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All the best WUSA kicks off with world's top players
Updated: Tuesday April 10, 2001 4:01 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly two years after the most successful sports event for women in U.S. history, a professional soccer league of their own is here. Based on its talent base, it has a terrific chance to succeed. "Hey, we've got all the best players in the world," says Julie Foudy, co-captain of the U.S. squad that won the 1999 World Cup and one of the leaders in getting the Women's United Soccer Association off the ground. Unlike the WNBA, which has succeeded on the coattails of the NBA, there is no men's league backing the WUSA. "We want to do this on our own," Foudy said. "With that is great risk, but also great opportunities. Hopefully, when we pull this off, it will give other sports and other investors the courage to make this step and keep going." Unquestionably, the NFL, NBA, NHL and major league baseball have the world's best players. Just as certain: Nearly every premier soccer league outside the United States has the superior athletes. While the men's Major League Soccer has been increasing its talent base for a half-decade -- witness the recent success of the national team, led by a core of MLS-based players -- it still is trying to measure up to leagues abroad. The WUSA, which begins its inaugural season Saturday in Washington, has no such challenge.
From Foudy, Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and the other heroines of the U.S. team that won the 1996 Olympics and '99 World Cup to the stars of China, Norway, Brazil and Germany, the WUSA stands above. In the recent history of U.S. pro sports, no league in its debut season could make such a boast. "What is amazing is you grow up as a kid and all we watched was men's leagues," Foudy says, "and we would say, `That would be so cool to be a professional,' but it was never realistic for women in team sports. There was nothing. "And that is now the neatest thing. Now it actually is happening, with the very best players from all the big soccer countries. It is something the national team in the last 10 years said needs to happen. It's a necessity and it's here." Along with the on-field talent, the league has a significant financial commitment from some powerful investors, beginning with John S. Hendricks, chairman and CEO of Discovery Communications. Hendricks, who has backed development of the WUSA since just after the 1999 World Cup, is joined by Amos B. Hostetter Jr., one of cable television's most influential men; Cox Enterprises and Cox Communications; and Time Warner Cable. The league already has agreements with TNT and CNN/SI to televise 22 regular-season games. Four of the eight teams make the playoffs, with the semifinals and championship game (Aug. 25) to be shown on TNT. "I think what we have seen is there is a distinct audience for women's soccer, and we have the opportunity to cultivate that very distinct audience," WUSA president Lee Berke said. "We are not going out here expecting to create the NFL." What they hope to create -- or re-create -- is the homey feeling that accompanied the World Cup. Foudy, who will play for the San Diego Spirit, says that all begins with the players being down-home themselves. "This year, right off the bat, you have to forge the relationships with the communities, the grass roots, and be accessible and be there with the kids," she said. "We always are there to sign autographs and meet people and do clinics, and we'll continue that. "We'll play in smaller venues, so it will be a fan-friendly and a family-friendly environment, and dads and moms should feel comfortable bringing out the kids." In addition to Washington and San Diego, league cities are New York, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and the San Francisco Bay Area. But only RFK Stadium in Washington is a huge stadium. That is part of an overall plan to take things slowly, which is why the league did not launch sooner. "We learned from the establishment of other [leagues] that you will not get it 100 percent the way you want it in Year 1," says Tony DiCicco, who coached the World Cup champions and is acting as commissioner of the WUSA. "We will not look at Year 1 as anything more than the beginning. We will do some things incredibly well and others that draw criticism. What will distinguish us is what we do in Years 2-5 and beyond." DiCicco says the lesson learned from the WNBA and MLS is that "you are never going to be as ready as you want to be when you launch." Foudy hopes strong player recognition and top-level play will mean few empty seats. "You need the product people want to watch and it has got to be good," she says. "Right away we gain credibility, because all the best of the best in the entire world are playing here. I think that will be a welcome surprise to many fans, how good the level of play is. The level of play will be awesome."
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