The whole business enterprise of women’s professional soccer is an enigma. It is hard to figure out why the soccer braintrust with MLS has not already put a women’s league together. It would seem that a women’s league would be the perfect compliment to MLS. Women’s soccer is exciting, competitive, and fun to watch.
Women’s professional soccer showed that it has a base of fans to draw from during its last try with the WUSA. Women’s soccer was able to make itself viable as a professional commodity because of what happened with the U.S. women’s World Cup performance in 1999.
With all the momentum that women’s soccer has accomplished since the ‘99 World Cup, and weighing where MLS is with their progress, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they can compliment each other. If cultivated properly, women’s and men’s pro soccer in the U.S. can take each other further along in the sports spectator spectrum.
While it was not legions of fans that supported the sport, WUSA proved that it has the platform to stand up as a profitable spectator sport in the U.S. MLS has proven that it too can be supported and profitable. Professional soccer should consider profitability vs. mainstream spectator sports, but this is another discussion entirely. The bottom line is that both can feed off each other and grow together.
Both MLS and Women’s professional soccer need each other. MLS is struggling and this is well documented. Attaching women’s pro soccer to MLS would be a catalyst to propel the game more with American sports fans. It is a package that brings soccer fans more with less effort.
The leagues, MLS and WMLS, would travel together and make a doubleheader for fans on every appearance with the exception of the playoffs. WMLS would be treated equally at all levels with regard to the amount of teams, separate website, statistics, jerseys, etc… Team colors for WMLS would follow suit with their respective MLS team’s colors. Fans are the ones who would benefit, getting all the emotion, enthusiasm, and professionalism of two games and two leagues for the price of one.
But, of course, this is not happening, even though the new women’s league, WPS ( www.womensprosoccer.com ) is playing in 2009 in some MLS stadiums.
WPS will struggle along just as WUSA did. Eventually, MLS will have no choice, they will have to take a women’s league on as a partner in order to save itself. It makes common sense.
Nope, they are doing it better this time around. They have to be separate in a number of ways. Playing out of MLS SSS are good, but USL1 stadiums are better in some ways. They have set such reasonable goals, that surviving is the key to their first 2 to 3 seasons. Unlike MLS, they will be the only elite women's league in the world, and can benefit from that as people who like women's soccer across the world will take interest. They just have to start off stable so they can grow into something special. They just can't expand too fast, and they need to pick their new locations carefully. The US is producing a lot of exciting young players, so they will be fine as long as keep this careful growth model in place. It's only about 3 million to run a team, and they only need an average of 5,000 a game to break even.
Hello there,
I am Peter Robert Casey and I am a basketball columnist. I have initiated an idea to create a sports blogroll where bloggers from all sports disciplines could participate. All you need to do is to add my blog link to your blog and i'll do the same. That way, we could have a mutual partnership and we could refer visitors to each other's blog.
Please let me know if you would be interested.
Your's in Hoops,
Peter Robert Casey
http://www.peterrobertcasey.com
LOL. What a load. MLS “needs” womens pro soccer? Your serious? And by-the-way, it is NOT well documented that MLS is in trouble. Now Arena football, thats in trouble. Their dead. Good luck womens soccer.
WPS will bring the worlds best female players here to play in the USA, MLS has second rate hacks –
Every time I read one of Mitch's blog entries it's like I'm reading a gag article from The Onion.
JR 12.29.08 at 2:57 pm
WPS will bring the worlds best female players here to play in the USA, MLS has second rate hacks –
———————–
That sentence means nothing. With 80% of the world being too sexist to invest anything in women’s soccer, the competition isn’t there. MLS pays more and has more cut-throat competition than WPS will.