Women Ready to Kick-Start Soccer League of Their Own
It might be the most significant experiment ever in women’s sports. Certainly, it is the most far-reaching.
In part, it is the dollar that has lured more than two dozen of the top female soccer players in the world to the United States. But there is more to it than money.
An equal reason why such players as Sun Wen of China, Hege Riise of Norway, Julie Murray of Australia and Sissi of Brazil have come to these shores is the challenge of competing against the best American players on a weekly basis.
The experiment has a name. It’s called the Women’s United Soccer Assn., or WUSA.
The eight-team league, funded by an infusion of $64 million from its deep-pocket investors, begins play April 14. Its mission is to be the premier women’s soccer league in the world.
Chances are, it will.
What other league, for example, can boast of having the entire U.S. world championship team of 1999? What other league can claim among its players Tiffeny Milbrett and Dagny Mellgren, the Olympic gold-medal-winning goal scorers of Atlanta ’96 and Sydney 2000, respectively?
Only WUSA.
For now, Los Angeles does not have a team, but that will change in a year or two.
One of the strongest proponents of women’s soccer is Galaxy owner/operator Phil Anschutz, who probably will field both an MLS team and a WUSA team once his new stadium is built in Carson.
For the moment, however, local fans will have to be content with driving south to support Shannon MacMillan and the rest of the San Diego Spirit or driving north to cheer for Brandi Chastain and her Bay Area CyberRay teammates.
Those who want to throw in their lot with a more distant team can choose between Briana Scurry’s Atlanta Beat, Kristine Lilly’s Boston Breakers, Carla Overbeck’s Carolina Courage, Christie Pearce’s New York Power, Lorrie Fair’s Philadelphia Charge or perhaps even the Washington Freedom.
The Freedom, many believe, probably will draw the most attention simply because its marquee player is Mia Hamm, whom John S. Hendricks, WUSA’s founder and chairman, has referred to as “our Michael Jordan.”
Indeed, so undeniable is Hamm’s appeal that when Sports Illustrated for Women recently published a feature on the new league, the headline read: “Mia’s Excellent Adventure.”
But WUSA is about far more than Hamm and her world championship and Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. teammates. It is WUSA’s foreign legion, drawn together by former U.S. assistant coach Lauren Gregg, now WUSA vice president of player personnel, that will make the league a fascinating experiment to watch.
Can Homare Sawa of Japan learn to provide perfect passes for Cindy Parlow in Atlanta? Will playmaker Anne Makinen of Finland find herself seeking out Hamm in Washington rather than Brazilians Pretinha and Roseli? How will Chinese goalkeeper Gao Hong communicate with New York defender Gro Espeseth of Norway?
These and myriad other questions will begin to be answered once the 19-week, 84-game season starts.
While there are several recognizable names on each 20-player roster, the potential exists for surprises to emerge.
“Each team is going to develop stars that we don’t even know about today,” said former U.S. women’s national team coach Tony DiCicco, now WUSA’s chief operating officer.
Those surprises lie in the future. For now, all that can be said is that WUSA has gathered 160 players from a dozen countries, given each team an $800,000 salary cap and told them to go at it.
“Ever since I’ve been a part of the national team,” Hamm said a month ago, “it’s always been, ‘You can’t sell the game.’ ‘You won’t put people in the stands.’ ‘You’ll never have a league.’ And here we are.”
Here, indeed. The league might be small but it will be visible. Its ownership guarantees that much.
The principal investors are Hendricks, chairman and chief executive of Discovery Communications; Amos B. Hostetter Jr., former chairman and chief executive of Continental Cablevision; Comcast Corp., Cox Enterprises, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable.
With that much media clout, it’s not surprising that TNT and CNN/SI will combine to televise 22 WUSA matches this year.
Among its 11 games, TNT will broadcast the inaugural match April 14 at RFK Stadium between the Freedom and the CyberRays and also the WUSA championship game Aug. 25.
J.P. Dellacamera will do the play-by-play and 1991 women’s world champion Wendy Gebauer will provide the analysis for all 22 broadcasts.
Somewhat optimistically, WUSA is projecting an average attendance of 7,000. Some games will draw considerably more because a cooperative agreement exists between WUSA and MLS under which the two leagues will stage several doubleheaders.
More than a dozen companies have signed on as sponsors and the estimate is that the league will reach its goal of about $15 million in sponsorship income.
But it’s not about money.
“This is an investment, and will not be profitable in the first few years,” said Lee Berke, WUSA’s chief television and marketing officer. “As we build momentum, it eventually will be profitable on the long-term basis.”
Former Quaker Oats executive Barbara Allen, who was hired in January as WUSA’s chief executive officer, put it another way:
“At its foundation, WUSA is about world-class female athletes.”
Not to mention their husbands.
