Sports Then and Now

The Women’s Professional Soccer league (WPS) announced that the Atlanta Beat will host the 2010 WPS All—Star Game presented by the U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday, June 30th.

The game, which will take place at the Beat’s new stadium in Kennesaw, Ga., will be televised live on Fox Soccer Channel and available on Fox Sports Net (FSN) and its affiliates at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT, including a pregame show live from Atlanta.

WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci stated, “Atlanta, with its wonderful new stadium built specifically for WPS, will be a fantastic venue for our second WPS All—Star Game.”

“We decided to try something different this year with our format and move the date to mid—season to provide some separation from our WPS Championship. It should make for an incredible mid-summer festival of the world’s best soccer league for women.”

The game will also be the first to use an interesting new format for choosing players. There will be a pool of 36 players selected in early June as WPS All—Stars. Twenty—two of those players will be chosen through voting by teams, players, media and fans, while the other 14 will be All—Star coaches and commissioner’s picks.

The international and domestic players with the highest votes will be announced as captains.

Those 36 players will then travel to Atlanta where the two captains, along with the coaches, will use an alternating “playground pick —em” style to select the starting eleven for each team during a public event held days prior to the game.

“We thought this would be a great way to celebrate the roots of the sport: the camaraderie, the inclusiveness and that intrinsic pick—up nature of soccer on a playground field,” said Antonucci.

The game will give the Beat the opportunity to showcase their new women’s soccer— specific stadium, which holds 8,300 fans, to both national and international audiences.

“The WPS All—Star Game will be one of the highlights of the season during our inaugural Year at the Atlanta Beat’s new stadium,” said Atlanta Beat Chairman and owner, T. Fitz Johnson.

Voting for the WPS All—Star Game will begin for fans online in May and for teams and media in early June. The selections will be announced the week of June 7th and team names will be revealed at a later date.

Seats to the game go on sale to the general public on Saturday, May 1st at 9:00 a.m. You can call 678.298.4780 for more information or visit www.theatlantabeat.com.

For more information, visit the WPS official website at www.womensprosoccer.com or follow all the news at www.twitter.com/womensprosoccer.

Photo courtesy of The Atlanta Beat