A real kick

Why does the WUSA have trouble scoring with fans?

His name is SoccerHead, and when he made the rounds through the Spartan Stadium stands in San Jose Wednesday night, young girls squealed as though they'd just seen Justin Timberlake.

Based strictly on appearances, SoccerHead was more punk-rocker than pop star -- clad in an orange San Jose CyberRays jersey, his shiny scalp was a tattooed grid of pentagonal outlines, some of which were filled with patches of purple hair, making his dome resemble a grape-stained soccer ball. Throw in the purple eyebrows and goatee and, most curiously, the secret-service-style earpiece dangling from his left ear and, well, it wasn't hard to see the appeal.

So, while SoccerHead may have a tough time on first dates and country club visits, put the gentleman in his element-- such as the CyberRays' WUSA game Wednesday night against the San Diego Spirit -- and he is undeniably da man. Even on Girl Power Night at Spartan Stadium, even with Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy and some of the world's best and most prolific women's soccer players in the house, no one provoked as much excitement from the crowd as the Dude With the Daring 'Do.

Though some undoubtedly would argue that a SoccerHead sighting alone was worth the price of admission to the game -- especially considering that, and I kid you not, he doubles as the CyberRays' finance director -- to me he's just one element of this third-year league's casual charm. At what other professional sporting event, for example, would a stranger approach your large group in the parking lot before the game and say, "If anybody's hungry, we've got too much food at the tailgate over by the banners ..."?

A few minutes later, my 7-year-old daughter, Natalie, and a few of her bright-eyed youth-soccer teammates were kicking around a battered ball when it ricocheted onto the foot of a tall, dreadlocked woman. The girls looked over and gasped -- it was Katia, the CyberRays' brilliant Brazilian forward. "Whose ball is this?" Katia demanded. No one dared answer, so she smiled and added, "OK, then, I'm keeping it." And she did, for the next five minutes, before returning the ball and rejoining her teammates for their regular pre-game jaunt through the parking lot.

More important, the CyberRays and their seven WUSA counterparts deliver on the field, too. This is a competitive league in which a two-game winning streak can sway the balance of power, one in which star players shine and goals aren't so scarce that one trip to the sno-cone stand is fraught with the threat of missed opportunities.

On Wednesday, the CyberRays and Spirit fought to a 2-2 tie that was gripping to the finish, and the final score easily could have been 4-3. It was not only well worth the price of admission ($12 a pop, in the case of our group), it also served as a poignant example to the legions of girls in attendance that their gender classification need not prevent them from kicking butt in professional team sports.

When the attendance was announced over the stadium P.A. system -- 5,547 -- I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, that was nearly 2,400 fans under the CyberRays' home average coming into the game (they're second in the league behind the Washington Freedom, which stars Mia Hamm), but this was a rescheduled contest staged on a weeknight two days before the Fourth of July, and the region's biggest newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, had listed it as a road game for San Jose. "All things considered, it was a good-sized crowd," said the ever-optimistic Chastain. "It could have been a lot worse."

True, but it could have been better, and as the WUSA struggles for survival, I have a hard time understanding why more people aren't showing up to see these entertaining events. Going into Wednesday's game the league's average attendance was 6,445 per contest, which is hardly a disastrous number, but still a frustrating one. Given the preponderance of youth soccer players (and their soccer moms and soccer dads), the popularity of national team stalwarts such as Hamm, Chastain and Foudy, as well as the momentum generated by the '99 World Cup triumph on domestic soil -- well, it just doesn't add up.

"It's perplexing," Foudy agreed after the game, as she ran the gantlet of a four-deep, 40-yard trail of autograph-seeking devotees. "Even though the numbers seem to scream, 'You should be filling up this stadium!' getting those people here is not such an easy task. It's strange, because we venture out into the public and people know who we are and are excited about the league. But then they'll say, 'Yeah, I really need to make it out to a game one of these days.'"

Foudy turned to CyberRays' general manager Marlene Bjornsrud, who was standing nearby, and asked, "How many kids in the Bay Area are in soccer leagues?" Bjornsrud -- who, incidentally, is the boss of Foudy's husband, CyberRays coach Ian Sawyers -- replied that there were 60,000 kids in leaguers sanctioned by the American Youth Soccer Organization, and another 226,000 in those sponsored by the California Youth Soccer Association.

In other words, that's a lot of minivans worth of potential customers.

