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Women's Professional Soccer

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Women's Professional Soccer (WPS)
File:WPS logo.png
Founded2007
Country United States
ConfederationCONCACAF (North America)
Number of teams6
Level on pyramid1
Current championsFC Gold Pride
TV partnersComcast SportsNet
Fox Soccer Channel
Fox Sports en Español
Local coverage
WebsiteWomensProSoccer.com
Current: 2011 season

Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) is the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and will consist of 6 teams for the upcoming 2011 season, with continued plans for future expansion. The WPS is the highest level in the United States soccer pyramid for the women's game.

History

Planning

After the folding of Women's United Soccer Association, which played its third and final full season in 2003, WUSA Reorganization Committee was formed in September of that year. The committee led to the founding in November 2004 of the non-profit organization, Women's Soccer Initiative, Inc. (WSII), whose stated goal was "promoting and supporting all aspects of women's soccer in the United States", including the founding of a new professional league.[1] Attempts to relaunch WUSA in full fell through in 2004 (when the league's member teams played the WUSA Festival instead) and 2005.[2] In June 2006, WSII announced the relaunch of the league for the 2008 season.[3]

In December 2006, the organization announced that it reached an agreement with six owner-operators for teams based in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Washington, DC, and a then-unnamed city.[4] Later, Boston and New York/New Jersey were announced as other markets to have teams. In September 2007, the launch was pushed back from Spring of 2008 to 2009 to avoid clashing with 2007 Women's World Cup and the 2008 Olympic Games and to ensure that all of the teams were fully prepared for long-term operations.[5]

On May 27, 2008, the league announced that it would expand to Philadelphia for the 2010 season, with the franchise likely sharing facilities with MLS's Philadelphia Union. Despite being the eighth named team, the league still considered adding an eighth team to play in the league's inaugural season.[6] An eighth team for the inaugural season was tentatively announced as being located in San Diego,[7] and was finalized later. Still, despite the extra time given to the original five cities for preparations, the Dallas franchise did not materialize, citing stadium issues. Thus the league began with seven teams.

WPS Major Trophy Winners
Season Playoff
Champions 		Regular Season
Champions
2009 Sky Blue FC Los Angeles Sol
2010 FC Gold Pride FC Gold Pride

The new name of the league, Women's Professional Soccer, was announced on January 17, 2008, along with the logo, which featured the silhouette of retired player Mia Hamm.[8]

Building the league

Player allocation

Player allocation began on September 16, 2008, after the Beijing Olympics in August, when WPS announced the allocation of 21 US national team players, three players to each of the seven teams that began play in the 2009 season.[9] Most players were matched with teams they had some previous connection to, such as hometown, college, WUSA, or W-League affiliation. All of the allocated Americans played in the 2009 season except for Kate Markgraf, who was pregnant at the start of the season, and Ali Krieger, who was still under contract with her German team. A week later, the league held the 2008 WPS International Draft, in which the seven teams selected four international players each.[10] Four of the first five selections, first pick Formiga (Bay Area), Marta (#3, Los Angeles), Daniela (#4, St. Louis), and Cristiane (#5, Chicago) were Brazilian,[11] and a total of 10 Brazilian players were selected. England's Kelly Smith (#2, Boston) and Japan's Homare Sawa (#6, Washington), and Australia's Sarah Walsh rounded out the first round.[12] The draft order was based on a weighted ranking determined by a vote of league coaches following the U.S. women's national team allocation. A general draft was held in October, followed by a combine for college seniors and undrafted players in December, a post-combine draft in January, and local tryouts by individual teams in February.[13]

First season

Before the season began, WPS was only able to secure two sponsors, and most teams did not advertise much or get their rosters finalized until late in the preseason. During the season, though, WPS secured several more sponsors, and WPS announced the expansion to Atlanta as the ninth team for next season.

