WPS - Save It, Or Start Over

But with the current talent on the women’s side, that might still be a few years away. Also, the rest of the world would regard us as insane.

Lets get this out of the way first before i comment. New to this site but have fallen in love with the Sounders since the first game I saw them play. Sadly I am stuck in Nashville and baring some miracle of us getting a team or me visiting Seattle I have to find other ways to keep up with my favorite team.

The women’s sports on the whole, including the college sports and the WNBA, have always played second fiddle to their men’s counterpart which somewhat baffles me. While I understand that men’s sports are generally faster and seem to be more physical I don’t understand why it is that most people shun a women’s league in any sport. Personally I don’t care if it is a men’s or women’s game because the skill level and dedication they have are equal. But somehow the comment comes up when you mention any women’s pro league and its something to the affect of “Your watching a women’s game? Why would you do that? etc.” Not to try and make this about gender but most guys that call themselves “sports fans” would not be caught dead watching a women’s game of anything. Why would you NOT want to watch women play a sport you love? Isn’t that a “sports fans” dream, to find a girl who loves his sport as much as he does? Not to mention the women that do play usually are extremely attractive too.

With the success that the USWNT has had recently (The number for viewers from the last world cup escapes but it was very well received) I am not sure that a redo of the league would not be the best decision. The biggest problem I see in getting people to go to the games and pay for it I think is that it is such a regional thing right now. Be it soccer on the whole in the country or just the popularity of women’s soccer in general. Along with national coverage on a major station (i.e. ESPN, FOX, NBC Sports) I just don’t see it taking off and having large crowds out to the games right now.

As someone had suggested before if they could tie in with the MLS and teams could have both a Men’s side and a women’s side then I could see it really getting big. Another problem facing them, and its something that still plagues the MLS as far as national viewership goes, is that in the US we have every sport you can think of on TV and we dont have just one major national sport like most the rest of the world does. Soccer is growing in this country and will continue to do so as more and more people get pulled into the beautiful game. But I feel that, short of the US winning a World Cup, it will always be viewed as a niche sport by the masses and that with all the other sports to watch and attend in any city that you will need a die hard fan base like the ECS to really come out and support it to help keep the viability of a women’s full pro league afloat.

It would be an interesting idea to see if the MLS would consider adopting a women’s league attached to each MLS side that would want one. Places like Seattle and Portland and Vancouver we all know would support it as they are crazy for soccer but what about the rest? New York, don’t know maybe they have the population but they also have the toughest sports market in the world to break into. LA again unsure but might have a good shot of getting a decent crowd out for a game on a regular basis. Florida, not so sure even though they do have the weather for it. Boston, is another viable spot as they already have both and seem to do well with the women’s draw. But after that where else would support it? Given time soccer will be mainstream but will the public finally accept women’s sports leagues and take them serious?

… or “professional”; either way, the effect is the same. Either operating costs (three biggies are salary, stadium, and travel) have to be lower than revenues, or owners willing to lose money for an extended period of time (like MLS) have to be found.

Since there is no evidence that the value of a female sports team will increase significantly over the long run (as MLS has- look at the runup of franchise fees in just the past few years) it’s really hard to find owners willing to lose money.

Thus, for it to work, we’re back to the revenues/operating costs question. Stadiums are more or less a cost that is reasonably scaled- you can find places to play that fit the crowds and don’t cost much.

Travel costs can’t really be cut unless you go to a regional league and use buses/trains.

So we’re left with player salaries. Which, given how low they already are, means you’re essentially quibbling over whether they are called “professionals” or “semi-pro”.

Heck, I’d argue that just 3 or 4 years ago, MLS was a partially semi-pro league. Looking at http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/9_7_08_salary_info_club.pdf you can see teams had nearly a third of their rosters filled by guys making $20K or less in 2008.

The only real question is whether there is enough possible revenue out there to match operating costs.

If it were me, I’d do it as a semi-pro setup and regionally, with 8-team pods in the most densely populated areas of the nation- probably just the Eastern seaboard for now, maybe a California pod in the future, maybe extending to Cascadia.

I can’t see MLS getting involved, and that’s too bad- but it strays from their core mission too much. MLS has more ground to gain in the “cheap game” market with its own Reserve league, development leagues, and academy teams.

Those things all can help build interest in MLS’s core business, but don’t represent additional costs; it’s all money MLS is spending already. Might as well try and get something (revenues, or even just use for marketing and building brand loyalty) from those avenues if possible.