Women’s Pro Soccer League Targeting San Diego

There has been plenty of excitement in Orange County’s soccer community following Tuesday’s announcement that the newly formed women’s professional league is considering Southern California as a site for one of its eight franchises.

But the excitement might be short-lived. A source with intimate knowledge of the Women’s United Soccer Assn. said Friday that San Diego is the Southern California market the league is targeting. The WUSA’s primary investors are cable television companies--Cox Communication, Time Warner and ComCast. The investment group was organized by John Hendricks, chairman of the Discovery Channel.

The source said Cox will operate two teams, one in Atlanta and another in San Diego. The WUSA apparently has enough money to start playing by its targeted launch date of April 2001. It has a player pool with all 20 members of last year’s World Cup championship team, including Orange County products Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett.

What it doesn’t have are places to play. Hendricks said his league is seeking stadiums that seat between 10,000 and 20,000. He said the inaugural season will have eight teams playing 20 games each.

“Places that are hotbeds of soccer are certainly right at the top of the list,” Hendricks said.

Orange County, with one of the strongest youth club programs in the country, qualifies as a hotbed, but lacks the ideal stadium that Hendricks is seeking--although San Diego does, too. Cal State Fullerton has a 9,300-seat facility that resembles Hendricks’ model, but Fullerton Athletic Director John Easterbrook said he has not been contacted by the WUSA.

Hendricks said Northern California and Washington, D.C., are markets the league also will target.