WPS's inaugural game was played to a crowd of over 14,000 fans at the Home Depot Center as the hosts Los Angeles Sol beat the Washington Freedom 2-0. The first season saw several issues occur, including an uneven schedule due to the odd number of teams (that the Sol took advantage of as they won the inaugural season), several season-ending injuries, two major trades, decisions from the WPS disciplinary committee and commissioner, and a Cinderella-run to the championship title (won by Sky Blue FC). Most teams considered the first season a moderate success, despite many losing more money than planned.

Growing pains

This success/optimism did not extend to the Sol, though, as after AEG failed to sell the team it was announced that the Sol would be disbanding.[14] As AEG had given the Sol back to the league, a dispersal draft was held to distribute the players to the remaining eight teams. This was not the case when the Saint Louis Athletica suddenly and unexpectedly ran into financial problems and folded[15] mid-May. The league schedule had to be re-done, and all of Athletica's players became free agents. Most were signed by the Atlanta Beat, who had only earned one point until then and ultimately finished the season at the bottom of the table.

The other expansion franchise, the Philadelphia Independence fared much better, finishing third on the season and ultimately losing the WPS Final to the incredibly dominant FC Gold Pride. Around the same time, WPS announced the addition of a western New York franchise for the 2011 season, spawning from the existing Buffalo Flash organization.[16] Despite these strong showings, overall attendance for 2010 was noticeably down from 2009, and one team (the Washington Freedom) made public mid-season that it was looking for new investors.

More problems came to light early in the offseason. Four teams - FC Gold Pride, the Chicago Red Stars, the Boston Breakers, and Washington - all missed the payment deadline for a large up-front escrow meant to prevent what happened to St. Louis from happening again. Ultimately, the Gold Pride could not find the necessary money and folded. Chicago was given a thirty-day extension but announced in December that they would not play in 2011. Washington and Boston ultimately were able to make their payments,[17] leaving six teams for the 2011 season.

Organization

Business model

WPS CEO Tonya Antonucci said that unlike WUSA, which had higher expectations and employed a top-down model, WPS would take "a local, grass roots approach", and "a slow and steady growth type of approach", citing WUSA's losses of close to $100 million.[2] She said the new league would have a closer relationship with Major League Soccer, the top men's professional league in the United States, to cut costs on staff and facilities, and for marketing.

The team budgets for the inaugural season was $2.5 million.[18]

WPS Players Union

WPS players are represented by the Women’s Professional Soccer Players Union (WPSPU), an independent, democratic labor organization run by and for the players. The WPSPU was certified and recognized by the league on September 8, 2010 in Washington, DC. Jennifer Hitchon serves as Executive Director/Associate General Counsel and handles operations and general legal issues, and Robert H. Stropp of Mooney, Green, Baker & Saindon, PC, is General Counsel. Cyrus Mehri of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, also provides legal counsel and bargaining assistance.[19]

Media coverage

Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Español with Samuel Jacobo and Jorge Caamaño will air weekly Sunday night matches & the WPS All-Star Game with Fox Sports Net to air the semifinal and league championship contests. The national television contract will be in effect through the 2011 season with an option for 2012.[20] Some local networks will air games.

Teams

For the 2011 season the league's 6 teams are aligned as shown on the map below.

On September 24, 2010, two days before the 2010 championship game, WPS announced that a new franchise representing Western New York will join the league in 2011. The team will be the Western New York Flash, an evolution of the successful W-League team Buffalo Flash. The team was originally planned to play half of its games at Niagara University in the Buffalo suburb of Lewiston and the other half at Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester, currently home to the Rochester Rhinos of the D2 Pro League.[21] However, an expected upgrade to Niagara's field didn't work out, and the team will play all of its home games in Rochester.