One of the most intriguing of the many stories that will develop in the coming weeks concerns the CyberRays’ matches against the Spirit.
Will CyberRay Coach Ian Sawyers tell his players to take it easy on the Spirit’s Julie Foudy or will he tell them to hack her mercilessly?
It depends, no doubt, on how things are going at home.
Foudy, after all, is Sawyers’ wife.
Already, WUSA promises to be anything but just another sports league.
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WUSA Capsules
A team-by-team look at the new league:
ATLANTA BEAT
* Home: Bobby Dodd Stadium, Georgia Tech.
* Owner: Cox Enterprises.
* Coach: Tom Stone.
* U.S. stars: Cindy Parlow, Briana Scurry, Nikki Serlenga.
* Foreign flavor: Charmaine Hooper (Canada), Sharolta Nonen (Canada), Homare Sawa (Japan), Sun Wen (China).
* Southern Californians: Kylie Bivens, defender, Upland; Kimberly Engesser, forward, Huntington Beach.
*
BAY AREA CYBERRAYS
* Home: Spartan Stadium, San Jose.
* Owner: John S. Hendricks and Amos B. Hostetter Jr.
* Coach: Ian Sawyers.
* U.S. stars: Lakeysia Beene, Thori Bryan, Tisha Venturini.
* Foreign flavor: Katia (Brazil), Julie Murray (Australia), Sissi (Brazil).
* Southern Californian: Jacqui Little, forward, Pacific Palisades.
*
BOSTON BREAKERS
* Home: Zimman Field, Tufts University.
* Owner: Amos B. Hostetter Jr.
* Coach: Jay Hoffman.
* U.S. stars: Tracy Ducar, Kristine Lilly, Kate Sobrero.
* Foreign flavor: Karina LeBlanc (Canada), Maren Meinert (Germany), Dagny Mellgren (Norway), Bettina Wiegmann (Germany).
* Southern Californian: Heather Aldama, forward-defender, Redlands.
*
CAROLINA COURAGE
* Home: Fetzer Field, University of North Carolina.
* Owner: Time Warner Cable.
* Coach: Marcia McDermott.
* U.S. stars: Michelle Akers, Danielle Fotopoulos, Carla Overbeck, Tiffany Roberts.
* Foreign flavor: Silvana Burtini (Canada), Wen Lirong (China), Bente Nordby (Norway), Hege Riise (Norway).
* Southern Californians: none.
*
NEW YORK POWER
* Home: Mitchel Field, Long Island.
* Owner: Time Warner Cable.
* Coach: Pat Farmer.
* U.S. stars: Tiffeny Milbrett, Christie Pearce, Sara Whalen.
* Foreign flavor: Ann Kristin Aarones (Norway), Gro Espeseth (Norway), Gao Hong (China).
* Southern Californian: Jessica Reifer, midfielder-forward, Torrance.
*
PHILADELPHIA CHARGE
* Home: Villanova Stadium.
* Owner: Comcast Corporation.
* Coach: Mark Krikorian.
* U.S. stars: Mandy Clemens, Lorrie Fair, Saskia Webber.
* Foreign flavor: Liu Ailing (China), Doris Fitschen (Germany), Laurie Hill (Mexico), Kelly Smith (England).
* Southern Californians: Jenny Benson, defender, Huntington Beach; Laurie Hill, midfielder, Los Angeles; Erin Martin, forward, Arcadia; Ruth Van’t Land-Parkes, forward, Chino.
*
SAN DIEGO SPIRIT
* Home: Torero Stadium, University of San Diego.
* Owner: Cox Communications.
* Coach: Carlos Juarez.
* U.S. stars: Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Shannon MacMillan.
* Foreign flavor: Kristin Bengtsson (Sweden), Ulrika Karlsson (Sweden), Fan Yunjie (China).
* Southern Californians: Traci Arkenberg, forward, Palos Verdes; Jen Babel, Chino Hills; Shannon Boxx, midfielder, Redondo Beach; Melissa Moore, goalkeeper, La Verne; Kim Pickup, defender, Van Nuys; Trudi Sharpsteen, midfielder, Palos Verdes; Rhiannon Tanaka, defender, Huntington Beach.
*
WASHINGTON FREEDOM
* Home: RFK Stadium, Washington.
* Owner: John S. Hendricks and Comcast Corp.
* Coach: Jim Gabarra.
* U.S. stars: Michelle French, Mia Hamm, Siri Mullinix.
* Foreign flavor: Anne Makinen (Finland), Pretinha (Brazil), Roseli (Brazil).
* Southern Californians: Monica Gerardo, midfielder, Corona; Louise Lieberman, midfielder, Los Angeles; Skylar Little, defender, Pacific Palisades; Tracey Milburn, forward, Moorpark.
