“In My Opinion……….”
Ray Alley
In 1999 America fell in love with the United States Women’s National Team. A crowd of 90, 197, the most ever for a women’s athletic event, saw the U.S. team win the FIFA Women’s World Cup title with a shootout victory over China in Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.
Surely a professional soccer league for the U.S. players had a high probability of success!
Thirteen years and two leagues later, a new league has been announced. We’ll soon see if “third times the charm.”
The Women’s United Soccer Association was launched with eight teams in 2001, and lasted only three years. A multimillion dollar anchor budget went quickly. The money and the league was gone after three seasons.
A second try came with Women’s Professional Soccer, which had a more modest business plan, but one that was fragile from the beginning. Franchises came and were soon gone. The Washington Freedom, the iconic holdover from the WUSA days, was sold, departed for South Florida and became the “soap opera” of the WPS.
The WPS also lasted three seasons (2009-2011), quietly going dormant days after holding a hopeful player draft in January, 2012.
On Nov. 29, a third stab at the brass ring that once held so much promise was announced in the form of the e…
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