What’s next for women’s professional soccer in the USA?

\r\n\r\nCulturally, economically, America is still most primed to be the place where the best want to play. We need to geographically compact in the league footprint however – not all in one place necessarily, but at least in clusters. Our youth development system turns out enormous numbers of adequate players to play at a high level, and it’s getting better. Sprinkle in a few top talents and the product will be just fine, and far above what these top players will get if they go overseas chasing an extra $30K per year. The overseas club teams are not that good, the US players don’t \”WANT\” to play there, they go because they want the job for the most part, and maybe a year or two of \”life experience\” living overseas, but they want to be here for the most part, and they will stay\/come if there’s a fair pay system because the SOCCER is what it’s about for the female players, not the money!\r\n\r\nAnd they’re not going to get the top-to-bottom level of soccer anywhere else in the world than they can get here. I’d put the US Youth Soccer or ECNL U-18 national champions in England’s WSL tomorrow, and bet on them winning it all. The top 10 W-League teams and US college teams would win most women’s leagues in the world too. We are a machine of soccer player production. We still need to figure out the world-class part, but thousands of good coaches are working more on that problem every day. Some national teams have caught us with their own great players, but the depth of talent is not there like it is here. We still have a HUGE head start, and a culture more setup to push the female players towards greatness from a very early age.\r\n\r\nIt may not seem fair for the current crop of world-class pros, but IF the RIGHT plan is put in place now for the next generation in \”Women’s Soccer 3.0\”, the current players literally need to be \”taking one for the team\” to help the professional game to become firmly established here. I think most of them fully understand that and should be commended for already doing their part. But it’s not fair to ask for that sacrifice if it’s not done as part of a greater plan, and if we can’t get it right the next time, who can blame the players for crossing oceans to find a living.\r\n\r\nFor now though, I think they really just want to play good soccer, so a league where they can keep a regular job – if they need to – is a perfectly acceptable way forward, and more than enough to keep the 99% of our best players in this country. I don’t think more than a handful of players in the world over the age of 23 are in it all for the money at all, but it sure would be nice if the dream of fame and stardom in the women’s game were realistic enough for future generations of youth players to have a real shot at obtaining.\r\n\r\nFor now, I think the real answer for a successful women’s pro league is to attach the teams to existing MLS, USL-Pro, and NASL franchises only – maybe some super-youth clubs with proven, profitable PDL\/W-League teams over many years could be exceptions to that rule.\r\n\r\nWith these connections, the infrastructure is already in place there. The brand value is built-in and can be extended more deeply into the women’s demographic. The experience in running a team, practice facilities, business relationships, office staff (though a good exec would need added) are there already. The revenue generation engine is already working in those places as well (notice I didn’t say \”profit\” engines, just revenue). Adding women’s teams is just a minor additional investment instead of a make-or-break business start-up, and could be just what some organizations need to actually tip into profitability overall. If a women’s team can do 10% of what an MLS team does across the board in fans, but only adds 2% to the overhead, doesn’t that model work?\r\n\r\nMinor league teams have even more to gain, as the women’s attendances could be more like 25-50% of attendances. Those organizations are already run so lean, that revenue and sponsor \”story\” is even more valuable. Sell those teams literally side-by-side, with a home game for one or the other every weekend. Sell the girls on the women’s games, the boys on the men’s games. More girls play organized soccer in most markets anyway, but the men’s game draws more non-soccer fans and supporters groups. That’s fine, embrace it. Make the women’s games a family\/community\/youth soccer weekend outing, and the men’s a games more about the games and the chase of the trophies and star players million dollar dreams on the line. In other words, put the women’s game into the organization to make the pie bigger instead of seeing potential cannibalization. They really are two different target markets of fans, and targeted demographics for sponsors.\r\n\r\nKeep the league geographically compact, sensible in divisional alignments and travel requirements, and don’t give the owners all the power for a separate set of rules just for the women’s teams.\r\n\r\nPartner with SUM<\/a> and involve the USSF with youth player ID and hosting camps for youth national teams that end in exhibitions. Host a major world club championship in non Olympic\/World Cup years. Get out in the community. Etc… Do all that can be done to leverage the existing global soccer machine, as well as the existing sports marketing economy, which is stronger in the USA than anywhere in the world.\r\n\r\nIn other words, going the the women’s professional soccer plan alone is just not going to work. The economics don’t add up to create a \”New Team Name, Inc.\” and \”New League From Scratch, LLC\” and start building something from scratch with no one else invested other than the same too-small-to-support-a-major-pro-league group of rabid women’s fans. Why on earth would anyone want to start from there again? Leverage and synergy – two fundamental business terms are key.\r\n\r\nEven if such a new, stand-alone, entity started with $100 Million in funding, the business model of chasing everything from scratch expecting anything more achievement of a break-even run-rate within 10 years is just not realistic, so who wants to spend $100 Million just to stop losing money once it’s gone?\r\n\r\nThe women’s game has to be connected to another business where it adds to the formula for greater success for all. For the fans, for the players, for the good of the game.”},”name”:”acf\/wysiwyg”,”mode”:”edit”} /–>