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By: Melissa |
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The WPS site recently updated its blog with a little bit of news. Firstoff, details on USWNT player allocation process is almost completely sorted. While an official announcement hasn’t been made (and meethinks it won’t until after the Olympics), the general consensus is, the allocation process will contain complete parity between all the teams in the league. If I remember correctly, MLS and WUSA did just that when they started. Apparently salaries and contracts are being discussed with the WPS Players Committee right now. But what exactly is that? Is it a player’s union? Or is it a department of the WPS itself? Anyone know?
The league is also getting ready to finalize its eigth market. It seems we could be looking at a new team in the Bay Area or in Denver (or maybe both?). Either way, WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci had lunch with potential Bay Area investors last week and representatives will be at the Women’s Soccer Celebration at The Dick May 15th.
In other news, the WPS section at Bigsoccer is picking up. The coolest part I think is a discussion whether to form team supporters groups. Specifically, the thread revolves around just the Boston team but wouldn’t it bee cool if hardcore groups popped up for every club?
Tags: How to watch the game
By: Melissa | 2 Comments
The US Women’s national team will take on Australia today in Birmingham, Alabama, 4pm Central Time. This is the second leg of their two-game friendly against the Matildas. We won the first match on April 27th. If you are not in Birmingham, the game will be on Fox Soccer Channel (wow, amazing = yes). And if you’ve got a Windows PC, you can also catch it streaming on Channelsurfing.net or on channel 21500 on your TVU player.
As a Linux user, I have my own personal issues with streaming video that only plays on Microsoft products but it seems if I am to follow women’s soccer, I’ll have to bite the bullet and install a xen server or something similar just to get my fix. Bah. Not pleased. Also, I’m missing the game since I’ll be at Buck Shaw for San Jose v Dallas which leads me to ask if anyone will record it and make it available online?
Time to give the ladies some love
By: Melissa | 18 Comments
April is over so I’d like to take a moment to point out something very important that everyone should be aware of. The Women’s Professional Soccer league will begin play less than year from now. Yup, let the hype machine begin. What hype machine you ask? Honestly, I have no idea but perhaps I can help create a teensy little buzz by introducing the WPS blog on The Offside.
It’s not entirely clear to me what I intend to do with this blog for the remaining less-than-a-year, but I think to begin, I’ll try to cover whatever news trickles out of the WPS offices (conveniently located down the street from a different office I work at) as well as report on women’s soccer at the upcoming Olympics - with an eye towards potential player signings. I also plan to post information on a particular pet peeve of mine: where in the crap fans can watch the games either streaming or on television. In the meantime we’ve got the potential for new teams in new cities as well as player drafts and international signings. All pretty exciting stuff. So let’s begin…
WPS takes a more grassroots approach than its predecessor, the WUSA, since the fan base is small and there are no real superstars to propel the league. They are also partnering with MLS to share facilities and staff. But unlike MLS, WPS is using the traditional franchise system so each club owns their players. The roster will feature mainly US citizens or green card holders as there are only five international slots allowed per team. Teams will consist of between twenty and twenty-four players and there will be a draft – probably more than one, but the details are not finalized. Teams currently exist in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, and Washington DC. There is potential for expansion, even before April, as the league is still looking to grow. Got between two and three million dollars lying around? Whalla! You can own your very own sports team.
Will I be stalking the WPS offices and picking through their trash? Uhh, no. But perhaps, when I think up a few intelligent questions, I can land an interview or two. I do think it will be fun to document the development of this league and my hope is, I can develop this blog to look more like the MLS or Mexico The Offside pages, with individual bloggers covering each team. So that means I will always be on the lookout for anyone who wants to help write this thing!
Ok, so when I’m not here, I’m usually loitering over at the MLS page and writing the San Jose blog. I also spend a lot of time geeking out over open source technology (this blog is written entirely using Linux) and working on a robotic art project. I guess I have a lot of interests so sometimes I may stray a bit from talking soccer. Be patient, I’m a little frazzled but I’ll get back on point eventually. Please check back here often and write lots of comments.
Category: WPS News
