Women’s soccer is hot right now. With the Canadian men…struggling…the CSA has put almost all of its attention on the women and is riding the bronze medal win for all it is worth.
The direct result of that push is the sold out June 2 “re-match” against the Americans at BMO Field. We should not discount the importance of selling out a stadium, something neither TFC nor the Canadian men have managed over the last 12-months.
The glow of the Rings is strong and the women are attracting all kinds of fans that couldn’t spell soccer last June. Keeping these fans is going to be a challenge, but with a World Cup coming in two summers (and an almost forgotten u20 World Cup next summer – side note: You might want to get around to naming the damn sites soon CSA) there will be plenty of ways to keep fans engaged.
Winning will help, which is tricky. John Herdman quite rightfully is using 2013 as a experimental season and there is as much chance the 21,000 fans leave BMO Field scratching their heads after a 4-0 shellacking as there is of a rambunctious celebration – the Americans are really much better than Canada now and, well, always. Sorry.
The excitement around women’s soccer has lead to some loud whispers coming out of both Toronto and Vancouver about possible expansion bids in the new NWSL. As I wrote yesterday at The Equalizer, there appears to be something to the rumours.
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In Vancouver’s case, the rumours started the minute they pulled the plug on the W-League team. The logic of killing the elite amateur squad a year before launching a fully pro outfit is debatable. On one hand, you would think that they would want to be visible in a year leading up to a launch. On the other hand, you can understand how they might want to fully focus on preparing an expansion team bid.
Regardless, Vancouver has a long association with he women’s game (although not everyone agrees that they have been fully committed to it). If Canada was to get a team, Vancouver was always the most obvious place for it to go.
Toronto is a different story. For one, with apologies to the Toronto Lady Lynx, there is no real history of high level women’s football in T.O. For another, TFC executives have told us multiple times that they aren’t interested in starting a women’s team.
Just this past December, Paul Beirne told a season ticket holder townhall that they “had to get their core product right first” before even considering a women’s team.
Fair enough. The core product is a bit of a mess. However, it seems unlikely there will ever be more of a perfect storm for a women’s team launch as there is now.
Which brings us back around to the rumours. As I said in the Equalizer article (where I spell out the logic of the potential bid in more detail. Please go give it a read), the silence from official parties tells me that there is probably something to it.
It’s not a sure thing yet – for one, we don’t know if NWSL is looking to Canada right now, especially when they aren’t in California yet. However, it seems more and more likely that fans of women’s football will have a club fix in T.O. and Vancouver very soon.
Whitecaps and TFC fans: Tell us in the comments if you’d support a women’s team.