|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
No more waiting WUSA set for opener between Freedom, CyberRays
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Brandi Chastain stood on the turf and sounded like a proud mother. Around her were the empty seats of RFK Stadium, where more than 25,000 are expected Saturday to watch the inaugural game of the WUSA, the first major professional women's soccer league in the United States. "Have you ever planted a seed yourself, and it actually grows after you've watered it for months and months? And then it blossoms?" Chastain asked. "I did that. That's how I feel about this league. "I have been a part, a small part, of something that will forever change the lives of young girls in this country, and American culture, I think, as a whole." Chastain later admitted that her words might have sounded corny, but this is one sport where the athletes can get away with it. The lovefest between the public and their U.S. women soccer heroes shows no signs of waning, certainly not as long as the players proudly accept their responsibilities as role models and sign endless autographs without so much as a grumble. So, it shouldn't have been a surprise when more than 2,000 paid last week to watch Mia Hamm and the WUSA's Washington Freedom play an exhibition game at the University of Maryland. The eight-team league has a goal of 7,500 fans per game, a goal that will get a great boost at Saturday's nationally televised opener between the Freedom and Chastain's Bay Area CyberRays. "In the sports world, we're looking for the real thing," said former Olympic swimmer Donna DeVarona, who chaired the 1999 Women's World Cup. "They're the real thing." The stars of the U.S. 1999 World Cup and 2000 Olympics teams and nearly every major international star -- including several Chinese players -- make the league unquestionably the best of its kind in the world. Nearly all those players will attend Saturday's game, making it the greatest collection of women's soccer talent ever in one stadium at one time. "Everybody's going to be there," said U.S. Forward Tiffeny Milbrett, who plays for the New York Power. "It's going to be rockin'." The teams will play a 21-game season with the championship game on Aug. 25. RFK is the only major stadium being used; the other teams -- Atlanta, Bay Area (San Jose), Boston, Carolina (Chapel Hill), Philadelphia, San Diego and New York will play in smaller, college stadiums. Some cities have had more success promoting their teams than others. In Washington, it's nearly impossible to drive five blocks without seeing Hamm and Chastain staring at each other on an advertising poster, and the players have held open practices and community appearances. A doctor at a local hospital said this week that his two sons go into the back yard with a soccer ball and "argue over which one's going to be Brandi and which one's going to be Mia." But New York's team wasn't able to practice locally in preseason because of the colder weather. Milbrett said the Power have held just two community events, and she admits there's not the same buzz in the Big Apple. "I'll be honest, we've still hardly been there," Milbrett said. The league has turned former teammates into opponents. San Diego's Julie Foudy has been sending tongue-in-cheek trash-talking e-mails to other U.S. national team players. Hamm has promised to make Chastain "keep her shirt on" in the opening game, a reference to Chastain's celebration after making the winning penalty kick at the 1999 World Cup. Deep-pocketed investors, including league chairman and Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks, hope the league will break even in four to six years. The players who paid their dues for so many years aren't about to consider the possibility of failure. "To see it blossom is truly a remarkable occurrence," Chastain said. "And I won't let anybody chop it down. I'll tell you that right now, I'll fight them tooth and nail, because I believe in this league."
| ||||||||||||||||||||
