WPS owners decide to cancel 2012 season

The soccer establishment in the US has now crashed and burned twice in trying to establish a professional club approach for women's soccer that follows the traditional club model for men's soccer. I think it's pretty clear at this point that fans will get behind the national team but not support their local side. So why fight it? I'd like to see an approach to professional women's soccer that embraces national teams and essentially turns them into professional teams in a worldwide "league".

Each country would have its own national team competing in a regional professional soccer league. In terms of making travel not completely insane, you'd have to have four main regions/conferences (the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa) with sub-regions/divisions within that (CONCACAF & CONMEBOL would be the two "divisions" within the Americas conference, for example). Schedules are weighted toward games within their division, with a smaller percentage between divisions in the conference and a few outside the conference. Each conference has their own tournament at the end of the season (winners and second place), with the winner of that advancing to the overall World League Final Four.

It allows women's professional soccer to exist worldwide while keeping the focus on national teams - which is what almost all fans prefer. Teams can play "home games" in different cities each game. Instead of having to sell tickets for 20 games a year in each city, for example, the U.S. side might have a game in Portland one week and Philadelphia the next week. It makes each game seem more like a "big deal" to local fans and gives a better chance for strong crowds and not burning out your fan base.

Obviously, it's not a perfect system - I understand the problems with trying to organize national-based teams (especially in regions where the interest in women's soccer is marginal and the local governing bodies are particularly corrupt). But it seems like a better model than trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole.

 

Nike shouldn't do anything unless it thinks the product will turn a profit in the future. If it's running a loss, all Nike is doing is redistributing money from the consumers (think about Nike's consumer demographic) to the women's soccer players (think about that demographic).

Similarly, as has been said in the past, Title IX redistributes scholarships from poor black men to wealthy white women.

 

I'm surprised Christine Brennan hasn't weighed in with a "The WPS died because men won't come to the games!" column.

 

You are painting with a huge, wide brush, but I don't think Title IX is in general redistributing scholarships from poor black men.

What sports have been hurt the most by Title IX? Wrestling, baseball, swimming, water polo (among others). Did these have large numbers of black men?

 

You should read the statistical analysis of Daniel Golden in "Title IX and the Rise of the Upper-Class Athlete," a chapter in <i>The Price of Admission</i>. He's got some holes in his analysis, but stats lead to the inference he makes.

 

Haven't football and basketball scholarship limits been reduced in the last couple decades? I think there are 15-20 fewer per team in football.

Haven't read the analysis, but it seems to make sense. A women's volleyball program -- which is 100 percent made up of upper middle class and above -- offers as many scholarships as men's basketball.

 

Yup ... it stinks, but it seems that this country, as a whole, won't support a league, even a small one operating under a modest budget.

A shame, too. Went to one Carolina Courage match when the WUSA had a presence in my corner of the world (didn't hurt that a relative was officiating the match, either). Not a bad match, a decent atmosphere and playing in Chapel Hill on the coattails in the midst of Anson Dorrance's run of national titles with the university proved a decent idea.

If the World Cups in 1999 and 2011 are any indication, enough of us will care about what happens with the women's national team once every 2-4 years (don't forget the Summer Olympics). And that's about it. Sadly.

 

Women's college soccer is doing fine. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_soccer_RB/2011/attend.pdf

Portland, unsurprisingly because of demographics and competition, blows everyone else out of the water.

 

Those sports are hurt because schools are paying millions to football coaches these days. And they're building huge weight rooms and football operations centers and indoor practice facilities.

You drop $250,000 on a weight room, and then - and only then - suddenly that damned Title IX just hurt the budget so much that you've got to drop the $250,000 you spend on water polo.

 

Came across a posting from Ella Masar who played for the MagicJack (with Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Christie Rampone, etc.) and now plays soccer professionally in France. In it, she talks about her experience with MagicJack owner Dan Borislow who the WPS is/was fighting with.

http://blog.ellamasar.com/2012/02/no-more-silence/

It does not make Borislow (or some of her unnamed teammates) look good.

Basically she ended up being the only one to stand up and say she didn't want to stand by Borislow after a grievance was filed against him. Five to 10 minutes later she received a text saying Masar could either go home and get her broken nose fixed (injured during a game) or be traded (which he ended up blocking).

I highly recommend reading the post ... it's certainly an interesting perspective. Of course, it's always hard to say how much is 100 percent true.