WUSA should consider Futsal

Yikes. I really wanna bring out the flamethrower, but I won't.

Look. You're 99.9999% wrong here. Trust me.

But more to the point.... This is the WUSA forum. It's where we discuss the dearly departed WUSA and also prospects for a future professional women's outdoor soccer league. Currently the Womens Soccer Initiative, Inc. (WSII) is working on several business plans and is lining up investors (including USL and MLS teams). The current target is to relaunch in 2007. Will it happen? Who knows.

But that's what this forum is for - that's what the regular denizens of this forum are waiting for.

You, however, seem to want indoor soccer. That's great. I have no personal problem with indoor soccer or futsal. If there was a futsal league, I'd be 1) shocked and 2) interested. I have no - as in zero - interest in "Indoor soccer".

As such, there is an Indoor Soccer forum. The absence or presence of an outdoor league doesn't affect an attempt to create an indoor league.

My advice? Go sell your plan in the "Indoor Soccer" forum - or if you don't like that one, there's a Forum Suggestions forum in Customer Service where you can request that they start a Women's Indoor Soccer forum.

Your posts tell me 1) that you have absolutely no clue why the WUSA failed - none. 2) that you are unaware of anything that the WUSA actually did right. 3) that you don't understand the business of sports leagues - revenues/expenses/marketing. 4) that you've decided to solve all the world's problems and that you've come up with the "one true religion" and nothing that any of us type will sway you from the "path to enlightenment'.

Basically, I've been arguing with a religious zealot. That never ends well.

It's obvious that no facts or arguments than any of us put forward will change your thinking. My advice, get the admins to start a Womens Indoor Soccer forum. Best of luck with your ideas.

 

This was a dumb thread to begin with. There will never be a professional futsal league of either gender in the United States. If you got high one day and came up with the idea - "What if ...... what if we made a professional futsal league for women? That would be totally rad!" - then I could understand where you're coming from. Otherwise, I don't even understand what the whole discussion is about. Someone should have just said no.

 

Then they would just acquire a reputation as being arrogant, and other easily bruised posters would take it upon themselves to object to nearly everything that poster posted.

 

True, Andy, but in all fairness, those were HORRENDOUSLY marketed. I mean HORRENDOUSLY. Unless you were a relative of Keith Tozer or an employee of the Wave, you would've never known they were happening.

I'm not saying they were gonna sell out the arena up there...I as born in the monring, but not this morning...but they might have drawn some curiosity seekers had anyone actually known it was happening.

 

I'm in Durham, North Carolina and I knew they were happening.

 

You're a soccer journalist...it's your responsibility to know. There are, what, 3 million people in Milwaukee and the suburbs...how many of THEM do you think knew it was going on?

 

Bah! ... you and your damn facts! What good will that do anyone?

 

Curling is in the Winter Olympics.

 

For the US mainstream media or sports fan, it's pretty damn close. But your logic doesn't work. Just cuz it MAY appear in the Summer Olympics it doesn't necessarily lead to Futsal to get a "boost in visibility and credibility." Thus, ask if curling has had any "boost in visibility and credibility" since 1998? Not like curling? OK....How about Volleyball? Since 1964, it has been a Summer Olympic sport. Aside from the T&A factor of beach volleyball, what successful professional volleyball league exists?

 

Now you're just trolling.

Please take your pet project to the Womens Indoor Soccer boards.

If you want to help come up with a way to make Womens outdoor soccer viable - under FIFA's LOTG - then please join in.

 

Yea, one game.

At that, the MISL changed the announced format (Best of 3) to a two game series. If tied after the second (televised) game, they will play a "golden goal" overtime.

I love indoor soccer and prefer it to outdoor. But everyone here is correct. The MISL or some other indoor soccer league will hang on but futsal will not make it at least until the next generation, if even then. I think there would be a better chance of team handball making it in the US than futsal as a pro league.

 

Or is because American Football is far more established than soccer?! [Agast!]

So. What market study you have that proves your point?

 

Totally agree with you there.

