ChrisMatson

WUSA folds (Women's Pro Soccer )

After three seasons, the league has run out of money and was forced to end operations--just five days before the World Cup. I enjoy soccer, but I never got into the WUSA. I am sad to see it go. I believe that the league had a big influence for many young players around the world.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlin...277350&cc=5901

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Carl Johnson

I'm not much of a soccer fan but in general I keep up with sports. Between listening to ESPNradio almost daily, my subscription to The Sporting News magazine and reading sportingnews.com on a regular basis I hadn't even heard of the WUSA.

Andy_Bu

I am a huge soccer fan and have/had a WUSA franchise in my city but even I never got into it. I watched partial games on TV a couple of times over the past 3 years but I never got hooked.

The discussions of the failure of this league will inevitably be focused around 2 issues, womens team sports don't work in America and soccer does not work in America.

The first holds a small amount of water seeing as how the WNBA is also on life support right now, but the second issue is old and tired and really no longer true.

In the end, the WUSA failed because of good old fashioned horrendous business decisions. In the press conference yesterday, the head guy even admitted to some of the egregious mistakes they made, none of which had to do with being womens sports or being soccer. I won't even go into the decision to spur working with MLS and the way they splintered the small soccer community in the US in their arrogance that they did not need MLS's support.

The timing of the announcement was interesting coming just before the WWC. Since they are "suspending operations" and not officially shutting down till the spring, this may be a cry for help from the sponsorship community that may be paying more attention to the WWC.

This league will fade into memory and in the end 350 people will need to find some work.

Andy

Josh Lowe

WUSA is owned by my company and headquartered in my building. I've met and worked with (in the IT realm) Lynn Morgan, the president/CEO of the league as well as Tony DiCicco, the league commissioner. They're great people. I feel bad for them, they gave it a good try but the fact is soccer is never going to take off as a professional sport in the USA. Every 10 years you hear someone say "in 10 years the USA will be as crazy about soccer as the rest of the world is" and the same thing happens every time: it doesn't come true. Soccer is a very popular sport for kids to play, but it just isn't going to make it as a professional sport for adults to watch/attend like they do NFL/MLB/NHL/NASCAR/etc. That's just how it is in this country.

wally

I agree. I was in London last week and watched several "football" games from a number of leagues. No offence, but I don’t get what all the fuss is. And cricket, well that’s an entirely different story, what the heck is that?

Blu

I believe the WNBA is next to fold as well as the Men's soccer league.

Soccer will never be the sport in the USA it is in the rest of the world. We have too many other ways to entertain ourselves with other professional sports that soccer will never be mainstream.

I believe the WNBA playoffs are going on right now in fact but I hear very very little about them and watch a fair amount of sports! The only reason I might know about the playoffs is that I think I saw a blurb on ESPN about it.

I know I have seen a very small part of a game midseason and there might have been a couple of hundred people watching in the stands.

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ThomasC

Yeesh, Blu, now that you mention it, I just checked ESPN's website, and they say that Game 3 of the WNBA Finals are tonight! The WNBA has really gone down the tubes.

The man I loved - the man who vanished - he never came back at all. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again.

Andy_Bu

You obviously do not follow MLS.

The league averages 15,000 fans a game.

The league is building new stadiums specifically for the sport like the palace in LA that just opened this year.

Sponsorship is at an all time high for the league.

2 more billionairs are in deep discussions with the league to get in on the next set of expansion.

The league has mutliple national TV contracts and has more exposure on the air than it has ever had.

MLS ratings, while small, are holding their own and not dropping like many other leagues.

MLS is now in its 8th year and things have never looked better on the field and off the field. Multiple teams are set to break even or turn a profit this year.

No one in their right mind would ever believe that the owners who are plowing hundreds of millions of dollars into soccer specific stadiums are about to fold the league. It just does not make even the slightest bit of logical sense.

I am not sure where you are getting your information from about MLS that makes you think that it could fold soon, but I am not sure how much more wrong that could be.

On the other hand, I do agree with you about the WNBA. Ratings and paid attendance are at an all time low and strong rumors are circuling that for the second season in a row, multiple teams will either have to move or have to shut down completely.

I think the WNBA is less than 2 years away from the same fate as WUSA.


You need to take the NHL out of this list. NHL average attendance and ratings are BARELY better than MLS's and their league is in MUCH more financial trouble than MLS, which is why many feel the league may have to shut down for a long time during the upcoming strike/lockout so that the finacial side of the sport can be fixed.

In the end MLS will never be as big as the big 3 or NASCAR but that high level is not the be all and end all of "making it". MLS is set finacially for at least the next 5 years which will see it into its 13th year. Not bad for a league or a sport that supposedly can't make it here in the US.

Andy

Blu

I follow sports and watch ESPN quite a bit and haven't seen anything about MLS. How big could it be?

When sports center starts showing MLS highlights I would consider it mainstream, until then it is a minor sport in the USA at best and will never achieve the acceptance that soccer has in other countries.

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Andy_Bu

I apologize. I was unclear. I did not provide the data above to prove MLS was "big". I provided the data to refute your opinion that it would soon fold.