WUSA Team Unlikely in L.A. Anytime Soon
It might be “three or four years” before Los Angeles gets a Women’s United Soccer Assn. team, Tony DiCicco, the league’s commissioner, said Sunday night.
DiCicco, who coached the U.S. women’s national team to its 1996 Olympic gold medal in Atlanta and to its 1999 World Cup victory at the Rose Bowl, said the WUSA’s immediate concern is to consolidate its position as one of the top women’s leagues in the world.
Interviewed at halftime of an exhibition game between the San Jose CyberRays and the San Diego Spirit that ended in a 2-2 tie in front of 3,337 rain-soaked fans at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium, DiCicco said the league, which opens its second season April 13, will expand from its present eight teams, but is not rushing to do so.
“Our major focus for this season is to improve on some of our high points from last year,” DiCicco said. “I honestly believe the level of play will be better. The average American player is a lot better, so that makes the games better.
“We want to add to our attendance [WUSA averaged 8,051 fans a game in its inaugural season] so that we again exceed our expectations.
“We want to improve our television ratings. We’re on PAX every Saturday at 4 p.m., starting April 13. I think that will help us, simply because we’ll have continuity [of coverage].
“The other piece of the puzzle we need to improve on this year is the business plan. We think we’ve revamped the business plan to the point where it can work and now we’ve got to hit the target numbers [in terms of attendance, TV ratings and sponsorship] or get close to them.
“Once we stabilize that, I think we need to expand. For sure, we need to look at Southern California, which means [Cal State] Dominguez Hills [in Carson, where the Galaxy is building a 27,000-seat stadium] or here [Cal State Fullerton].
“Even here we’re probably far enough from San Diego to have a separate market and a great rivalry. Orange County is a great women’s and girls’ soccer area.
“If you look at the West Coast [for expansion], it’s L.A., it’s Portland, it’s Seattle. There might be a couple of other options out there....
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“What I’ve seen of the talent pool [coming up through the college ranks], I think we can get to 12 teams over the next three or four years and feel pretty comfortable about keeping the level up.”
The level was high Sunday. Shannon MacMillan gave the Spirit the lead in the ninth minute. Katia tied it six minutes later and a goal by Tisha Venturini-Hoch put the defending champion CyberRays ahead in the 37th minute.
Shauna Rohbuck earned the Spirit a tie by scoring from an acute angle 16 minutes from the final whistle.
