Are you ready for some Women's Futbol?

[poindexter]

Boxx!
Cox!
Marta!

They all may be coming to the Los Angeles Sol of the new Women's Professional Soccer League.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-soccer30-2008oct30,0,7387052.story

The Sol coach says that signing Marta would be as significant as Major League Soccer signing David Beckham.

The team is one of seven WPS franchises along with the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, New York/New Jersey, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., in the new Women's Professional Soccer league, which is supposed to start in April.

Can you feel it?

 

[Grimace]

Women's sports are stupid.
Soccer is stupid.

Ha ha!

Also, what's the deal with airline food?
And who's the marketing genius that came up with that idea?

 

[GB-Hack]

Wasn't the the Miami WNBA team called the Sol before they folded?

Anyway, I'm interested to see how it works. The idea of playing doubleheaders with MLS clubs sounds like a smart one.

 

[imjustagirl]

Wasn't the the Miami WNBA team called the Sol before they folded?

Anyway, I'm interested to see how it works. The idea of playing doubleheaders with MLS clubs sounds like a smart one.

I disagree. Hell, I LIKE soccer and I couldn't sit through two games. Wait, scratch that, I did when I went to the early World Cup games in 2004. But still...most people won't.

 

[GB-Hack]

Wasn't the the Miami WNBA team called the Sol before they folded?

Anyway, I'm interested to see how it works. The idea of playing doubleheaders with MLS clubs sounds like a smart one.

I disagree. Hell, I LIKE soccer and I couldn't sit through two games. Wait, scratch that, I did when I went to the early World Cup games in 2004. But still...most people won't.

Maybe, but I think initially it will help sell the product. Phase it out as your fanbase solidifies.

It'll still take less time than an average college football game.

 

[imjustagirl]

I think the average college football game is 3 hours, I'll give 3 1/2 for argument's sake.

180 minutes of soccer action alone takes up the three hours. Plus warm-up times, halftimes and injury time.

Sorry. No go.


Also, apparently they're only looking at doing a handful of doubleheaders. I don't know how much "phasing out" you could do. Seems like all or nothing if they're only doing 2-3.

 

[poindexter]

What will differentiate this league from the last women's league?

 

[Armchair_QB]

Is the correct answer to the original question "no!" ?

 

[John]

What will differentiate this league from the last women's league?

It will fold even quicker, and I say that as a big soccer fan who drools over the chance to get the Fox Soccer Channel one day.

This one has no chance because there are no household names like Hamm and Chastain to promote and there is no World Cup/Olympics buzz to interest the average sports fan.

 

[buckweaver]

What will differentiate this league from the last women's league?

It will fold even quicker, and I say that as a big soccer fan who drools over the chance to get the Fox Soccer Channel one day.

This one has no chance because there are no household names like Hamm and Chastain to promote and there is no World Cup/Olympics buzz to interest the average sports fan.

MLS doesn't have any World Cup buzz going for it in 2008, either, and it's doing just fine.

I think "buzz" is far less important than "business model." We'll see if this league has a better one than the last one, but I think it will. That will determine the success of this league, not "household names" or "buzz."

 

[GB-Hack]

What will differentiate this league from the last women's league?

I think the fact that they're going to try and follow the MLS model will be a big difference. All the clubs are going to work together, as well, instead of every club being a seperate entity.

They have a TV deal with Fox Soccer, with Fox Sports [Net] becoming a partner for the playoffs. I believe they're also going to try and collaborate with MLS clubs in their respective areas to help build a fan base.

 

[tapintoamerica]

What will differentiate this league from the last women's league?

Well, it sounds like this version isn't as arrogant as the previous one, which rejected affiliation with MLS, charged insane ticket prices and generally suggested it was the moral duty of every American sports fan to attend.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

When the WUSA started, they actually had hopes of getting some crowds similar to what they pulled for the 1999 Women's World Cup. They did not bother to partner with MLS in an NBA/WNBA arrangement, since at that time, MLS was on very shaky ground, with AEG owning more than half the league. It was floundering, and the WUSA honchos thought they could recapture the summer of 1999.

And while a couple of cities enjoyed solid five-figure attendance (including Atlanta) for a year, the WUSA never came close to matching that. Some would say there just isn't enough of an audience for women's sports to sustain a professional women's sports league unless someone like the NBA is willing to hemhorrage money to keep it afloat. The WPS will partner with MLS teams, but I don't think there's enough interest in soccer to sustain what will soon enough be an 18-team men's league, much less a connected women's league. Diluting the MLS talent pool further will only give wannabe Eurosnobs another reason to save their money.

MLS attendance figures:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance?league=usa.1&year=2008&&cc=5901

Inflated by Beckham, exaggerated by the teams. The league is on solid footing, but is not as healthy as these (largely bull****) numbers indicate. For instance, Home Depot Center capacity is 27,000. That's with the berm open and full. And in Beckham Year Two, was that a somewhat regular occurrence? Yet now, this league thinks it will not only ADD four more teams, but also partner with a women's league spearheaded by U.S. players few people have heard of?

Attempting to sustain an entire women's league WITHOUT a large group of household names will be a tough sell. This time, the WPS And make no mistake: the group that just won the gold medal isn't Hamm/Foudy/Chastain, etc. Good players, yes.

But saying signing Marta is like signing Beckham is absolute hyperbole to the nth power.

 

[poindexter]

The answer, to the thread question, at least in Los Angeles, is 'no'.

http://goal.com/en-us/news/1698/womens-soccer/2010/01/28/1766168/womens-pro-soccer-discontinues-los-angeles-sol

LA Sol discontinuing.

 

[froggy]

 

[Karl Hungus]

That first post made me think of this from the Simpsons:



"You'll see all your favorite soccer stars...

Like Adiaga! Adiaga two! Badiaga! Aruglia! And Pizzoza!"

 

[Pastor]

What will differentiate this league from the last women's league?

It will fold even quicker, and I say that as a big soccer fan who drools over the chance to get the Fox Soccer Channel one day.

This one has no chance because there are no household names like Hamm and Chastain to promote and there is no World Cup/Olympics buzz to interest the average sports fan.

You forgot to add one more factor: The league started during a depression.

That isn’t the reason one of the marquee teams are folding, but it is a factor.

The answer, to the thread question, at least in Los Angeles, is 'no'.

http://goal.com/en-us/news/1698/womens-soccer/2010/01/28/1766168/womens-pro-soccer-discontinues-los-angeles-sol

LA Sol discontinuing.

Well, when you are paying a player $500,000...

 

[RickStain]

The league was a women's soccer league. I don't know how many more factors you need to get into than that.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Our local paper covers the local WPS team like a pro beat. Daily coverage in-season, sometimes multiple stories per day, regular off-season coverage. What's funny is the team doesn't actually play within their coverage area, and it draws only a few thousand per game. We can never figure out why they spend so much ink on this team. And the reader comments on the stories online are hilarious, blasting the paper for wasting so much space on something nobody wants to read. Oh well. Not my problem, but still funny/curious.

 

[poindexter]

The Sol coach says that signing Marta would be as significant as Major League Soccer signing David Beckham.

Well, he got that part right.