Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL)

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Comment by Lars Breimer yesterday

@ Crystal Michelle -- your point is well taken. Indeed, it is said the reason hockey could get back on TV so soon after their disastrous strike/lock-out 10 years ago was that the sport appeals to a different segment from grid iron & basket which means the stations had a different advertising audience. It seems that for women´s programs to do well their competitons need to be part of the men´s circuit, as in skiing (alpine, x-county or biathlon) or tennis, where sometimes the ladies can be the stars -- such as the two Magdalenas in biathlon.

 

My thought was that maybe the USA men´s sport of grid iron and the women´s basket fear that if soccer gets more attention, even if only as ladies´ soccer, so threatens this longterm the supremacy of their sports in USA.  Winning the Super Bowl is one thing; winning the World Cup something totally different.  Already the men´s CL is more watched than the Super Bowl. The World Cup final is even bigger. The Budweiser horses will start grazing on soccer fields ...

 

 

Comment by Crystal Michelle House yesterday

@Lars There's no comparison. Men's college basketball and college football (American football) draw huge crowds and are profitable. Most university athletic programs don't make money; they lose money. Women's college basketball is popular, but it has no where near the level of interest and sponsorship as men's. If any college sports suffer from more exposure for ladies' football they will most likely be women's programs.

Comment by Lars Breimer yesterday

@ Crystal Michelle -- you do not think it could be an unholy alliance between women´s basket and men´s grid iron?  Both stand to lose if ladies´ football get more exposure, esp a college soccer final four on mainline TV.

 

Comment by Crystal Michelle House yesterday

Thank you Roger for sharing.

Comment by Crystal Michelle House yesterday

@Lars "Why has soccer not a higher profile in the college scene?" I think it's an issue of popularity and funding. The two are intertwined.

Comment by Roger Finch yesterday

One of our Aston Villa ladies is playing for Issaquah for the next 3 months.Look out for Erin Vaughan former Welsh International.They won their 1st game the other night 3-0 not sure who against.Will post photos soon.

Comment by Lars Breimer on Sunday

@ Crystal Michelle.  It is indeed true that ladies basketball is played with a slightly smaller ball, that ladies´ tennis is best of 3 rather than 5 sets, and that ladies´golf are generally played on courses too short for men´s competition, and so on and so forth.  Ladies football have discussed (almost) all possible modifications but none have found favour. Yes a slightly shorter field might be better and a slightly smaller ball also and playing halves of 40 min instead of 45, etc etc.  

probably 

The answer is that it is not realistic to remark the pitches. Thus, the field has to be the same even if the ladies would be helped by a slightly shorter field. One has to soldier on and sell the game as it is.  But.  Why has soccer not a higher profile in the college scene?

Comment by Crystal Michelle House on Saturday

Well Lars I've never thought of Houston as "a hotbed of communism", but your comment peaked my interest. LOL So I did a quick Google search and found Yahoo Sports contributor Tracy Vanderford's piece called "Fan report: How the Houston Dynamo got its name". The link follows.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news?slug=ycn-8205135

Anyway back to the topic of women's soccer.

In the States the game has always been marketed to young girls and their families. It's as if the WUSA and WPS lacked confidence in their own product to market it beyond that demographic. You always hear people say we need a professional league so young girls can have role models. In my opinion that's part of the problem. Having a league to have a league is not enough. The primary goal should be to entertain. That's what sports is, entertainment.

I've been watching the live streams of the Sounders Women and I like what I'm seeing. There are young girls and families but there are also young adult men and women, older couples etc. It's more the audience you'd see at a Seattle Sounders men's game. What is Seattle doing to draw that type of crowd? I think the obvious answer is the USWNT players, specifically Alex Morgan and Hope Solo. I don't know how you mimic that nationwide. The best way I think you can try to do this is by name affiliation with a men's team. Devoted fans are just that, devoted. They will support the name on the kit, but the quality of play has to be high. It's not enough to have fans support their local team. They have to have something to look forward to.

