I mentioned on my radio show last night that I get emails asking for more womens coverage.
Those that want more coverage of the womens game need to get on the phone and bring the subject to the table.
I have interviewed on my show ‘The Soccer Hour with Glenn Davis’ Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Cat Reddick, Greg Ryan, Abby Wambach, Tiffeny Roberts and Heather Mitts among others.
When Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Carla Overbeck retired along with the phasing out of Brandi Chastain at the national team level one wondered where the support for the womens game would go.
Without that big 4 and before them Michelle Akers the game has lost their pioneers. Combined with the collapse of the WUSA it is tough now for the women to get their due. Now with the Womens World Cup coming up the womens game has opportunity to get a boost again. Currently the collegiate game is the highest level women can play at in the U.S.
Sad to hear that fiscal responsibility and partnering with MLS clubs now becomes relevant after poor leadership when the WUSA was formed. This is the way it should have been launched in the first place.
On another note the U.S. Women won the four nations tournament in China beating the hosts 2-1 in their final game .
Rising stars Lori Chalupny and Natasha Kai scored the goals.
women\’s pro soccer needs to stay away and remain buried. it will never work because there is no sports appetite for it here in america. look at women\’s pro basketball - it is puttering along and bleeding to death at an agonizingly slow rate because it will never work either.
is there no place for a woman in pro sports? of course there is - it\’s called tennis, volleyball, auto racing, golf and softball. being a guy i will watch women play any of those sports over watching males everytime!
women\’s college soccer is actually entertaining as well, however college isn\’t pro. there is no desire to see women\’s pro soccer at all among 99.5 percent of the american public including myself and anyone who says differently is either A) fooling themselves or B) a fool. leave it alone! it had a chance, it failed miserably, move on to other matters.
Comment by will — January 31, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
I concur with Will that women\’s soccer is not a viable commercial enterprise in this country unless the players want to play for free. Most women\’s sports are not commercially viable and the entire financial underpinning of these sports is the Title 9 requirement that makes colleges offer them as scholarship sports. The money in the system in virtually all of the women\’s sports is in the youth and club level.
Comment by JJ — January 31, 2007 @ 2:20 pm
i dont know if I can go as far as saying its “not a viable commercial enterprise.” I’m wondering if the women’s game is lacking a new role model such as Mia Hamm in the past. When she was around,you could easily catch her in commercials, and you could use her image to build the game.
Comment by Willie — January 31, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
I agree with Willie. There is no one you can really put out and market women\’s soccer.
I think the main supporters of women\’s soccer SHOULD be women. Who helps the NFL, MLB, and NBA become billion dollar industries? They are mostly men, watching games and buying merchandise. You have a couple of women who support these sports, but they only make up 5, maybe 10 percent of the audience.
As for me, I plan on watching China 2007 (which means I\’ll have to wake up at 3am).
Comment by David — February 1, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
Nobody to market??? Look up Heather Mitts, Lesley Osborne, etc etc. They\’re great athletes and smoking hot (way better than the Mia Hamm bunch).
MLS needs dates to fill up the stadiums when the local team isn\’t playing.
Comment by alex — February 3, 2007 @ 9:32 am
The tournaments that women soccer players compete in outside the Olympics and World Cup are just not on the radar screen outside the hard-core.
With a womens 2007 World Cup it will be interesting to see what type of marketing push will be made. Downside here in the U.S. is that the finals are in China.
Womens team sports have not drawn well at the professional level.
Comment by glenndavis — February 3, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
Women’s sports should be in the dang kitchen!
Comment by Karl — February 5, 2007 @ 10:53 pm