It's nice to hear positive rumors, but these are all just rumors still.... I wish we had something a bit more concrete.
This is beginning to get my cynical antenna up. Anybody actually know the league's DEBT?? As this is starting to look a bit like a play to avoid the debt by restarting/reorganizing/renaming without it hanging over their heads!! I'm wondering if the people they approached as new sponsers were interested, but didn't want to spend all their $$ paying off old mistakes....
Never ceases to amaze me how people who never seemed to post messages about the various teams and their players and comments about particular games, always seem ready to talk about the woes of the WUSA.
Well,if that was directed at me, I'm pretty far from the nearest team and the TV coverage sucked.I certainly went to see every game near me(which was one, in Lauderdale). I'm more likely to post in the USWNT area but,while I've always supported the women's game(I've coached girls' High School for 20+ years), I don't find the women's BOARDS here that interesting, sorry. But the folding/revival of a soccer league is worth comment,IMO.
I don't think you've been following this story very well. The problem is that they've burned through all of the investors' money. Remember, they're paying severance to some of their employees. Employees back wages are toward the end of the line in a bankruptcy situation, so if they're paying severance, I doubt they own anything. Has anyone heard anything different?
I think she brings big-time street cred and the attitude to "street fight" in board rooms if necessary. She also may help bring more adults who attended WNBA games to go to WUSA2 games. She also brings the Women's Sports Foundation's network of people, know-how, and star power (i.e., PowerBar, Geena Davis, and a host of Olympic athletes and legends). She may also say things people don't want to hear (a la Foudy), but Billie Jean King will get heard.
Not necessarily,for example, how long are the stadium leases, and can they be accellerated? Plus,if you ARE planning for a revival without debt,you might try to keep employees happy,so you can rehire them and avoid training expense.
That's fantastic. I'm very excited now. I mean, doing this right before the Women's World Cup. That would make the players be focused on where they're going to play afterwards. They need to all be focused on competing to the best of their abilities and worrying about how they are going to make money now is not the way to go about that.
But will the business plan change and will the league actually market to adults??? Also, I hope there is different (better) management in place at the top to avoid continued stupidity. It would suck even worse if there was WUSA2 but with the same glaringly obvious mistakes (market to adults and don't get sucked in to terrible tv time/network) and it folded in another two years. Oh yeah, is it true that the league turned down $$ from Bud Light at the very beginning because the league didn't think that would be good for family oriented entertainment? If true, stupid, stupid. Would Bud Light do a deal now and could it lead to at least one beer commercial. The UWNT commercials are good (for beer commercials) and visibility.
Not just you. Did you see the people on the Doom and Gloom thread? There are a lot of people who do this. You are sincere but there others who do nothing but bad mouth the WUSA and women's soccer.
Interesting article from a guy who does not usually cover soccer (he's a baseball writer, normally): http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-mikeb22sep22,0,1824598.column?coll=sfla-sports-front Largely sympathetic, but one great biting line: "If the league does come back, however, new leadership is essential. How do you lose $100 million in three years without Mike Tyson as league secretary?" Can't say many would disagree!
Some of the younger fans have been writing prospective sponsors. This WUSA boards thread has a telling response from one of them. Here's an excerpt: (That's from Bruce Dayton of Diadora America.)
From TIME mag: Soccer's Women Pro League is Still Kicking Investors rush to save the WUSA days after it announced its own demise By SEAN GREGORY/NEW YORK
That is an excellent article. What it says about the NFL is right on. The article seems to be saying that the NFL started in 1922, but I thought it was 1924 when Red Grange got pro football going in this country. I can remember very well that it was not until the mid- 1950s or early 1960s that professional football really started to catch on in this country. The college game was the most important and most highly watched of American football at that time. I am afraid that we think that soccer should take the moon in just a few years.
Spot on That article is on the money as one would expect from the Wall Street Journal. It is so easy for the pundits to say that there is no market for women's sports in America. There is a market. 7,000 people per event constitutes a market. The idea is to have a business plan that makes sense for that market and that gives the market a chance to grow. The WUSA failed for the same reason the XFL and countless other entities failed. The expectation of instant national sponsors and TV ratings and revenue. No sport in this country has succeeded that way. It took the NFL, NBA, MLB and NASCAR decades to get there. The NHL still isn't there and MLS survives only because Phil and Lamar say so. The WUSA should look more closely at Arena Football which has survived for over 20 years. They have chosen the right markets (dropped those that didn't work), selected venues with the right revnue streams and developed strong local fan bases which lead to regional radio and TV deals. After 20 years, they are finally on network TV. Only in the past few seasons have their salary levels grown to a point where most players don't have to hold down another full time job. That is how you grow a league. You do it over time.
From tonight's USA Today: WUSA has plan for rebirth By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY PLEASE STAY IN SAN JOSE!!!! It's the closet damn venue to me!
I'm a little confused. If they plan on keeping all eight teams in their original cities, how can they play at only four venues? Does that mean that some of the teams will still represent that city but possibly not play there? Forgive me if I've missed the boat here...I'm working a 3rd shift right now and boy would I like some sleep!!!!!!!! Good news, however, that efforts are being made to keep the WUSA alive. It's meant so much to so many people...youth and adults alike. The Beat were starting to sell themselves to adults and the game atmosphere had moved away from the glees of little girls... to men and women cheering for the team and ranting at refs. I was really impressed at the direction the Atlanta fans were heading. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to continue the trend. A big thanks to Billie Jean King!!!!!!!!!
Column in Fort Worth Star Telegram Here is a very thoughtful take on the WUSA that appeared today in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, written by Linda Campbell. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/6857146.htm.
Re: Column in Fort Worth Star Telegram Try this one instead: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/linda_campbell/6857146.htm