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WUSA gets Power Teams avoid traditional names; some fields substandard
Updated: Monday November 27, 2000 6:57 PM By Dean Caparaz, Soccer America The WUSA finally unveiled the worst-kept secrets in the league's short history -- the nicknames of its eight teams. The names came out before the official announcement after intrepid Web surfers figured out that the teams would have to register domain names if they wanted to have Web sites named after their teams, such as www.BayAreaCyberRays.com. The surfers checked out registration Web sites and discovered the names, some of which were posted weeks before the Nov. 2 announcement. The teams decided on names in a variety of ways, from holding a "name- The-team" fan contest to polling team employees. Atlanta took input from inside and outside the club before deciding on the Beat, which, general manager Lynn Morgan says, "embodies the city's musical heritage." NAME GAME. Washington investor John Hendricks liked the name Freedom from the start. "It's one that John Hendricks had on his mind for a while," Washington Freedom GM Katy Button said. "It kind of encapsulated what the league is all about and what the players wanted the league to represent. It tied in nicely with being in the nation's capital."
The league told the clubs not to use animal names or plural names, so as not to sound like typical American sports names, such as Tigers, Wildcats, etc. Six of the teams complied. But the Bay Area team couldn't come up with a good name. The league relented, and the team came up with CyberRays. What is a CyberRay? It's a combination of the Bay Area club's attempt to tie the team to Silicon Valley and a local species of sealife. Bay Area goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene was boogie-boarding in Monterey Bay in Monterey, Calif., when a Pacific electric ray got too close for comfort. "It scared the heck out of me," Beene said. "I ran to shore screaming because I was so scared." Club officials had considered the name CyberLynx, but they nixed that idea when they discovered that www.cyberlinx.com is a porn site. The CyberRays logo may be a familiar one to women's sports fans. Designer Terry Smith based his creation on the logo of the Long Beach StingRays of the defunct American Basketball League. Smith also designed that logo. Boston also broke away from the singular names when it chose Breakers from a fan contest. Fifteen-year-old winner Laura DeDonato won a T-shirt, hat and season tickets for the 2001 season. The logo depicts a blue and white wave crashing over a soccer ball. "We think the Breakers name truly represents our region, and evokes power and energy," Boston GM Joe Cummings said. STADIUM STATUS. Seven of the eight teams announced where they intend to play. Boston is deciding between Foxboro Stadium and Zimman Field, the football field at Tufts University. Seven teams will play on grass fields, but the Philadelphia Charge will play on the artificial turf at Villanova Stadium on the campus of Villanova University. U.S. Soccer's Women's Professional Outdoor Division I Standards call for teams to play on natural grass but allow for a two-year grace period. Charge goalkeeper Saskia Webber, who played on artificial turf in her freshman year at Rutgers, knows her team didn't have many other options. "Villanova is a great area and the stadium is great, but I personally feel soccer does not belong on turf," she said. "As a female soccer player on turf, you spend more time chasing the ball than controlling it." The Freedom (RFK Stadium) and CyberRays (Spartan Stadium) will play at MLS venues; the New York Power (Mitchell Athletic Complex) will play at an A-League site; and the Carolina Tempest (University of North Carolina's Fetzer Field) and San Diego Spirit (University of San Diego's Torero Stadium) will play on college campuses. San Jose is negotiating with Spartan Stadium, home of MLS's Earthquakes. The Atlanta Beat will also play on a college campus, at Georgia Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Beat will have to downsize the huge football stadium, "but we will make it so if we do sell 45,000 tickets, we'll have enough seats," said Atlanta GM Lynn Morgan. The bigger problem with Dodd Stadium and Torero Stadium is field size. Both fields are about 66 yards wide, narrower than the 70-yard width that the U.S. Soccer standards call for. As with the Charge, Atlanta and San Diego have two years to find wider fields. Morgan is also the GM of Cox Pro Sports, which manages both Atlanta and San Diego. He says Torero Stadium's field will probably be widened by the 2002 season. Atlanta is looking into whether Georgia Tech's field can be expanded. "We'll make that call within a month or two," Morgan said. "I don't think either one of the situations is undoable." Now that most of the stadiums are in place, teams are waiting for the league to announce their schedules before they can finalize season-ticket plans. Teams have already begun taking season-ticket deposits. Dean Caparaz is an associate editor at Soccer America magazine.
Women's United Soccer AssociationATLANTA BEAT Stadium: Bobby Dodd (capacity: 46,000) General Manager: Lynn Morgan Head Coach: Tom Stone PLAYERS Charmaine Hooper (Canada), Cindy Parlow (USA), Homare Sawa (Japan), Briana Scurry (USA), Nikki Serlenga (USA)
BAY AREA CYBERRAYS Stadium: TBA General Manager: Marlene Bjornsrud Head Coach: TBA PLAYERS Lakeysia Beene (USA), Brandi Chastain (USA), Katia (Brazil), Sissi (Brazil), Tisha Venturini (USA)
BOSTON BREAKERS Stadium: TBA General Manager: Joe Cummings Head Coach: Jay Hoffman Players Tracy Ducar (USA), Kristine Lilly (USA), Maren Meinert (Germany), Kate Sobrero (USA), Bettina Wiegmann (Germany)
CAROLINA TEMPEST Stadium: Fetzer Field (capacity: 5,700) General Manager: Jerome Ramsey Head Coach: TBA Players Danielle Fotopoulos (USA), Bente Nordby (Norway), Carla Overbeck (USA), Hege Riise (Norway), Tiffany Roberts (USA)
NEW YORK POWER Stadium: Mitchell Complex (cap.: 10,000) General Manager: Susan Marenoff Head Coach: TBA Players Tiffeny Milbrett (USA), Sara Whalen (USA), Christie Pearce (USA), Ann Kristin Aarones (Norway), Gro Espeseth (Norway)
PHILADELPHIA CHARGE Stadium: Villanova Stadium (cap.: 12,000) General Manager: Tim Murphy Head Coach: TBA PLAYERS Mandy Clemens (USA), Lorrie Fair (USA), Doris Fitschen (Germany), Kelly Smith (England), Saskia Webber (USA)
SAN DIEGO SPIRIT Stadium: Torero Stadium (capacity: 4,000) General Manager: Kevin Crow Head Coach: TBA PLAYERS Kristin Bengtsson (Sweden), Joy Fawcett (USA), Julie Foudy (USA), Ulrika Karlsson (Sweden), Shannon MacMillan (USA)
WASHINGTON FREEDOM Stadium: RFK Stadium (capacity: 56,454) General Manager: Katy Button Head Coach: Jim Gabarra PLAYERS Michelle French (USA), Mia Hamm (USA), Siri Mullinix (USA), Pretinha (Brazil), Roseli (Brazil)
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