WPS owners decide to cancel 2012 season

After a great win for the U.S. women's national team last night, sad to see that the WPS owners voted today to cancel the 2012 season.

http://www.womensprosoccer.com/news/press_releases/120130-wps-suspends-2012season

Disappointing considering the popularity following their World Cup performance. It'll be interesting to see how this impacts the national team long term and what the players decide to do. I realize there are people who think this league is a joke but it certainly helped a lot of the players and grow a fan base among younger girls.

Here's another story on it: http://www.nationalsoccerwire.com/news/460/15684

 

Oh man, I thought for *sure* this time it was gonna stick.

 

grow a fan base among younger girls.


A lot of young girls play soccer in this country, and I really don't think many make a decision on playing based on these pro leagues.

 

Not to be a dick about it, but for the vast majority of Americans, women's professional sports has little appeal — tennis and beach volleyball excepted. Look into the stands at the men's big four, and you'll see many, many women, maybe even a 60-40 ratio of men to women.

If women don't care enough to support women's sports by showing up, especially the WNBA and WPS, men sure as hell aren't going to.

Will I be at every one of my 3-year-old daughter's games or piano recitals some day? Absolutely. Do I support her having every opportunity to pursue her interests? Absolutely. Would I love for her to be able to follow her athletic or musical dreams, to be self-actualized by them? Absolutely. Would I go to a women's game that my daughter wasn't involved in? Not a chance.

Joe

 

Maybe it depends on the area. Here in the Midwest, there's huge competition among volleyball, basketball and soccer for young girls' participation especially as they get older when the sports seasons overlap (like soccer and volleyball in the fall) and there are fewer multi-sport athletes.

Also while a pro league might not necessarily influence a girl to choose that sport, I think watching your idols play does have a long-term impact and can inspire youngsters to try and follow in their footsteps.

 

If you believe the press release: The fact that a single lawsuit can cause the league to suspend the season demonstrates that the league has serious cash flow problems, minimal liquidity, an inability to raise capital, and structural problems that run deeper than can be fixed by the settlement of a lawsuit. Namely, not enough people care about this product to merit a league.

If you don't believe the press release: The league is passing off blame for its failure to make money on a single lawsuit, which is laughable, and is promoting a product that very few people care about. There's no market for this unless someone is willing to spend money to have the satisfaction of running a women's soccer league.

 

I took my family to see the Sky Blue play a couple of times. It was certainly family friendly and cheap. Can't see how they made any money.

 

And yet the Lingerie Football League goes on and on.

 

This was not a professional soccer league. It was the highest level of girls' club soccer in the United States, with the "owners" being parents of one of the rich girls or someone else with a similar affiliation. The setup is like a bunch of overgrown 14-year-olds, with the paychecks to match and Mom and Dad footing the bill for the rest of the lifestyle.

 

It absolutely does. Which is why it's awesome for them to be able to watch the US Women's National Team compete on TV somewhat regularly.

 

Next up: WNBA. 50-50 or better odds this season will be the finale. In fact I wouldn't be shocked if they fold the tents before THIS season.

Depends how much of a revenue hit the NBA has taken due to the lockout.

 

I think if the WNBA was going to go, they would have axed it during the lockout. The fact that they didn't always made me skeptical of the owner's claims of losing a ton of revenue each year, while that albatross was seemingly never really on the table for elimination.