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| Women's
Sports: Still Kicking ? |
Posted:
09.24.03 | |
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The U.S. women's soccer team is playing for more than just a repeat championship
in this year's World Cup, they are fighting to attract enough sponsors to revive
the women's professional soccer league. Printer-friendly versions: HTML
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Just five days before the World Cup kicked off, the Women's United Soccer Association
(WUSA) announced it was shutting down after three seasons. The WUSA said lack
of revenue forced it to throw in the towel. | |
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| Declining
crowds | |
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 Despite
the excitement over women's soccer following the 1999 World Cup, the WUSA failed
to draw big enough crowds and attract a large television audience.
Attendance
per game dipped by nearly 1,500 fans since 2001 and the league struggled to attract
more than 100,000 households for televised games. This decline, coupled
with a weak economy, deterred corporate sponsors from signing up to support the
budding league. To advertisers, backing
women's soccer was a risk they were not willing to take. To the fans, however,
the WUSA stood for boundless opportunity, offering a chance to be like Mia. Just
like the boys, girls could go pro. | |
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| The
fate of the U.S. women's soccer team | |
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The collapse of the WUSA raises questions about the fate of the dominant U.S.
women's soccer team.  Nineteen
of the 20 U.S. team members now in the World Cup played in the WUSA. It offered
a spotlight for young athletes and served as a training ground to develop the
finest women soccer players in the world.
Mia Hamm is one of four 30-something
players likely to make this Cup their last. And their cleats will be hard to fill.
Hamm has an astounding 142 international goals, the career leader for a female
or male. Midfielder Kristine Lilly has played in more international games than
any woman or man. | |
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| The
future of professional women's sports | |
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There is also fear that the failure of the WUSA marks a downward turn for professional
women's sports in general. The weak economy severely limits corporate sponsorship.
In the case of the WUSA, its business plan called for eight sponsors contributing
$2.5 million in order to sustain a fourth session. They only received two. The
pro women's basketball league, the WNBA, has suffered similar attendance and viewership
declines. As a result, the WNBA has had three teams fold, most recently the Cleveland
Rockers, which made the playoffs last season.  However,
unlike the WUSA, the WNBA is linked with the NBA, which provides financial, personnel
and stadium support.
The news is better for golf and tennis fans. The LPGA,
the women's golf league, has been successful marketing to its audience and benefited
from stars like Annika Sorenstam, who played on the men's PGA tour, and young
phenomenon Michelle Wie. And women's tennis has secured its place as a healthy
professional sport. Despite the bad news for soccer, WUSA players are not
ready to throw in the towel. "We push through, and hopefully this World
Cup will stimulate some potential sponsors and investors," Hamm said in The New
York Times. --
Michael Melia, Online NewsHour | |
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It makes me want to come to school every day, and it has given me something that I’m really good at.
