The article BY Scott French in Soccer America was as ugly American as they get. [Everybody except those whose opinions truly matter has decided the fourth Women's World Cup will be played in the United States. ] Who is everybody Scott? Everyone in Australia, Canada, Sweden… Did you forget the rest of the world?? [There appears to be five candidates, but the only one that makes any sense is the United States. None of the other proposed hosts can offer the sort of media coverage, fan excitement, big crowds and international buzz that a tournament here can provide.] The USA has the market cornered on international buzz and fan excitement?? If no other country has the media coverage and crowd sizes, should the USA host all the World Cups or is 2003 a special case?? [The Canadian Soccer Association has bid for matches to be played at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, which hosted huge crowds for last summer's FIFA U-19 World Championship, should the tournament be awarded to the United States. No matter: U.S. officials aren't about to consider the proposal. ] Why not consider the Canadian proposal Scott?? Wasn’t Canada a major contender for the 2007 Cup based on the huge U19 WWC support? Since 2007 is now going to be held in China wouldn’t that be a sportsman-like gesture on the USA’s part?? Surely crowds of 45,000 to 60,000 couldn’t be a problem. What is the reason for the summary dismissal Scott?? [The Americans reportedly are ready to spend $15 to $20 million on organizing the event and are prepared to take a $10 million loss, which they're asking FIFA to help shoulder. There are plenty of small obstacles that must be moved aside before U.S. Soccer will agree to take on the task. Among them is a FIFA mandate that venues carry the names of no company other than FIFA and World Cup sponsors.] Got FIFA over a barrel on this one? FIFA will be expected to provide funding and bend the rules? Or what Scott?? [Sweden, the 1995 host, also has bid for the tournament, but subpar attendance in '95 (average was 4,316) and a request for ''guarantees so that we don't risk an economic loss by taking over a championship on such short notice'' won't endear FIFA to its proposal.] It’s ok for the USA to ask for financial assistance, but not Sweden?? Italy seems a most unlikely choice, and does anybody believe Brazil could organize such an event in four months?] Why not finish off by insulting a few more countries?? WHAT A LOAD OF POMPOUS CRAP.
Here's what I think, take it or leave it or call me a pompous a-hole if you want. There will never be another FIFA-organized event in two countries simultaneously. Ever. Again. If Canada really wanted to it would have already secured the 2007 World Cup. There are NO venues other than Edmonton anywhere in the country suitable for an event of this size. If Sweden really wants it they may well get it. They might not make a profit and no one in this country will care, but they may well get it. There is only one country on the entire face of the earth with a professional women's league and a solid base of fans that care about it and the sport. And it just so happens that FIFA has a particularly keen interest in making sure that said league succeeds. If the Women's World Cup goes anywhere other than that country that league will fold at the end of this season and there may never be professional women's soccer on this earth again. That country is not Italy, Brazil, Sweden, China, England, France, or Canada.
First off, I agree wholeheartedly about your point on saving WUSA. I’d love to see the league grow larger… and remove foreign quotas. Become the NHL of women’s soccer. CONCACAF fully supports Canada’s bid to host one 2003 group (preliminary rounds) in Edmonton… FIFA president, Sepp Blatter loves Edmonton. What is the real issue? Canada was serious about the 2007 WWC. Canada was a very real contender and highly supported by the FIFA President but Canada’s bid for 2007 had to meet the FIFA criteria, just like everyone else. At least one new stadium was already planned for the Toronto area. The deadline for bid submissions was to be the end of May 2003…. followed by due process. Canada could not have already secured the 2007 World Cup. Sepp Blatter – FIFA President "What they've realized here is extraordinary in the 27 years I've witnessed FIFA events," he said of the U-19 Women's World Championship being conducted in Edmonton. "It goes under the skin. It gives goose pimples. “ Note - Edmonton hosted a group which included Canada during the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship and the tournament was a huge success with more than 180,000 attending the three round robin doubleheaders, quarter-final, semi and final. The Final between Canada and the United States attracted 49,000 fans to Commonwealth Stadium and the team captured the hearts of the city during an amazing three weeks in August, 2002. "The guarantee of enthusiasm of the public is there. Obviously, with what has happened here, Canada has convinced me this country will be a good venue for women's football.'' Blatter wanted a World Cup in Asia and got one. He wants a World Cup in Africa and it looks like he's going to get one in 2010. And after experiencing this blessed event, the birth of FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship play, he blessed the Canada 2007 bid (initial bid) two hours before they put it in his hands. Jack Warner - CONCACAF President (regarding the 2003 co-hosting bid) “Please be advised that the Canadian Soccer Association has the full support of CONCACAF in their bid to host one of the groups including Canada at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton,” said Warner in a letter sent to President Blatter on May 7. “The CSA has informed FIFA of our desire to host one of the groups in Edmonton and we are hopeful that the fantastic success we experienced in Edmonton during the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship will be a big advantage to our bid,” said CSA President Andy Sharpe, who noted more than 34,000 tickets have already been sold for Canada’s women’s international friendly against Mexico on August 31, 2003 at Commonwealth Stadium.
