"Grace of its Star Power" is the NWSL Business Plan?

New women's pro league allot players

The National Women’s Soccer League was only a month and a half old and the players had been assigned to their clubs just minutes earlier. But on social media, the Portland Thorns were already being crowned the 2013 champions.

They were perceived as having made out the best in the budding league’s initial allocation of 55 United States, Canadian and Mexican national team players to eight clubs across the country. When starting a professional league from scratch, especially one with a finite number of established stars, such early imbalance is to be expected. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Fox Sports.

Kicking Back Comments: Near the bottom of the article the author details what he believes will be the difference between the WUSA, WPS, and the NWSL. Specifically why it will succeed. From the article:

"If this league is to survive – unlike the two predecessors, the WUSA and WPS, which were both felled by their problematic economics and attendance in just the last decade – it will probably do so by the grace of its star power."

I truly hope there is more to the business plan than this. Fame is fleeting. WUSA should have made that clear enough. Now a better answer is that US Soccer, as well as the Canadian and Mexican federations are paying the freight for the National Team players (where are my membership fees going again ... to referee development?).

Please don't rest the hopes of this last (IMHO) women league of my generation on fame. While the names of the US WNT are known in some circles now, give it a couple of years and let's see what happens.

Another aspect of a successful league it the ownership. Mr. Magic Jack ground the WPS league to a halt with his nonsense. What has the NWSL done to prevent a reoccurrence this time around?

The players have been allocated by a "board of experts" and apparently takes into consideration where players want to play, and what markets they will play to. While the first element is easy to match, the second, not so much.

From jump the league is slanted to the West, Pacific Northwest specifically, and the league itself agrees. Seems all too contrived to be competitive ... but in business ... you want to set yourself up for success. This is business folks ... not soccer in its purest form.

We'll see where it goes, but as I have opined here before, I think if NWSL fails, it's the third strike. In this fragile economy where taxes are up and folks have even less disposable income, getting attendance will be tougher than ever.

I hope it is a wild success personally, but if the "plan" is the "grace of its star power", they will be done in a year, two tops.

Another New Women's League

A new league and another new dawn for US women's soccer

Here we go again: The United States Soccer Federation has announced that a new league known as the National Women's Soccer League will launch in 2013 administered by US Soccer.

The league will begin with eight clubs, the four left over from the recently-extinguished Women's Professional Soccer league (Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Buffalo) and four new clubs. The names range from overly regional minor league names (Western New York Flash) to cheeky (Portland Thorns FC) to names that have survived all three women's leagues (Boston Breakers). Those clubs will join the Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, and the as-yet-unnamed Seattle club. ...

See the whole story here, from The Guardian.

Kicking Back Comments: Three strikes and your out, or third time's a charm?

I hope it is the latter, but given the track record of women's professional soccer in the US, I'm not so sure.

Clearly US Soccer is WAY behind this (as is Canada and Mexico) as each National Organization is subsidizing their entire national teams salaries in the league.

My questions go to what will be different this time? We have tried to ride World Cup winnings in the past, and the league (WUSA) spent itself into oblivion.

For the WPS there were some very committed owners, and some, well one, that seems to have intentions outside of The Game. That said, Wambach and Solo still believe that Mr. Magic Jack is good for the women's game. I'm reserving judgement for right now.

There is no question in my mind that such a league is good for players, youth soccer, US Soccer, referees ... the whole nine.

But ... but ... if they fail this time, are we done? Is this the last time we will try to create a viable women's league for a few generations?

My thinking is yes. 

Again I hope it succeeds wildly (it will be very slow growth though), because if it does not, I don't think we will be seeing women's professional soccer for a long, long time.

Green Eggs and Hamm

Mia Hamm voted top female athlete of past 40 years

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2012 - American soccer great Mia Hamm was voted No. 1 in espnW’s Top 40 Female Athletes of the Past 40 Years, beating out No. 2 Martina Navratilova and No. 3 Jackie Joyner-Kersee. espnW, in conjunction with SportsCenter, over an eight-week timeframe, revealed one athlete per day culminating with Hamm on Friday, June 22. The countdown has been part of ESPN’s recognition of the 40th anniversary of Title IX, signed June 23, 1972. It was announced this morning on espnW that Hamm was voted No.1. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of the Washington Times.

Kicking Back Comments: A good choice to be certain. For me personally, I was more in the Michelle Akers camp, but, a good choice. Chris Evert too would have made the tops of my list, but I am picking nits.

One thing I did find curious however, is that all (24) voters were women. That by itself was not curious, but that the vote was taken to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX, designed to end discrimination,  was a bit ironic to me.

Chief Justice Roberts said it best in that "If we want to end ... discrimination, we must stop discriminating ... ." Well ... what a better way to celebrate the ending of discrimination against women (not in sports by the way as the initial legislation targeted education), but by getting votes from a broad base of experts ... of both women and men.