Apparently I hate women’s soccer.
It’s news to me, but that’s the consensus. An article on the future of WPS as well as one on the Vancouver Whitecaps commitment (or lack thereof, depending on your perspective) to the women’s game has lead to a couple articles (here and here) that have questioned my credibility and professionalism.
It’s possible I’m being defensive when I suggest that those articles would have been better off attacking me less and instead focusing on my arguments. God knows I’ve involved myself in Internet peeing contests far too often in the past (and RealMatt and I go way back). Regardless, it seems intuitive to me that there needs to be a conversation about the future of women’s soccer at the professional level in North America. Ideally, that conversation should not be clouded by people’s perceptions of those that are making the argument.
So, let’s start with a blunt statement: I, Duane Rollins, do not wish for professional women’s soccer to cease to exist. I want girls playing the sport today to have role models to look up to and dreams to aspire to. I think women’s sport is valuable, full stop.
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I also think that the financial model that WPS continues to hold onto is counterproductive to the long-term growth of the sport. By holding onto the idea that there is this league of five teams that are “professional,” there seems to be less incentive for clubs below to increase their commitment to the sport.
In both Canada and the US there is hundreds of thriving youth clubs that make a nice profit off of the game. At those clubs, girls often make up more than half of the players. Yet these clubs do next to nothing to support the women’s pro game. Ideally, these clubs should have a semi-pro outlet at the top of their pyramid, but that the very least they should not sit back and do nothing as the game collapses in front of them.
In her critique of me, Ciara McCormack talked about the lack of compensation the Whitecaps women received (and a request has gone out to the Caps to respond to McCormack’s claims. As of 11:30am EST, Dec 22 they have yet to respond). I agree with her. The Caps women should be compensated. Professionalizing more D2 women’s teams is the cornerstone of my argument. To me, having 20 or so teams paying women something (albeit less than what the five WPS teams will. So long as they don’t go under) is a good thing. In fact, I think it’s a way to eventually have 10 or so stable teams paying women something that approaches a living wage.
People seem to get stuck on the term “semi-pro.” Is a team that, for example, pays a player $5,000 for a summer of playing semi-pro? If it is, is that somehow an insult to that player? Semantics are important and you can understand how calling a team semi-pro might turn some people away. If you are truly stuck on the term, then fine – call it pro. Call it “Bob” if you need to. The point is that the economics need to work otherwise short term and surface gain is being traded for long-term stability.
The evidence strongly suggests that there is a very limited market for professional women’s soccer. That’s unfortunate, but one cannot guilt Americans or Canadians into caring. What you can do is re-think your approach to growing the pro women’s game.
A temporary stay of execution for WPS is being held up as a victory by fans of the women’s game. It seems that a re-think will need to wait until the next crisis, which, based on past history, should come sometime in the middle of next summer.
Note: The Whitecaps have informed me that they are unavailable to speak to this at the moment. However, they have given assurances that they will do so as soon as it becomes possible.
In the meantime they have released the following statement:
One of our core values as a club is to grow the game of soccer in British Columbia and Canada. The Major League Soccer side, W-League team, Residency and Elite programs for boys and girls, as well as the numerous community camps and clinics are all integral parts of our club model.