The AFL did not grow until the NFL invested in the league. Another thing that did not hurt is that NBC lost the NFL and wanted to broadcast football. When the XFL, that they started with the WWE, failed the only other option was to go to the AFL.

If you also do not think that men's futsal will not catch on in the US, why would womens? All the reasons you listed are the same for the mens game as the womens, with the mens game being faster paced than the womens.

I love the college overtime and wish the pro game would adopt it. I was also a huge fan of the MLS's old shootout. I would love to see it come back. First play a 15 minute golden goal overtime then if still tied do the shootout.

I think womens outdoor soccer in the US will be a struggle no matter what, heck the mens game is. Just because two womens leagues failed is not a reason to abandon it. I cannot even count the mens pro leagues that failed in the US before the MLS was founded.

 

Maybe ... thing is, I would like to see the rulesmakers of futsal, team handball, and indoor field hockey to make their fields identical in size with identical markings, place different goals along the end lines, and the rails on the sidelines for indoor hockey, and have athletic competitions between two groups of players in which the best all-around team wins at the end of the evening.

Just a thought.

 

Indoor soccer only exists due to the fact that arena owners in the 70's and 80's needed something to fill the 'dark' dates on their arena schedule. MISL jumped on the bandwagon that still existed with NASL at the time and offered a high tempo version of the game.

The problem now is that arena owners now have a much larger varity of sports to choose from to cover those 'dark' dates. Arena football, minor league hockey, junior hockey, and lacrosse give more options than there was when indoor soccer was at it's peak.

Not likely to help women's soccer. A well-administrated outdoor league would do much better.

 

I used to be the president for the futsal association in my state. After ten years of banging my head against the wall, I gave up. It's a great game, don't get me wrong. You want fast? You got it. You want exciting? Ditto. But, futsal (which used to be called minisoccer in the USA) came along about ten years too late (the NASL was conducting indoor tourneys in the early-mid 70's), and was left in the dust in the late 70's by the MISL. I too, think the turf-and-boards variety of indoor, on the pro level, is on life support, but only one who is involved with the amateur game or an arena owner could gauge its vitality on the local level (who knows, it may be thriving).

In my opinion, futsal is handicapped by its federation, which is too small to grow the game, and not powerful enough to be a presence on the international scale (the USMNT for futsal is made up mostly of MISL players). It has pockets of popularity here and there, and I believe, sadly, that is as far as it will go. Who knows, it could be a hit if enough people saw it, but then again, it might not.

Personally, I feel that traditional five a side (like the British play) is more viable than futsal, for several reasons. It can be played both indoors and out, and the rules are the same (boards are optional, but permissable). It takes less specialized equipment (no low-bounce ball or special 2m x 3m goals; you use 6'-61/2' x 12' goals and a regular 4 or 5 ball), and is easier to set up (a semi-circle goal area is a heck of a lot easier to draw than a "D"--believe me, I've done both). And unlike futsal, "official" games can be played on grass, turf, or soil. The Football Association website had an article that stated that more people play five a side now than do 11 a side (although I bet there are a lot of people who play both). We have played both futsal and five a side in our Upward league at church, and I think the latter suits us better (although I still like futsal).

I think, in hindsight, that although futsal is a great game, and though it is popular elsewhere in the world, it will only be a niche sport here, similar to platform tennis and ultimate frisbee. I seriously doubt it will really take off.

Sorry for the long post (which got even longer with my apology ).

 

Well. I am not sure how they word it. But. I wouldn't doubt it if they mean play more in a regular basis. It's easier to get five together several times during the week with five than eleven. Having managed/assisted teams at the grassroots levels, you can always get five people to have open schedules than eleven can. Even more so with women (at least in my region). My wife plays in amateur leagues and consistently the better attended teams are the 5/6 indoor soccer (non-Futsal, btw) sides than eleven.

Federation aside. Why do you think at the grass roots level it has never taken off like indoor or outdoor soccer? At least in Texas, outdoor soccer has boomed. Futsal has continued to be in a vegetative state.