I am a fan of alliteration, not a fan of fear mongering

I just finished reading the Google translated version of this article from the Swedish website, VK. The article uses quotes from Vanderbilt University economic professor, John Vrooman, to argue that the current economic crisis in the US will destroy WPS. According to Vrooman, “[the recession] is about to start. It is the wrong time to do it.” Well, ok, I think technically, the recession has been going on for a while now (the US government likes to fudge their numbers) - but getting back to the article… the gist of the argument is: the league is rebounding after the failure of the WUSA (strike 1), the league only has seven teams (he says they’d need eight to survive but the article doesn’t explain why - or at the very least - the translator didn’t pick it up), there is still no schedule (good lord, MLS hasn’t even released a schedule yet - this argument doesn’t count), and the economic crisis could force local businesses to cut down on their marketing expenses and any potential sponsorship deals with WPS (oooh, good point - strike 2). The article also mentions “the league to develop a collective bargaining agreement with players” which I think may be referring to whatever agreements between the US Soccer Federation and WPS regarding national team players. Or is there already a WPS players union? Google is coming up dry on my end. Anyone know?

Anyways, WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci counters that the US league is using a different financial model than the WUSA did (namely the locally owned franchise model) and the league itself is fully funded for a few season (thanks Nash & Yahoo guy!). But as for the sponsorship argument, personally, I’ve got nothing. Vrooman has a good point. From my limited understanding of the business side of professional sports, ticket sales only get you so far and the sponsorship deals are the real moneymakers. But since each WPS team takes care of it’s own marketing, we could very well see seven different solutions to this conundrum.

But it seems the financial issues the article brings up are perhaps becoming real concerns to international players being pursued by WPS teams. Apparently St Louis just retracted their offers to Lotta Schelin and Ingvild Stensland and Marta’s agent said publicly Umea is her number one choice. Nadine Angerer says she wants to play in WPS but her agent expressed concerns over the US recession and the WPS salary cap.

Well, I haven’t got any answers here but I guess WPS may need to start doing a little damage control if they want to get these top flight international players in the US during the inaugural year. Otherwise, WPS is gonna have to present to the world a stable and successful league first and maybe after a season or two, the big foreign stars will start coming. It’s not like we’re bereft of great talent in this country already.

Category: WPS News

Tags: Financial Matters, WPS News

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