Hope Solo, Wambach, others want a new pro league

If you told the women they could have a pro league, but they'd only be paid 20K per year, would they do it? No.
But that's what the salaries would have to be to make it close to profitable.

 

The WNBA has been carried for more than 15 seasons and the league will end only when David Stern decides he's done with charity. That day could come tomorrow or that day could never come... I don't see it ending on Stern's watch. The amount that it costs the NBA to run the WNBA is such a pittance to the NBA that there really is no reason the league won't bankroll it indefinitely.

MLS is not the NBA. Nobody thought the MLS would last 17 seasons and it's pretty amazing that it did, but at least it did it on it's own, granted with the help of several very patient billionaires.

 

The sellout at Wembley was no surprise, but I was surprised at the paltry crowds for the early-round games, particularly when sports with much lower profiles than women's soccer were selling out. I'd submit that those early games are much truer gauge of interest than the final.

 

Hey girls, England already has a league. Join it. Oh wait...doesn't England have a strong preference to men's soccer than women's?

Tell you what. If you can make every women's game a gold medal game, get back to me.

 

The Olympics is one of those cases where it really is more about the front of the uniform than the back of the uniform.

Hell - if Phelps were Russian, we'd be accusing him of doping.

 

Yeah, if it's the World Cup or the Olympics, they can draw... Unfortunately for them, if it's a situation where they can get paid directly for it, they'd be lucky to draw 20,000.

The best thing they can do is tour the country as a team and play exhibitions against whoever they can get. I could see people going out to see them in that capacity and I could see sponsors getting behind them.

A league though? No way...

 

If Phelps was Russian we'd have a reason to.

 

Part of that had to do with how isolated the soccer venues were from the main Olympic area, right?

 

Glasgow, Manchester and Cardiff aren't exactly Mayberry.

 

I meant isolated in terms of being a drive away rather than a walk.

 

Part of the problem is they play in the EPL stadiums of their parent club. Tough to fill Anfield for women's league match.

I feel bad for Solo and the rest, but that's just the way the world works.

 

No more than we have now. Really? Is there no reason to suspect Americans are doping?

I don't think the Soviet state-run doping propgram is still in business. These days the Russian athletes are doing it the same way the Americans are doing it -- on their own.

Frankly, I'd be more surprised if I found out with absolute certainty Phelps wasn't doping (yes, I understand that is impossible to know) than if I found out he was. Same for Bolt.