Charles has some thoughts on the demise of the WUSA and some ideas worth consideration, in my view, on what they should do from here.
Note: He has a great point here. Living in the Southwest, if you ever drive by a soccer field on a Sunday afternoon, you’ll see throngs of soccer fans/players/families playing league soccer. It’s not just the Hispanic population, at least not in Texas, but that is a demographic that could be a huge market.
- A relatively short schedule, mostly in winter and early spring, would allow my star players some flexibility to play elsewhere during the offseason, much as many WNBA players play in Europe, South America, or the NWBL outside of their season. This means I can keep salaries modest.
- Before aiming for a national TV deal, I’d work to get each team its own local TV and radio broadcast deals, including on Spanish-language stations (after all, before the advent of MLS, where else could you find soccer on TV?)
- Once I had a few seasons and some fan loyalty under my belt, I’d look to expand, most likely by creating another geographic division. That might force me to move the schedule back a bit into warmer weather, but if I can keep the bulk of it in the April-June time frame, I still won’t have that much other competition (college hoops will be finished, at least).
It will take time, but I’d bet it would work. It will grate against the mindset we seem to have about everything, where we want things done yesterday, but that’s reality. And a whole other article, but I digress.
Back to the soccer situation, you don’t throw together a bunch of talented athletes, some corporate sponsors and stadiums and expect people to be there, money in hand. At least not for longer than one season at a national level. Break it into smaller regional leagues where your expenses are not so great and your profit margins are better and let it develop.
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