Selling Americans on professional soccer has been tough. Selling them on women’s team sports has been tougher. Selling them on a new women’s soccer league during a deep recession may prove to be the toughest task of all.
Yet with high hopes and low expectations, the Women’s Professional Soccer league started its first season in April. The seven-team league has no television rights deal, a meager media budget and just a handful of major sponsors. It also must overcome history: The Women’s United Soccer Association, built on a wave of support after the host United States won the 1999 Women’s World Cup, folded after only three seasons.
But hard times can be instructional, and those associated with the new league say they have a plan to keep their venture going longer than their predecessor did.
Gone is the corporate-run league that owned all the teams, blew through $100 million and overestimated sponsorship deals, attendance and television exposure.
In its place is a far slimmer league. Franchises cost $1.5 million, teams can spend only $565,000 on players’ salaries, and marketing budgets are modest. To reduce costs, teams travel with 16 players from their 18-player rosters, and the league’s championship game will be held at the home field of the top-seeded team.
Plan B became Plan A. The Breakers halved their target for sponsorship revenue, to $300,000, and have missed that goal by $50,000. They reduced their marketing budget by 80 percent. The team expects to lose about $1 million in 2009.
Several teams are producing Webcasts together to cut costs. The Washington Freedom shares some front-office functions with D.C. United of Major League Soccer online betting.
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Yet with high hopes and low expectations, the Women’s Professional Soccer league started its first season in April. The seven-team league has no television rights deal, a meager media budget and just a handful of major sponsors. It also must overcome history: The Women’s United Soccer Association, built on a wave of support after the host United States won the 1999 Women’s World Cup, folded after only three seasons.
But hard times can be instructional, and those associated with the new league say they have a plan to keep their venture going longer than their predecessor did.
Gone is the corporate-run league that owned all the teams, blew through $100 million and overestimated sponsorship deals, attendance and television exposure.
In its place is a far slimmer league. Franchises cost $1.5 million, teams can spend only $565,000 on players’ salaries, and marketing budgets are modest. To reduce costs, teams travel with 16 players from their 18-player rosters, and the league’s championship game will be held at the home field of the top-seeded team.
Plan B became Plan A. The Breakers halved their target for sponsorship revenue, to $300,000, and have missed that goal by $50,000. They reduced their marketing budget by 80 percent. The team expects to lose about $1 million in 2009.
Several teams are producing Webcasts together to cut costs. The Washington Freedom shares some front-office functions with D.C. United of Major League Soccer online betting.
