Womens Pro Soccer League Returns

Women's professional soccer is coming back to the United States.

Investors and league officials announced Tuesday the establishment of a new North American women’s professional league, under the temporary working title of Women’s Soccer LLC, created to fill the void left when the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) folded in 2003.

The league will launch in 2009 with teams in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis and Washington D.C.

League officials maintain they could have started in 2008, but team owners settled on a 2009 launch date based on a number of factors, including this September’s FIFA World Cup and next summer’s Olympic Games.

“Careful consideration was taken in timing the launch of the league. It’s a simple matter of preparation and operational readiness,” said Tonya Antonucci, former director of Yahoo! Sports and newly named league commissioner. “Also, we fully expect that the FIFA 2007 Women’s World Cup, which will be broadcast on ESPN, as well as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, broadcast on NBC and its family of networks, will provide excellent exposure for our players and sport as we build momentum toward opening day.”

Another problem, according to Boston Breakers President Joe Cummings, would have been the scheduling and marketing difficulties afforded by a season interrupted by the Olympics.

“Given that next year would have been our first year, [if the league launched in 2008] the schedule would have involved one of three things: either playing before the Olympics, playing and then stopping in middle of July, or playing with teams that would have had no Olympians on the roster,” Cummings said. “It would have been hard to advertise – who was going to be there, who wasn’t. We didn’t want to find ourselves in a situation where our schedule was chopped up.”

Trying to learn from the mistakes made by the WUSA, which suspended operations after the league spent its initial $40 million budget and television and attendance figures failed to meet expectations, the Women’s Soccer LLC will focus on cost-containment initiatives developed by the non-profit Women’s Soccer Initiative, Inc. (WSII), which announced its intentions of bringing women’s pro soccer back in the U.S. as far back as 2004.

“We’d be remiss in not examining the operations of the WUSA and learning from their experiences, particularly in the realm of operational efficiencies,” said Antonucci, who served as the CEO of WSII for two and a half years.

“What we learned [from WUSA] is on the business side, that’s why this is so exciting,” the Breakers’ Cummings said. “We’ve taken the good and made it better and we’ve taken the mistakes and properly corrected them. Now we’ve got this time between now and the launch date. We need this time for advertising, marketing, sponsorships, ticket sales…that lead-up time is going to help.”

That 18-month “lead-up” time will be used for a massive marketing and branding campaign in anticipation of the 2009 launch date. The league will work with Soccer United Marketing (SUM), the commercial affiliate of Major League Soccer, to sell corporate sponsorships and consumer product licenses.

The league will continue to work with the United Soccer Leagues W-League and Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL). Several of the teams are also scheduled to play in MLS’ new, soccer-specific stadiums.

“The start of a women’s professional league in 2009 is further evidence of soccer's continued growth and potential in the United States,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. “We believe this will be the world’s top league and destination for elite women’s professional soccer players. Major League Soccer will make available resources, assets and facilities to the new women’s league, helping to ensure a strong start in 2009 with stability and opportunity well into the future.”

Since WUSA retained the rights to team names, logos and similar assets when it defected in 2003, the Women’s Soccer LLC will use many of the same team names – like the Boston Breakers – logos, and, of course, top-level players.

“The similarities [between WUSA and the new league] will always be that the payers will be there from a marketing standpoint,” Cummings said. “Young girls and young boys and families can see the highest level of women’s soccer in world.”

“What this means is that more women will have more opportunity to not only play at the next level, but also fulfill life long dreams of being a professional athlete,” said U.S. Women’s National Team star Abby Wambach. “This is what may be most important; to make dreams come true, and today, I feel like many women’s dreams are coming true.”

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