By Ian Parker
SportsTicker
SAN FRANCISCO - The death of the Women's United Soccer Association in 2003 did not kill the dream for a group of committed fans and executives. Five years later, they are relaunching professional women's soccer in the United States with the creation of Women's Pro Soccer LLC, the name of a new pro league which will launch in April 2009.
Seven teams are in place and an eighth could be added before the league kicks off next year, but there is no urgency to add the extra club. The guiding principle of the league this time will be conservatism and gradual development. The organizers saw what happened last time - some of them suffering directly - and will do everything to avoid making the same mistakes a second time around. "We want to do things differently," league commissioner Tonya Antonucci told PA SportsTicker. "We believe what we have now could be sustainable for years to come." Antonucci, the former director of Yahoo! Sports, moved into the commissioner's role from her position as CEO with the Women's Soccer Initiative, Inc., the driving force behind the league's rebirth.
Before the WSII got on board, former WUSA executives including ex-commissioner and national team coach Tony DiCicco and John Hendricks had been doing their best to keep alive the notion of the league reforming. Since taking charge of the movement at the start of 2005, WSII and Antonucci have kept them involved. Hendricks is an investor in the new league while DiCicco will coach the Boston franchise, but their most valuable contribution is the experience of why they had been unable to find backing for the league. "We found out about their approach and what wasn't working," Antonucci said. "They had been going to corporate America and basically asking them to underwrite the league and to become owners essentially, just writing more and more checks. "We decided that instead of going to corporate America we needed to find independent investors and go to the corporations later when its about sponsorship. We needed to establish our business and our brand and then take care of the rest."
With seven independent ownership groups in place, the league is now ready to move forward. But only a few years removed from the failure of its predecessor, why should it be any different now? "This is how it works this time. It's all about sharing resources, sharing overhead and economies of scale," Antonucci said. Rather than operating as individual entities, the league's franchises will work together to keep costs lower. A changed soccer landscape in America - fuelled by Major League Soccer's continuing success - also helps.
With few alternatives, the WUSA spent millions renting cavernous NFL stadiums it could never come close to filling. Now, the growth of soccer-specific stadiums gives the new league better options. "(The WUSA) were bullish about their costs and projected revenues so they thought, 'We can afford to have stand alone revenues and we can afford to rent out really expensive stadiums,'" Antonucci said. "They had to make investments into stadiums they didn't own but they thought they would get it all back because business would be booming. That was the mentality. So unfortunately for them, with the reality of how the business did in the early years, their expectations were too high. "What we've done is we've reset expectations to start at where the last league left off in its last year, plus our own recent research. We've set out what we think is an achievable number and we've set out our costs in line with it. We're not trying to be what we're not. We don't have the expectations at an unrealistic level."
An average attendance of 5,000 has been set as a benchmark target for most clubs, but Antonucci believes the bigger markets could attract more from the start. Owners will lose money in the early years - Antonucci does not deny that. But she firmly believes the model works going forward. "It's a long term vision and it's a long-term investment for these owners," she said.
Two of the MLS' soccer-specific stadiums will be on the new league's map from day one - the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, and Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. The new Dallas team is also negotiating with Pizza Hut Park, while the St. Louis team would have hopes of playing in the new stadium there if MLS picks the city for a future franchise. The Boston, New York/New Jersey and Washington, D.C. teams all appear set to play in university facilities when the league starts.
But while the business model of the WUSA has been abandoned, there is plenty about the old league that Antonucci likes and wants to keep. "What they did really well in the other league was the product on the field," she said. "We want to replicate that. At that time, they had the best female soccer athletes from around the world. They were able to capture and attract the best and bring them over here to the league. "The athletes were really special in the U.S. sports landscape. They were unique. They were really really accessible to their fans and I think they got all that stuff right. We've built that into our business model. We don't want to screw that up."
As happened with the WUSA, Antonucci wants to bring the world's best players to America. And while MLS had to break the bank to land David Beckham, the landscape of the women's game makes Antonucci's challenge a little easier. "Whatever Ronaldinho or Ronaldo are earning, things aren't on the same scale in the women's game," she said. "We believe we can build creative and competitive packages to bring in the best players in the women's game into the league."
Perhaps the biggest name in the women's game, Mia Hamm, is now retired. But she is nevertheless involved, lending her image to the league as its silhouette on the logo. "To have Mia associated with our brand, to be the silhouette for our brand is tremendous," Antonucci said. "She's an icon of the game. Even though she's not playing any more she's still one of the most recognizable people in the sport."
Kick off might still be more than 15 months away, but Antonucci's schedule has now become a hectic array of meetings with potential sponsors and partners. The dream has become a reality once again, made real by the unveiling of the logo and launch of the league web site. "The response from fans has ranged from 'This is tremendous' to just plain relief - it really is going to happen," Antonucci said. "We're no longer the new league that doesn't have a name or a logo. We are now women's soccer and we have an identity and it shows we're for real."
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