By the time you read this, the second – and maybe last – attempt to create a top level women’s professional soccer league in the United States might be less than 24-hours from failure. And, although not strictly a Canadian issue, the future of the league, WPS, does affect several of the Canadian national team’s better players, including Christine Sinclair.
For those who have not paying attention the basics of the latest crisis:
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In 2011, USSF extended WPS a one year waiver to operate a D1 league with fewer than the required eight teams. In total, there were six clubs in the league last year, including the comically named magicJack (the lower case “m” is not a typo). Although magicJack was a strong team on the pitch it was run by an egomaniac who appeared to have misogynistic tendencies, which was an odd combination for an owner of a team in a fledgling women’s league.
After a series of bizarre e-mail exchanges, the league eventually grew tired of magicJack ownership and booted the club out. As you would expect, legal action is ongoing.
As much as it was a relief to get rid of magicJack, the decision has become problematic for WPS. It seems that the USSF was OK with six teams, but five was a number that they just couldn’t justify. The federation gave WPS a couple weeks to find a sixth team or face not receiving D1 sanctioning.
That deadline is up tomorrow. There does not appear to be anyone willing to step up and fill that sixth spot, although the league claims that it has several teams lined up to join in 2013. The question is whether the league can last to 2013 if it has to play 2012 as a D2 league.
Another question – and one that very few people are asking (although some are) – is whether it’s in the best interest of women’s soccer to return in 2012 or 2013.
It says here it isn’t.
For years women’s soccer has relied on faulty thinking to allow itself to repeat the same mistake over and over. That thinking is twofold – first, participation numbers are used to convince investors that girls who play the game can be converted into girls who watch the game. The second thinking error occurs every four years when interest in the Women’s World Cup is interpreted to mean that there will suddenly be interest in watching women’s club football.
A decade plus of evidence tells us that both interpretations border on the delusional. The blunt truth is that many women who play soccer don’t watch soccer, those who do are as likely to only watch men’s soccer as they are to watch women’s and a good number of people who watch the World Cup are unaware that WPS even exists.
Fans of women’s soccer are often true believers and they are often deaf to the message. But, they need to hear it. The truth is you could start a pro women’s league 100 times and it would fail 100 times – so long as they keep using the same top down, franchise model that they currently use. You simply can’t create a team out of thin air and expect a fan base, beyond the hardcore, to materialize.
However, that’s not to say that you should give up. There could be a market for a women’s pro league, but it will need to be cultivated from the grassroots on up. The basic structure is already there. It just needs some support and direction.
Below WPS there are two leagues that are considered to be the second level of the North American pyramid. The W-League has 27 clubs (including eight in Canada) and WPSL has 64. These teams are elite amateur and it’s been suggested that the best teams in those leagues might be able to compete with WPS sides right now. If you support the best of those 91 clubs to upgrade themselves to semi-pro status, then you have the basis of several affiliated regional leagues that would be in every corner of the U.S. and Canada.
Let the best players go to Europe if there is more money for them there. Focus on getting more women playing at a professional level, even if the money they are receiving is supplementary income rather than primary. Ideally, a few of those clubs will eventually outgrow semi-pro status and when that happens you refigure the set-up to have a nationwide and fully pro league at the top of the pyramid. By growing it organically you might even be able to finally have promotion and relegation in a North American league!
It would take years, but it would also be far more stable than the current situation. And isn`t that what everyone wants?