"I know," Foudy sighed, "the numbers don't add up. It's the weirdest thing, because that grass-roots appeal hasn't translated. Ideally, we'd like to see parents, coaches and the youth organizations themselves step up and support the league directly, to put out the message, 'You need to go watch these players and learn from them.' But it's not a part of our culture yet, and it's a very tricky situation. Youth soccer is very political, and there are a lot of factions, which is sad."

In the wake of their dramatic triumph over China in the '99 World Cup final, in which a sold-out Rose Bowl and 40 million American television viewers saw Chastain expose the Sports Bra Ogled 'Round the World, so much seemed possible, if not inevitable. The women had their own celebrity mascot in David Letterman, who proclaimed himself the mayor of Babe City, and were heralded as the most important American female athletes since Billie Jean King. The national-team stalwarts fought for and got the WUSA, and the best players from the rest of the world came over to join the party.

But the whole world isn't watching now, and when your league is controlled by cable TV executives, that tends to be an issue. Despite investment muscle from the Discovery Channel and several powerful cable companies (including SI.com parent AOL-Time Warner), the league's national TV deals -- first with TBS, TNT and CNN/SI, now with PAX -- have been shaky, and games have failed to produce the desired ratings. Rosters have been cut, salaries have been slashed, and losses have been incurred by the folks who control the cash.

"It's tough, because the economy is hurting, and even sponsors like McDonald's are having down years and pulling back," Foudy says. "So there's no momentum with sponsors doing commercials for the league, and the lead-ins to some of our games on PAX are infomercials. So our attitude is, we're going lean and mean, and we'll try to ride out this economy."

Thanks to the SARS virus, a golden opportunity for momentum-retrieval awaits. Once slotted for China, the World Cup will be staged in the U.S. this September and October. In addition to the familiar American stars, numerous WUSA standouts from other countries will be on display. Then will come the 2004 Olympics, after which many longtime U.S. standouts -- Hamm, Foudy, Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Brianna Scurry and perhaps Tiffeny Milbrett and Kristine Lilly -- are expected to retire to motherhood and other vital pursuits.

Can the WUSA, if it's still around two seasons from now, retain even its current level of popularity after that? Will new stars such as Spirit midfielder Aly Wagner be able to carry the torch?

If you're like me, and during the exciting climax of Wednesday's game you saw the delighted faces of your daughter and her friends and your niece -- not to mention those of your nephews, and all of the above's parents, and all the folks sitting near you -- the only answer is, "I hope so."

Chances are you weren't there and didn't watch this game on TV, so I'll tell you that when Katia knocked in a deft shot to tie the score at 1-1 early in the second half, she became more than just a mysterious ball-thief to our jacked-up crew. In the 78th minute, her Brazilian counterpart and fellow one-name wonder, Sissi, floated a lovely bomb from the corner that kissed the outstretched fingertips of Spirit keeper Jaime Pagliarulo and fell into the net to make it 2-1, and the place went nuts.

But the Spirit, for the first time in their existence -- and despite a season-ending knee injury to star forward Shannon MacMillan -- are playing like legitimate title contenders, and San Diego bravely tied the game with just 50 seconds left on the scoreboard, as Allie Sullivan skidded a sharp pass through the box and Christine Latham's low, one-touch shot beat keeper LaKeysia Beene.

Before the crowd had finished groaning, as the remaining minutes of stoppage-time played out, San Jose's Mandy Clemens came a few inches away from winning it on a lovely header. When the final whistle blew, the players weren't the only ones who looked drained.

Afterward, as they lined up for autographs, it didn't seem to matter to the girls in my group that Chastain had played a mere 19 minutes before leaving with a strained hip. Her celebrity may have helped get them into the stadium, but it was the soccer that captivated them once they arrived.

"One thing I can promise you is we will fight," Chastain said as she hobbled off the field. "The women on our national team are a bunch of fighters, and we will do everything in our power to make this league work."

Chastain then did what she does as well as any athlete on earth -- mingled with her fan base, seamlessly signed autographs and posed for photos and made everyone feel connected and important. A few yards away Foudy, her ostensible opponent, was similarly thrilling scores of girls who were up way, way past their bedtimes.

I decided that would be an appropriate lasting image of a memorable night, and I reached for Natalie's hand and turned to begin the trek back to the minivan. Out of the corner of my eye, purple pentagons popped into view: There, a few paces from Foudy, was none other than SoccerHead, signing programs and spreading the love for a league that surely deserves it.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Silver sounds off weekly on SI.com.

 

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