I think it would be fantastic if MLS teams took a survey, not an online survey, an actual one-on-one survey with fans before a game. Ask them would they support a women's team that carried their team's name? If a fan says yes ask more questions like: Would you like to have local players? Would you like to see international players? Would you purchase season tickets? Not everyone is going to say yes but that's not the point. The point is to gauge what the level of interest is.

I would also take a page out of what the Kansas City Shock are doing. Yes, WPS did reach out to the local community, but I'm sure there are opportunities they missed. I want to see women's soccer create the market, not necessarily find the market.

One compliment you hear often with the ladies' game is the lack of flopping. We need to continue to have that type of integrity and not adopt the unsavory parts of the men's game. That's one part of the product that gives it more appeal. Some have suggested to enhance the speed of play smaller fields should be used. I'm not a fan of this idea but if it helps it's worth considering.

In the world of female sports I don't think soccer has much competition. At least as a team sport I don't think it does.

Comment by Lars Breimer on May 22, 2012 at 6:36

@ Crystal Michelle -- it must be hard to be a man playing soccer because the Dream Team has already played -- the 1970 Brazilian men -- and the greatest final was played in 1954 -- the Wonder of Berne. Today´s male game is played at a furious pace. The skill level is high. The refereeing (on the whole) is excellent. Nevertheless, the game seems to be reverting to the bad old days of tight defending and the odd counter-attack.

For the ladies, on the other hand, the world is their oyster. The ladies game is almost totally undeveloped. There is masses left to do both within countries and internationally. The ladies´ Dream Team has not yet played. OK. Last year´s World Cup final was scripted by Hollywood, so, maybe the slot of greatest final is taken. On the other hand, Norway winning the Olympic gold in Sydney also was quite something.

It seems that the task for ladies´ football is to define what the product does.  You buy something for a reason. You buy a spade to dig. Transistor radios meant that you could listen wherever you were. The Ghettoblaster has been replaced by the iPod. What is the job that you buy when you pay to watch women play soccer?

Who buys ladies´ soccer? And how can you expand that pool? How can the product be made more appealing? What function does women´s soccer fulfill that other products do not? Which competitor has to be brushed aside, and how?

Is Houston a hotbed of communism? Team names like "Dynamo" are generally associated with the late Soviet Union and their occupied countries. Is there a Red Star Dallas and a Locomotive San Antonio also?  Joking aside, the nearest Europe gets to Texas is Bavaria.

The English Premier league is today the wealthiest soccer league in the world and has a turnover greater than the NHL. The German Bundesliga is the most profitable league. The Premier League has a new aspect: wealthy (foreign) men who pump money into their team to win the CL Cup. This is a new phenomenon.  Seeing that women play soccer for peanuts compared to the men, maybe the ladies need to find people willing to do the same in the women´s game?

Over to you, Longhornette!

Comment by Crystal Michelle House on May 22, 2012 at 0:05

@ Lars The Latin influence, the Portuguese influence, the English influence etc. I'm sure they all are shaping the way Americans watch and appreciate the game. When I watched Man City defeat Man U it was a sea of testosterone singing and chanting. I have no doubts that's a powerful image for a young American male.

I'm speaking to the Latin influence because I live in Texas. There is an ever-growing population of Mexican-Americans, Guatemalan-Americans, Honduran-Americans, and El Salvadoran-Americans, to name the cultures I encounter the most. They've been great for the growth of the men's game. Just go to a Houston Dynamo game and look around. They are a huge base of support for the team.

Maybe the machismo attitude hasn't crept into the American psyche via Latin infusion, maybe it has always been there and we see it more easily now because more Americans are taking notice of football.

Either way, the good news is thanks to the Mexican and Brazilian Women's National Teams, and the many men who do support the women's game, attitudes are starting to change in some of these countries. And that's crossing over to these cultures in the States, a little at a time. :)

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