Women's Soccer Tv

THERE WAS NO WAY OF KNOWing it on April 14, 2001, but in retrospect the WUSA could not have picked a more difficult time to launch its inaugural season. The league has succeeded in providing entertaining, world-class women's professional soccer, but that achievement has not been matched on the balance sheet. In an economic environment in which a number of long-established companies have turned belly-up, the WUSA is struggling and doing everything it can to ride out the storm and stay afloat.

This spring, the league's founding players were asked to take significant pay cuts and the rosters were restructured to reduce spending. These and other measures will allow the league to survive the current season, but its future beyond that remains in doubt. While many regard the WUSA's personnel reclassifications to be personnel reductions, league commissioner Tony DiCicco is quick to point out that the roster size (20) remains unchanged from a year. ago. "We haven't reduced roster size, we've just changed the classification of some of the players," emphasizes DiCicco.

The new 20-player roster has the founding players--the league's best compensated--now drawing salaries of $60,000 per season, down from $80,000. The balance of a team's 16-player active roster make considerably less. The minimum salary for a first-year player is $25,000 per year. Those entering their third WUSA season--aside from the aforementioned founding players--receive $31,500.

"It was a situation where we had a challenge and sat down with our players and worked it out," says DiCicco. "There were some differences of opinion, but over the long haul I think the league and its players came to a very productive conclusion. We are all vested in seeing the WUSA here for many, many, years."

"When you have hard times, you have to make sacrifices," says San Diego Spirit forward Shannon MacMillan. "Taking a pay cut is just our sign of good faith. When you have investors like we do that have stuck with us for two years even though we went over our budget, this is the least we can do to show faith in them and say thank you for your support. At the end of the day, we just want to play soccer and if [the league folds] it might take another 20 years to get one started again. We have got to keep this dream alive for both ourselves and the young players."

The founding player salary cuts pared $500,000-$600,000 from the league's operating budget. But these were far from the only budget reductions. Cuts have been made across the board in the league's ongoing effort to streamline its operation. The league's allocated budget for player salaries has been reduced by nearly $2 million. "We went back to the operating budget and looked for ways we could reduce expenses," says DiCicco. "There were salary reductions at the league and team levels, so it wasn't just something that the players did. This was a challenge we needed to take on."

While the league is dealing with plenty of financial problems, there is some good news. "In most cases, our national sponsorships have improved and all of key ones have stayed on board," says DiCicco.

The commissioner also acknowledges that team sponsorship is up. And those players at the bottom of the WUSA pay scale can expect at least some relief. "We have actually considerably increased the salary stipend for our reserve players this year over last year," says DiCicco. "We wanted to make sure that our current reserve and developmental players were better off than last year's. The player's association was very adamant about us taking care of the lower-paid players. Now they are getting raises--and in some cases quite substantial ones."

In 2003, reserve players are getting approximately 25% more than those same athletes earned last year ($7,500). Players selected for the new developmental classification will be compensated at a rate of up to 10% beyond that 2002 figure.

Linnea Quinones, a reserve goalkeeper for the San Jose CyberRays last season, learned first hand how difficult it is to make ends meet on a WUSA reserve's salary. Veteran teammate Brandi Chastain gave Quinones and teammates Kelly Lindsey and Carey Dorn a break when she allowed them to rent out her house. Yet life was not easy. "Everyone tries to overlook it, but it is very hard to deal with," says Quinones of her money woes. "You should at least be able to go out to the grocery store or to dinner and not have to worry about it. You shouldn't have to pinch pennies to pay your rent."

Until the league can find some way of increasing revenues, WUSA players--with an average salary of $37,235--will remain the paupers of the professional sports world.

DiCicco denies, as some have suggested, that this latest round of cost-cutting indicates the beginning of the end for the WUSA. "We have also been heating about the demise of MLS since it started [in 1996]," he says. "I'll tell you this, I wouldn't bet against us. We are already making plans for 2004 and 2005. I expect this league to be around for a long time."

He is also not overly concerned about the 2003 Women's World Cup preparations diminishing the quality of league play this season, but perhaps he should be. Imagine, for instance, a weekend during the WUSA season in which the American, Chinese, Scottish, Brazilian, and Canadian national teams are all in action and absent from their WUSA teams. The San Diego Spirit would potentially lose Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, Shannon MacMillan, and Aly Wagner to April Heinrichs' side and could also be without Christine Latham (Canada), Zhang Ouying (China), Daniela (Brazil), and Julie Fleeting (Scotland). That's eight out of a probable 11 starters. This is of course a worst-case scenario, but one that is not too far-fetched.

"I see very little effect from a competition standpoint," insists DiCicco. "We had 20 players on our rosters last year and we have the same number on our rosters this year. If we need additional players because of national team call-ups or injuries, we have the ability to approach the USL and WPSL.

"One of the most notable [new wrinkles] is that we are working more closely with our developmental leagues. As we work together, I think it will enhance those leagues. Players will now know that if they don't make a WUSA team, their dream is not over. Playing in those leagues, they will have a chance to be seen by WUSA coaches and scouts more often."

Because of these expected call-ups and injuries, those designated as developmental players--and therefore ineligible unless the active roster falls below 18 for home games and 16 on road trips--should see plenty of action. Some of those cut prior to the start of the regular season may also get another chance.

The new roster realignment was just one of the many necessary changes made for the continued survival of the league. The latest attempt to increase fan attendance and TV viewership is called the YES Initiative. "I am personally spearheading the YES Initiative or Youth Energize the Stadium," says DiCicco. "April Heinrichs and I have stressed the importance of attending our games as an opportunity for player development. Each youth coach should bring his or her team to at least one WUSA game. It's more important than going to a practice. It might even be more important than playing your game. Players will be treated to a game that is played at a pace they will never see [while playing themselves]. Our games also have a high quality of technical proficiency. There is a lot more than the fun aspects of coming to a game. There is a big player development model of which coaches and players need to become aware."

Having learned some valuable lessons in the first two years of operation, DiCicco faces what could be a critical year with a new streamlined operation. He is approaching it with his characteristic enthusiasm. The WUSA will redouble its efforts to continue to offer family sports entertainment at an affordable price--a rarity in sports these days. "We need to keep our target market fairly narrow, but we hope we ripple out," says DiCicco. "Our marketing efforts are still zeroed in on young fans and their families.

"These are tough economic times for any company and when you are a start up company, that makes it even more difficult. But we're excited about where we are and about the gains we have made since the end of last year."

RELATED ARTICLE: A positive spin.

THE WUSA RECEIVED A WELCOME BOOST from the well-timed national release of the critically acclaimed film, "Bend it like Beckham," which bowed in America one week prior to the start of the women's league's third season. Inspired by the 1999 Women's World Cup, the film was shot in England and revolves around an adolescent Indian girl, Jess (Parminder Nagra), and her struggle to maintain her family's traditional Sikh values while pursuing her dream to play soccer like her hero David Beckham.

Very successful overseas, "Bend it Like Beckham" includes footage from WUSA games and portrays women's soccer--and the American league in particular--in a very positive light. "Once we knew it was coming down the pike we jumped on board and helped with its promotion," says WUSA commissioner Tony DiCicco. "Now we are reaping the benefits of being in what is a very good movie."

There are more soccer-based films to come, according to DiCicco. A movie profiling the history of the U.S. Women's national team from its humble beginnings through the 1999 World Cup is due out by September and another featuring players from the San Jose CyberRays is in the works as well.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

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