sports section hasn't even listed the teams games in the "Local Events" section on the day of those games. Since the paper did a pretty good job when the Spirit were active (and has done a good job on the local women's college teams), that has made it all the more disappointing. There is an article in today's paper, but it isn't by the regular soccer reporter...
In my original post I blamed the team for the lack of coverage (I still do). However, I did leave out the media's role in the Spiders lack of coverage. Today the SL Trib. gave a very small mention of their two wins over the weekend. I don't think you can call weekend results on Wednesday news, but better late than never I guess. The main point of my rant is that with the WPSL and W-league, which are the top source of womens soccer aside from the National Team. It is very important that the people involved in the sport at the top level sell the sport to the people. One thing I can't blame the demise of the WUSA on is lack of effort by the people promoting the sport. Since it did fold it is important that the next group try to get back to where they were last year at this time. Which means trying to gain fans which won't happen if people don't know where you ar playing, when you are playing, and how you played.
Seeking Media Coverage In talking to the general manager and the director of operations for the SDWFC several weeks ago, I found out that they have indeed contacted the local newspaper, along with the radio & tv stations in town. Until that article the other day, there had been no results to their requests for coverage. And that was with stories that could be written about like the former WUSA players, the one player going to Russia, the one player on the Costa Rica team attending the CONCACAF U-19 qualification tournament, the one player who is on the Mexican U-17 team, the three players who attend the special Preuss School... So the Spiders and other teams might be trying to get coverage, but end up getting no positive responses.
You are right that the local media looks to cover any sport other than soccer, and they do a good job covering every sport that isn't soccer. However, it is one of those situations that if at first you can't get through you have to try twice as hard the next week.