Avoiding the Drop

Our mission is to be the premier women’s soccer league in the world, and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured.
-The WPS mission statement

I volunteered to write this post with the full knowledge that there was a very good chance that I was not going to enjoy it- I was right.  From the bottom of my heart I want this league to succeed.  I’ve coached women’s soccer for most of my adult life, I am the very proud older brother of a successful female athlete (though not a soccer player), I attended several matches during the Women’s World Cup in 1999, I was an ardent supporter of the defunct WUSA, and through my coaching connections I even helped to run a few NY Power soccer clinics..  In short, I am 100% behind women’s sports and the good they can do for young women on and off the field- especially off the field.  Simply put, I am ready to become a shameless booster of this league.  And yet…  The more I researched Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), the more my mind took over from my heart, and the more pessimistic I became.  But let’s not get ahead of the story.  Let’s begin by looking at WPS’s predecessor (and I use that word intentionally), the WUSA.

What Happened?

The WUSA had a lot going for it initially:  the United States hosting and winning the very popular 1999 Women’s World Cup, the participation of every major American and international player, the young female fans some called “pony-tailed hooligans,” teams in a number of major media markets, and interest in women’s soccer, in general, at its peak.  Despite all of this, the WUSA suspended operations on September 15, 2003, shortly after crowning the Washington Freedom champions at the end of its third season.  With all of this going for it, what went wrong with the WUSA?

First, and I say this from personal experience, the league’s television presence was too widespread.  Normally this would seem like a good thing, but not in this case.  While some matches were on TNT and ESPN2, others were relegated to the broadcast hinterlands of CNNSI and PAX-TV, both of which have since disappeared from the television world.  Second, the league overestimated how popular it would be, how much it would need to spend on promoting itself, and how fast it would grow.  As a result, it burned through its entire five year budget of $40 million during the first season, and another $60 million in it’s final two years with very little to show for it.  Third, while the league and teams marketed their matches as “experiences.”  Unfortunately, as is the case in every sport, the teams that draw the most fans are the teams that have the star players and the teams that win on the field- not the teams that have the most going on “around” the match.  In fact, Atlanta and Washington D.C., two cities which are known for their ambivalence towards professional sports, had the best attendance figures in the league for all three years- because they won.  Atlanta made the Founders Cup twice and and Washington made it twice and won it once.

So, after a failed attempt to revive the WUSA, a six year hiatus, and one postponement, and into the worst economy in 80 years, steps Women’s Professional Soccer.  What’s different this time?  A lot.  The real question is:  will it be enough?

What’s Different?

First, according to commissioner Tonya Antonucci, this will be a league that will grow gradually and be locally focused- unlike the WUSA which attempted to expanded quickly and cast its “net” nationally.  One example of this is that many of the teams (San Diego, Chicago, Washington, N.J., and St. Louis come to mind) have close- and sometimes direct- connections to large youth programs in their metro areas.  In short, the league has done its best to place teams in cities/areas with long-standing youth and club traditions and hoping to build on this, rather than simply looking for the 8-10 media markets and forcing a women’s professional soccer team upon them.  Additionally, while there will be some national sponsorship, the teams will have the responsibility to find their own local sponsorship.  This approach should sound familiar- it’s the way (smaller professional) clubs operate- financially and otherwise- in most of the rest of the world.

Second, there will be a closer relationship with MLS.  If this proves to be the case, it will go a long way toward helping the league survive.  However, with the exception of a few teams sharing stadia with their MLS counterparts (Chicago, FC Gold Pride, and St. Louis), I have seen little evidence of this relationship.  As of today (March 27) I could find nothing, I repeat, nothing, on www.mlsnet.com about the WPS, never mind any relationship it might have with MLS and that is troubling.

Third, the scale of the league’s finances has been scaled back dramatically.  The “buy in” for the current teams was $1.5 million, with the three 2010 expansion teams coming in at $1.25 million.  Each team’s budget for the first season is $2.5 million, with $565,000 of that set aside for player salaries:  $40,000 for USWNT players and $32,000 for all others.  The league believes that they can support this budget and remain solvent if they can average 4,000 to 5,000 tickets sold per game (along with money generated by concessions, souvenirs, etc.).  This is probably possible given that even the worst of the WUSA franchises averaged almost 6,000 fans per game over the league’s short history.  Finally, many of the teams are owned/operated by soccer fans, not the league or corporations.  Or, to put that another way, people whose love for the game may lead them to lose money for a little longer than a company looking to turn a profit might- Jeff Cooper, leader of the St. Louis ownership group, is a good example of this.  For a more detailed look at the WPS’s financial plans and other interesting numbers, charts, and graphs, check out the Sports Business Journal.

Fourth, while the television deal is smaller, it’s better, and more inline with the league’s overall strategy of focusing on building the league where soccer already has a foundation.  A weekly Sunday night match on the Fox Soccer Channel (presumably bookended by matches from MLS and foreign leagues) as well as regional and playoff matches on the various FSN affiliates will give WPS a regular presence and one that is pitched toward those already inclined to watch soccer on TV.  It also suggests that one of WPS strategies is to get fans of other soccer leagues to watch WPS, not necessarily to “convert” non-soccer fans to the sport and the league.