All your points are valid. But Blazer and Warner should be committed to insane asylums, and preferably not the same one so that they can stop being collusive idiots. CONCACAF may see things a certain way but that doesn't mean FIFA agrees, and I still doubt that Blatter will like anything to do with co-hosting especially with all the travel that would be involved. Not to mention the visa issues on top of whatever visa issues the US State Department might raise if any country even remotely considered to have ever been home to anyone who has said anything mean to America qualifies for the WWC. And another things I just realized: if the weather's going to be nasty in the Northeast Corridor in September and October, how come people aren't afraid of the weather in Edmonton? I do agree that in and of itself Edmonton is a fantastic stadium for soccer. But I just can't see it hosting venues in this tournament considering the haste with which it needs to be set up and the fact that US Soccer and MLS are running it. If the CSA has the money to take the financial losses which will result from this-- and by all accounts I don't think they do-- then maybe we'll see. But it just seems unrealistic right now, which is nothing new from the CONCACAF administration.
WUSA will be thrown a bone or two, only because FIFA stepped in and ordered US Soccer to take charge of WWC 2003 and ordered US Soccer to throw a bone to WUSA. WWC 2003 is all about MLS/AEG/SUM getting brownie points from FIFA so that MLS/AEG/SUM can position itself to make the big money with WC 2010, 2014, or 2018. WWC 2003 is AEG's show from start to finish. Period. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Bottom line: AEG now controls the men's pro soccer league in the US (60% ownership of MLS), and it will soon control women's pro soccer in the US, whether Foudy and the two Donnas at the Women's Sports Foundation like it or not. Foudy and Co. really has no choice. Two WUSA investors, Comcast and Time Warner, have departed WUSA LLC, as most observers with any knowledge of the entertainment industry could have predicted long ago. You don't promise your investors and your sponsors NBA-like TV ratings (1.0 regular season, 2.0 to 2.5 for the final) and deliver only 1/10 of what you promised and get away with it. (Interesting to see the Women's Sports Foundation, i.e. Donna Lopiano, Donna DeVarona, and Foudy, blaming the major US TV networks for WUSA's problems. On the interview show "Angles" on MSG Network, DeVarona openly criticized the major TV broadcast TV networks for not "embracing" WUSA, forcing WUSA to go to PAX, which DeVarona and WUSA officials claim that "no one" can find. Perhaps WUSA officials should have thought of that when they turned down free TV time from Oxygen network, which wanted WUSA and went out of its way to try to land the WUSA TV product, but was doublecrossed by WUSA officials when WUSA chose to go to PAX.) WUSA has serious issues, like figuring out how to pay the bills now that 2 investors have bailed (after WUSA has racked up over $80 million in operating losses in two seasons), and a 3rd, Amos Hostetter, is keeping his wallet shut despite having over $1 billion in cash in his bank account. Look for AEG to buy the assets of WUSA in backruptcy court dirt cheap and start WMLS as early as 2004.
[Dead horse beating] If the Charge lead the league or come close to it in attendance this year and make some attempt to prove that they are in a viable market for soccer, what is the chance that AEG will decide to keep them there and have them be jointly run with a Philadelphia MLS team, and just put an expansion team in Carson? [/Dead horse beating]
WMLS in 2004 under control of AEG is a bad thing if your name is Julie Foudy. Why? Because that would mean Foudy's attempt to run the women's pro soccer industry in the US has failed.
ultimately, having a future is the key... and ensuring a future is in place is the key... so what's the news on what AEG would do with the 3 orphaned franchises?
I continue to be amazed at how much negativity Foudy generates. Keep things in perspective. Foudy has sacrificed enormously to help build women's soccer in this country. First, she's played for over 15 years on the USWNT. Second, by playing so long, she may well have delayed a medical career for over ten years (sacrificing probably over a million dollars in income, considering the difference between what a doctor makes and what a women's soccer player other than Mia Hamm makes). Third, she worked hard to help found the WUSA and run it in a way where she and fellow founders could invest in a substantial project (without ever having the illusion that the founders were running women's soccer in America; Foudy would have been the first to tell you that). I'm sure she'd have preferred for the original WUSA business model to succeed, but I'm also sure she prefers continued WUSA existence under someone else's ownership while women draw salaries playing professional soccer to the death of the first women's professional soccer league in America. People love to have a villain, but I see no basis to make Foudy into one. She's a women's soccer hero, in fact.