Template:WPS Labelled Map


Women's Professional Soccer
Team Stadium City Founded Joined WPS
Atlanta Beat KSU Soccer Stadium Kennesaw, Georgia 2009 2010
Boston Breakers Harvard Stadium Boston, Massachusetts 2001 2009
magicJack FAU Soccer Field Boca Raton, Florida 2001 2009
Philadelphia Independence Leslie Quick Stadium Chester, Pennsylvania 2009 2010
Sky Blue FC Yurcak Field Piscataway, New Jersey 2008 2009
Western New York Flash Sahlen's Stadium Rochester, New York 2008 2011

Defunct teams

Years active in parentheses

Attendance

Year Season Playoffs
Games Total Average Games Total Average
2009 70 327,878 4,684 3 16,499 5,500
2010 87 313,272 3,601 3 10,282 3,427

WPS commissioners

Name Years
Tonya Antonucci 2007–2010
Anne-Marie Eileraas 2010-

WPS awards

WPS currently hands out seven end-of-year awards. Six of them date to the league's formation, while the Rookie of the Year award was added in 2010.

Main article: Annual Women's Professional Soccer awards
  • Michelle Akers Player of the Year Award
  • WPS Coach of the Year Award
  • WPS Defender of the Year Award
  • WPS Goalkeeper of the Year Award
  • WPS Rookie of the Year Award
  • WPS Golden Boot
  • WPS Sportswoman of the Year

See also

other women's top pro-level North American sports leagues

References

  1. ^ "An Introduction to Women's Soccer Initiative, Inc". Women's Soccer Initiative, Inc. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  2. ^ a b Ziegler, Mark (2007-01-10). "Will WUSA live again?". San Diego Union-Tribune.
  3. ^ Porteus, Liza (June 28, 2006). "U.S. Women's Pro League Prepares to Blast Back Onto Soccer Scene". Fox News.
  4. ^ Carlisle, Jeff (June 28, 2006). "Relaunch of WUSA set for spring 2008". Soccernet.
  5. ^ "Women's pro soccer team put on hold". St. Louis Business Journal. 2007-09-23.
  6. ^ "Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) plans to expand to Philadelphia in 2010, bringing league to eight teams". Women's Professional Soccer. 2008-05-28.
  7. ^ "San Diego Finalizing WPS Ownership Group". Women's Professional Soccer. 2008-08-09.
  8. ^ "Hamm's imprint made on new women's soccer league". USA Today. 2008-01-18.
  9. ^ Dure, Beau (September 16, 2008). "Wambach goes full circle as women's league stocks rosters". USA Today. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "Coach DiCicco Targets Attacking Flair in WPS International Draft" (Press release). Boston Breakers. September 25, 2008.
  11. ^ "Brazilians dominate women's international draft". Soccer America. September 25, 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ "Brazilian stars selected in women's draft". Associated Press. September 24, 2008.
  13. ^ "Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) Announces Post-Olympics Timeline for National Player Allocation, Team Tryouts" (Press release). Women's Professional Soccer. 2008-07-08.
  14. ^ "Los Angeles Sol of Women's Professional Soccer to cease operations". LA Times. January 28, 2010.
  15. ^ "Athletica announces shock shutdown mid-season". Potomac Soccer Wire. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  16. ^ "Western New York Franchise Set to Join WPS as Eighth Team" (Press release). Women's Professional Soccer. September 24, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  17. ^ "WPS lives on, looks toward future". The Marietta Daily Journal. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
  18. ^ Zeigler, Mark (June 18, 2008). "http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/soccer/20080618-9999-1s18soccer.html". San Diego Uninon-Tribune. {{cite news}}: External link in |title= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ "WPS Players Union Recognized". Women's Professional Soccer. September 8, 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ "Fox Soccer Channel Nets WPS Pact: Multiyear Partnership Provides For Live Women's Game Of Week; Comcast Could Provide Regional Carriage". Multichannel News. 2008-08-06.
  21. ^ "Western New York Franchise Set to Join WPS as Eighth Team" (Press release). Women's Professional Soccer. 2010-09-24. Retrieved 2010-09-24.

Other women's top pro-level North American sports leagues

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