Hope Solo, Wambach, others want a new pro league

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

Rueben Studdard wants another record contract.
So does that guy who won The Voice...

The Olympics are a reality show. There is a big difference between competing against the other karaoke singers and then fighting for radio airplay with Beyonce or Kenny Chesney.

Though I do think the MLS would try and latch on to something, considering most already have their own stadiums and front-office operations.

 

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

I very much doubt MLS teams would want any part of this. It's a money drain for teams and a league that are doing OK right now but can't take on a money drain.

 

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

Get naked again.

 

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

It is very hard to get people to watch women's club soccer on TV. MLS is barely getting ratings, and they are American Idol compared to the women's league.

And they haven't been able to figure out a way to get people to go to games for anything more that $15 a ticket. Not quite sure how they can make a league financially viable with constraints like that.

 

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

If I had to bet, I'd take Minnesota, with U.S. Olympians Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen. They lead the West and are tied with Connecticut for the best record in the league at 15-4. Of course, my sentimental choice is second-place San Antonio (13-5), featuring Becky Hammon.

Schedule starts back up Thursday. Don't miss it!

 

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

FTR, it's Wambach. I should have pointed that out earlier.

 

Re: Hope Solo, Wambaugh, others want a new pro league

The funny thing is, a U.S. women's league could draw most of the best players in the world, while MLS is strictly a minor league (since the ultimate goal of the vast majority of its players is to move up to a higher level of pay and competition).

 

Thank you.

I am a big fan of Joseph Wambaugh, the author of The Choirboys and The Blue Knight.

 

I'm starting to come around on the idea that there could be a little something there. I don't think a whole, full-sized pro league would work. But a very small league or some tours could have some legs.

This generation of women's soccer stars seems to have just a bit more long-term star power than the Chastain/Hamm types. More importantly, the world is set up in a way now that niche interests have a lot more options to generate revenue.

 

WPS operated from 2009-12 with six teams. Is the world so much different now than it was then?

 

The MLS has done an incredible job to be in the position that it's in right now. They have their own stadiums, most of the teams are making money and they've kept the overheard pretty reasonable.

The best thing the women's team could do for now is tour the country and play exhibitions at these stadiums and continue to build the fan base.

The 1996 gold medal team and the World Cup winning team had more recognizable names and that league failed pretty quickly. I don't see any reason to think it would be any different now.

 

WPS was a shit-storm of awful ownership and players with too high expectations. The idea may be doomed, but I'm not going to write it off just because of it.