I have a deep respect for what Foudy has done. But the WUSA has alienated so many people in the American soccer community who want to embrace the league but are turned off by a feeling that they aren't 'wanted.' Example: at the Freedom-United doubleheader on May 17, the Crusaders were standing in La Norte (section 120) and Sachin wanted to hang his banners over a part of the WUSA signage on the railing with no pictures or text on it whatsoevr. We were told by security, a Freedom official, and eventually Katy Button that we could not do it. I feel like the league is almost actively against supporters' clubs and only wants 12-to-18 year old girls and their families. If that's Lynn Morgans' fault and not Julie Foudy's, then my angst is misplaced. I also don't like the way Foudy has treated some of the potential investors especially Anschutz and the Chinese guy.
From what I have been able to gather from the past several seasons is that the interest in SC's is simply not there in this league amongst the fans. I don't think that is the league's fault nor is it the fault of any of the players out there. Are you talking about Xu Ming? What did Foudy do to him? The only news I've seen about Xu Ming was what was first reported in a Soccer America newsletter before the season started and blurbs here and there. But I have seen NOTHING about Xu Ming since then and have heard from several folks that he decided against investing in the league. What those reasons are none of us know.
This misplaced marketing focus has been my biggest gripe against the WUSA as well. For the first time in history, a women's sports team shows an ability to draw general male sports fans en masse, and the marketers of the WUSA warp their fan base focus. If you focus on 12-18 year old girls, those are the only fans you'll have. If you focus on guys the same age as the women playing the game, the 12--18 year-old girls will come along too. Any more and I'll start sputtering into the screen.
How has she treated them---and how do you know how she's treated them? Inside information? What's your source? I haven't read anything about their interaction with Foudy.
The Philly Charge is 1-5. It'll need lots of luck in drawing paying customers the rest of the way. MLS/AEG can talk about expansion all it wants. I will believe it when I see it. Note that AEG can't run 6 MLS franchises forever. === It'll be interesting to see what emerges out of the remains of WUSA in 2004: WMLS run by AEG/SUM/MLS, or nothing at all. One thing is almost certain: WUSA 2004, in whatever name, shape, or form, will NOT look like WUSA 2003. Why not? We already know for certain who will NOT be around to pay the bills: Comcast and Time Warner. Amos Hostetter doesn't look like he will be footing much of the bills either.
no, it had something to do with salaries and who got what cut of the money the investors put in and who had the most 'control' over the league which as far as i could tell would not have been julie foudy had anschutz and the chinese guy come in. i have a feeling that someone will fill in the blanks shortly.
That issue is completely moot at this point. Xu Ming has passed on investing in WUSA. There is no reason for AEG to buy into WUSA now. AEG would be able to get a MUCH BETTER PRICE for the assets of WUSA once WUSA enters bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Anschutz is not known for buying high. He is known for buying distressed assets low and fixing them up. == I have a feeling that Foudy may be right after all when she said to ESPN SportsTicker's Jamie Trecker "I will not play in WMLS" 3 years ago. If or when WMLS starts play (in 2004?), I don't think Foudy will be playing, either because she won't be offered a contract by WMLS/AEG/SUM (by order of her arch enemy with initials A.I.R), or because she chooses not to accept the contract presented to her by WMLS/AEG/SUM.
alan rothenburg???? the graceful way out is to win the wwc 2003 and retire... the over 30 group just might say it's time to get on with their lives... foudy chastain hamm move on... milbrett generation stays and continues to play... the only important question is: will there be professional female soccer into the future?? it's a binary response... 99% don't care about the internal politics at all... if you want to put yourself on the record about womens soccer continuing, in one fashon or another, please do so... put me in the YES column
that would be your first mistake...nothing changes: "I take all of you back to the days where the infamous OllieSay (aka: Oliver Tse), owner of the website soccertv.com would grace this list with stories of soccergloom and soccerdoom, how much soccersucks in the US, how close MLS was to folding, used a bizarre collection of nicknames when referring to others and for the most part just annoying the rest of us... Remember the good ol' days when OllieSay used to come on this list and talk about what a miserable situation Fox Sports World was in...Over time he had predicted its downfall and that it would become a NASCAR channel, that they had fired most of the staff and that the end was near... In fact he predicted that the channel would "never" appear on Direct TV or many of the cable channels across the country... Well we all now know a much different story unfolded..." http://nas.americakicks.com/archive/msg07538.html