Sports Then and Now

The WPS is off to a great start to 2010, but increasing the fan base for the league is a challenge.

Whenever a new major sports league comes to town there is that familiar insecurity that one often feels when beginning a new relationship. The league and its teams worry that after the honeymoon, fan interest will fall off. Fans are reluctant to give their whole hearts to the home team because they’ve been hurt before (as in WUSA).

It becomes a chicken and egg situation. Fans are reluctant to commit for fear the team or the league might fold, and if the franchise or the league folds, it is usually due to lack of fan support.

Where women’s sports are concerned, there are additional complications. Again, using the relationship metaphor, there is a sense in which the media plays the role of the fans’ extended family.  Often the extended family’s attitude toward a prospective partner can douse the flame before it ever ignites.

If the local media don’t give the new suitor a stamp of legitimacy, many fans will not consider a first date. Sure there are the rebels and the ones who are in love at first sight, for whom the family’s opinion be damned, but there is a much larger group that just won’t be open to a first date with someone who is not considered “relationship material” by the family or the community.

Soccer has had to fight hard for media attention in most American media markets, although after more than a decade, MLS has earned respect, has established a solid fan base, and looks to be a permanent and still growing fixture in the American sports landscape.

Women’s sports have had to fight twice as hard, however, to earn the same respect. That is true of the WNBA, despite its relationship with the NBA. And women’s soccer has an even greater hurdle to achieve the stamp of legitimacy because of its double curse: being both a women’s league, and a soccer league, further exacerbated by the failure of WUSA and the wounds left by that experiment that in some cases have not yet healed . Read the rest of this entry →

The Atlanta Beat are headed north this weekend to play the Washington Freedom on Sunday, April 18. This will be the expansion team’s second Women’s Professional Soccer match. They tied 0-0 with the Philadelphia Independence last Sunday, April 11, on Philly’s home turf.

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St. Louis Athletica officially announced its final 22-player roster today. The roster consists of 18 active players and four developmental players, denoted here with a “D” following their names.

Kristina Larson, the 17th overall pick in the 2010 WPS draft, will begin the season on the injured reserve list, as she suffered a stress fracture recently. Niki Cross was signed as a free agent to complete the roster.

The announcement comes ten days before the WPS kicks off their season on April 10. St. Louis will host FC Gold Pride on April 11. Read the rest of this entry →

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. Read the rest of this entry →

Saint Louis Athletica of Women’s Professional Soccer, WPS, opened their 2010 exhibition schedule with a 4-0 win over the University of Illinois Women’s team on Saturday. Kristina Larsen, Eniola Aluko, Madelaine Edlund, and Shannon Boxx all tallied goals for Saint Louis.

For Coach Jorge Barcellos the game was a chance to see a lot of his new players and his new midfielder, Boxx, especially impressed him.

“She was unbelievable,” exclaimed Barcellos. “To have a player with this type of confidence in the field, and to control the game as she did, is incredible. She raises the level of the game, she helps us keep possession of the ball, and she orchestrates where every player should be. Just incredible.” Read the rest of this entry →

Chastain's emotions did a 180 following last week's release by FC Gold

The unbridled show of human emotion following victory has rewarded the world with some of the most indelible images in sports history. As Wide World of Sports so aptly put it decades ago, “the thrill of victory” has provided sports fans with imagery that will remain forever fresh in the scrapbooks of our minds.

Be it Kirk Gibson limping around the bases following his late game heroics in 1988 or Bobby Orr diving across the goal mouth, a la super hero following “The Goal” in the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals, the unrehearsed and unedited show of absolute jubilation following success provides every fan with the forever and ever images that define sports.

There is perhaps no “victory point skyward” more familiar in the world of Women’s professional soccer than the raw show of emotion when soccer legend Brandi Chastain thrust her undergarments to the world following her game-winning penalty kick against China in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Read the rest of this entry →