Finally, the WPS will- for what it’s worth, make the most of “new media.”  The league has it’s own Facebook and MySpace pages, it’s own YouTube channel, and will even make use of Twitter before, during, and after matches.

Why it might not work.

This is the part of this piece that I’ve been dreading.  I’ve covered the major reasons why the WUSA failed and the major reasons why WPS may succeed.  Now I have to delve into the reasons that WPS may fail, and, unfortunately, they are legion.  Some are, admittedly, superficial, and reflect nothing more than my own idiosyncrasies, but others strike at the very core of the league and those are the ones likely to bring down the league.  In an effort to provide some sort of organization, I’ll cover them beginning with what I think are the smaller problems, and close with what I see as the biggest obstacle in the way of the league’s survival and success.

As has been the case with every new North American sports league or franchise to emerge in the last twenty years, the naming of the teams has been, by and large, a disappointment.  In the case of the WPS, only St. Louis, Chicago, and NJ have gotten it right, every other club has played it safe- and boring.  The worst offenders, unfortunately, are the side I will likely support, the Boston Breakers- there’s nothing like having your side affiliated with two losing franchises in two defunct leagues in two different sports!  Names- team identity- is important in soccer, and it always has been.  For a supporter the team name not only says “where you are from,” but also, and more importantly, “what you are about.”  In much of the rest of world football your team name connotes your ethnicity, nationality, religion, socio-economic class, etc. in addition to your location.  “Boston Breakers” says, “I live in or near Boston, which is near the ocean.”  Yawn.

Next, while I understand the wish need to go with a single uniform (ball, boot, etc.) supplier- Puma in this case- in order to get some “up front” money for the league and to prevent the disparity that would probably result if each club had to negotiate its own deal, it didn’t have to turn out this poorly.  Nothing makes money for a football team like “the shirt.”  Supporters will buy a new one every time it is released- no matter how small the changes!- and even non-football fans will buy them if they are good looking garments or have the right name on the back…unless they are ugly.  In that case, they will live forever in internet infamy, but not on the backs of supporters.  The Chicago uniforms are the only ones of the group that should have made it through the design process.  They’re best ones in the league, and I would argue, better than anything you’ll see in MLS.  I won’t even get started on the “skorts”…

While the league will feature the best players in the world, the vast majority of the big names- Hamm, Foudy, Fawcett, etc.- are gone, and those that remain- Chastain, Milbrett, Lilly, Scurry, etc.- will likely be gone in a year or two.  Thus it is imperative that American players like Abby Wambaugh, Hope Solo, and Aly Wagner and foreign stars like Marta and Formiga step up and become the kind of dominant players that can drive a fledgling league.  If they don’t, they will find themselves back playing in the WPSL or pursuing careers outside of the game.

To say the least, I was shocked- and disappointed- when I researched the league website and the websites of the individual clubs this past week.  Even with play beginning this weekend there were numerous websites that were not yet finished.  Three clubs do not yet have their online shops up and running and those that do have a very hit-and-miss assortment of items.  The Los Angeles Sol, for example, do not appear to have their own “stand alone” website (they are on something called www.teamlastore.com) and currently feature not a single item in their online shop.  Sky Blue FC and  the Washington Freedom have their own sites- but no products available.  Fans of FC Gold Pride, on the other hand, are in luck- they can buy a hat!  Many teams are also missing player pictures and information in their online rosters.  Seriously- the league kicks off on Sunday!!

The WPS is actively promoting itself as an affordable, family-friendly league, and that is commendable and, in theory it might be a worthwhile niche to pursue.  Unfortunately, it’s a niche where there is already a lot of competition, and much of that competition comes from within the U.S. soccer community.  Affordable, family-friendly professional/semi-professional soccer is already provided in twenty markets by the two tiers of the USL, and the women’s professional game is already served by 88(!) teams spread across the USL’s W-League and the WPSL.  Worse yet, even setting aside teams in these leagues that will serve as WPS reserve sides, a quick look shows that there are at least two teams in Chicago, a team in St. Louis, a team in NJ, two teams in Boston, and more teams in California than I have time to list.  Is it possible that the market is already saturated with the kind of team and “experience” the WPS is selling?  As somebody who is about to purchase a season ticket for a USL-II team for the third year in a row, I’d have to say, “yes.”

Finally, there’s the economy.  WPS was already focusing on a scaled-back league with lowered expectations before the economy failed to avoid the drop.  Now?  Well, now is probably as bad a time to launch a venture that will be supported by fan’s discretionary income as there ever was and WPS is going to be facing long odds.  However, if the league and its new prudent financial approach can weather these tough economic times, they just may be able to flourish as times get better and people look to once again to spend some of their money on non-essential items.

So, after all of that, do I think the league will survive?

No, I don’t think it will.

But, for as long as it’s around, I’ll support it and the ideas behind it.