League of Their Own Might Work
Thursday, April 20, 2000
By Tim Bresnahan
Never underestimate the power of screaming little girls.
That's the one bit of advice I'd dispense to naysayers of WUSA, the women's pro soccer league set to begin play next April.
All 20 members of the U.S. World Cup team (including North Andover native Tracy Noonan Ducar) have signed with the league, and let me tell you from experience, screaming little girls love Mia, Julie and Brandi to pieces.
For at least 90 minutes after the Americans' World Cup win over North Korea last June at Foxboro, a throng of young ladies crammed themselves against a barricade, screeched and howled outside the press conference tent and generally did their best to resurrect Beatlemania.
With the American icons in the fold, even just four or five per match, this league could work.
Never mind that the women's game is still in its embryonic stages and couldn't field 16 decent national teams for the World Cup (honestly, there were no more than four or five good sides at USA '99). Never mind that most Americans would rather watch tractor pulls than any form of soccer. Never mind that WUSA teams (and MLS ones, for that matter) won't inspire the same fervor that a national team does.
WUSA has the screaming little girls on its side.
However, other advantages do exist. While MLS is also looking to run a women's league, the World Cuppers signed with WUSA because it's independent from the men's league. Given the second-class citizenship the NBA accords its little sister, the WNBA, the decision to go it alone was shrewd.
"We know they are committed to women," said U.S. national team member Carla Overbeck of the WUSA investors, a group of cable television giants led by Discovery Channel head John Hendricks. "If we were with another league, that wouldn't be the focus."
Furthermore, the WUSA has set somewhat modest expectations. Hendricks is looking for an average attendance of 6,500 per game (MLS averaged 14,282 last year), and salaries will top off at $800,000 per team.
Finally, the investors -- Time Warner Cable, Cox Enterprises, Comcast Corporation, Hendricks and former Continental Cablevision CEO Amos Hostetter -- made their millions in the media; this league will never suffer for publicity. An 22-game-per-year national TV deal with Turner Sports and CNNSI is already in place for the next four seasons. And after all, the constant barrage of clever marketing and media promotion was the hook that lured Americans into watching Women's World Cup '99 in the first place.
Is WUSA a sure thing? Of course not. For starters, the U.S. Soccer Federation hasn't decided whether it will sanction WUSA or an MLS-led venture as its Division 1 league (without USSF accreditation, a league's players would be ineligible for the World Cup). MLS hasn't yet filed a proposal -- the deadline is May 1 -- but the league does have some clout within the USSF.
And even if WUSA gets the nod, there's no guarantee that the women's game has staying power. If the Americans don't win the gold medal in this fall's Olympics, the glimmer might fade. And if another Mia Hamm or Michelle Akers doesn't emerge from coach April Heinrichs' young talent pool, the league is in trouble.
But conventional wisdom may not even apply here. WUSA is tapping into a market (you know, the screaming little girls) pro sports has rarely touched. All the concerns MLS fans have -- quality of play, international credibility, etc. -- might not matter to the youngster who sees herself when she watches Brandi Chastain.
A season-ticket holder for the San Jose Earthquakes of the old NASL, Chastain said that watching pro soccer in person changed her life. Now it's her turn to change lives. Her ability to do so (and that of her teammates) will determine this league's viability.