If there's no miracle and the league doesn't resurrect itself, how many of you would support a W League team like The Classics that were here before The Beat? They won't have the money to saturate the market with advertising. Will you make it your business to find out if we have a team and where they play? Who the players are? Will you get off of your duff and go to an old high school stadium to support them? Here's hoping that if it comes to that you all will. As I told my heart broken little girl, this isn't the end of women's soccer in this country it's just another bump in the road. If this happens we’ll all have to organize and support whatever comes along to set the stage for the next “big” league.
I went to as many Clasics games as I did Beat games. But, and it is a big but, (jokes may be inserted here but I am trying to be serious) I live out of town and it was VERY hard to follow them. There was almost no information available and their web presence was less than ideal. I believe they can go a step or two up from the old W-league as it is so easy to have a quality web presence. That is unless they want to throw money at a firm to provide the web services and have less than second rate web pages for a premium price, like most WUSA teams did. They can hire a development group from a local college and have a GREAT web site at a low cost. That gives out of towners a chance to follow the team. Also they can, at nominal expense, make sure coaches and directors of the youth soccer in the region are kept informed of team activities. As much as I would like it they cannot expect much of a media presence unless they can work a deal with a local college to produce the games as a training project for credit and place them on a public TV station delayed. One more thing that would really help is web broadcasts of all games. Even video web broadcasts are possible at little expense. I, for one, would subscribe, at a reasonable price, to a site or service that provides streaming video for W-league games.
As an out-of-state Beat/Freedom fan my answer would be "I'd try but it would be hella hard". Even if the Beat were to re-emerge as some W-League team tied to the Silverbacks....I seriously doubt they would have ANY presence on TV..and I'm talking about channels I can get on DirecTV...not some podunk low powered station beaming out of Dickhater. As some of us know, the only W-League action that has been on TV the past couple of years (Fox Sports World to be exact) has been the W-League Championship (and I missed it this year cuz of TV viewing conflicts). My fandom is high...but when you can't SEE your teams/player...that fandom is kinda beaten down. Oh sure I can try to follow their season on the web and first-person accounts here on BigSoccer...but it ain't the same. There are several W-League teams near me in Seattle and Vancouver as well as a real low level women's team in Portland (I think the Reign are affiliated with the "West Coast League" -- whatever that is). You'd think I'd follow them striclty based on geographic considerations but I don't. I need to see soccer live...either in person or on TV.
But, Fear, would you pay for access to a web site that had live streaming video of games or even audio web casts. A match tracker type option is almost worse than no info at all but web casts can bring a feeling of being there, to some extent. Streaming video can be jumpy and hard to follow but it is WAY better than nothing and it would not take much to have a pay site actually provide a small profit to a team or teams involved.
Living in militia country, the bastard government will not allow us to have DSL...so streaming video is out of the question for me. Audio on the other hand I can live with. But NOTHING beats SEEING games.
I'd support them - heck, I'd run their web site if they wanted. It's not expensive if you don't get professionals to do it for you.
I went toi several Classics games, and would go again. That's where i first saw the Augustyniaks. Rarely drew more than about 2,000. Small stadium. Almost no media coverage.
Team Support in the Future Dread, thank you for volunteering to run a WebSite! Everywhere on the web I have seen this pitiful comment, "Let's keep in touch." But no action followed. I have been thinking of a site for us - as former Beatniks and future team supporters. Here are some things I'd like to see on that site. 1. PLAYER NEWS (Heck, I am still interested in how Dayna Smith's job turned out and where Amy Walsh is playing now.) I want to gather news from each and everyone who has played here and have that news available on the web. Think of it, if we don't do something we will never know who Meribel is beating or if Callie continued to grow as a player. 2. A Contact board so that we could "keep in touch" and possibly plan get to togethers. You know -- a summer tailgate with some of our greatest videos. Being on that list would be strictly voluntary. 3. US or world soccer news and updates. I had to dig like crazy to discover that GALA TV is broadcasting most of the WWC games. It was worth it. I saw Sharolta and Hooper - those great faces. I was even a little glad to see La Blanc and Latham. But the joy of the night was seeing Sawa being her best - and she has that beautiful smile, too. I think I feel like the rest of the real soccer fans -- like I have been cut off at the ankles. I have fought back tears all week long. BUT, we need to do something on our own to keep this going. Dread, I will help any way I can. The problem with that is that I am a little dumb about HTML. Still, I think I could keep up the contacts list or something useful. What do you folks think?
Re: Team Support in the Future Awesome ideas Ms. Hyde! Several of us have kept in touch with some players. I'm sure if we all use our contacts, we could do a player update every once in a while. Perhaps we could all get together in Cary, NC for the college championships. I believe it's the first weekend in December. We could get a group together through the website and plan soccer trips when something is going to be close by. As far as the original question goes... yes, I'd support any type of women's soccer. I live in Western NC...so I try to attend college matches at WCU...which is about 30 miles from me. If no one is willing to manage a Beat fan website, then perhaps we can keep threads going here. The website would probably be a better option since we would have complete control instead of hoping BS allows our forums to continue.
My offer was really in reply to the question: "Would you support an Atlanta W-league team." However, I guess I could use some space on my web site for a "Beat Reunion" section. If it stays as mostly text I could add it. Pictures take up a lot of room. As far as content, if you can type it, I can get on the site. I don't know HTML either, but have a great program that does all of that for me. I won't have time to do anything serious for the next couple of weeks. My team has out of town trips for two weekends in a row. That eats up a lot of my "spare" time. Kim - I'll be coming up for the Women's College Championships. One of my teams is playing in a youth tournament being held in conjunction with that.
Great! I'll be there! I think Susan and Terry are coming up...anyone else interested? Perhaps we could all get together for dinner or lunch one night. Dread...do you know if the tickets are on sell yet?
I really don't know. The tournament entry fee included 18 tickets for the team, so I won't be looking to buy a ticket.
I've been to several W-league games in the DC area and would have gone to more if almost all of them didn't conflict with Freedom matches. If that's the only game in town (and especially if they have some familiar faces), I'll be a regular in 2004.
I still have the old brigade website - as soon as WWC is over I could update the homepage for a Beat reunion page. I don't have the time to do the research, but if others will email me links or info on players I don't mind updating it.