WUSA begins Year 2 with higher expectations

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Posted 3:51PM on Thursday, April 11, 2002

It's time for the WUSA to show what it learned from its debut season. Although Year 2 of the women's professional soccer league that grew out of the ultrasuccessful 1999 World Cup will feature the same eight teams and many of the same stars, changes are in order. Television ratings were minuscule and need to be upgraded. The quality of play was spotty early in 2001. There was, not surprisingly, heavy concentration on the Mia Hamms and Brandi Chastains at the expense of developing younger personalities. And, even with the positive vibes from '99 still a factor, the league stood on the outer edges of the sports scene. ``We are only in our second season and like any other start up there was clearly a novelty factor in our first season,'' WUSA president/CEO Lynn Morgan says. ``So what we need to do is step back and look for the areas in which we can show steady, meaningful growth.'' While the early WUSA product was ragged, it improved significantly through the season. By the San Jose beat Atlanta in a penalty-kick shootout for the Founders Cup last August, the level of play was second only to the World Cup. Anson Dorrance, who oversees North Carolina's college dynasty, is a former U.S. national team coach and consulted in the planning of the league. He says fans will see a real difference in play when the second season begins Saturday. ``The 2001 opener was not a great game and some of us were concerned maybe the product was not going to be that attractive,'' he says. ``Then, of course, everyone got better through the summer and ... the standard became pretty good.'' Dorrance believes that standard has been elevated much higher. Reigning MVP Tiffeny Milbrett agrees. ``The level of play is light-years ahead of where it was this time last year,'' says the New York Power forward, who led the league in scoring. Milbrett also points to rising U.S. stars such as Danielle Slaton, Abby Wambach and Jena Kluegel. They are joined by impressive foreigners, including nine of China's 1999 World Cup players, and international standouts from Canada, France, Japan, Norway, Germany and Brazil. Plus, of course, the likes of Hamm (who is sidelined after knee surgery) in Washington, Chastain in San Jose, Kristine Lilly in Boston, Julie Foudy in San Diego and many more of the World Cup champions. Those women drew unprecedented television ratings when they were turning the 1999 tournament into a national soccer carnival. The WUSA can only dream of reaching anything close to that level of TV attention. After a year with TNT and CNN-SI, the league now will have regular Saturday afternoon (4 p.m. EDT) telecasts on Pax TV, which reaches 90 million homes, 5 million more than TNT. Last year, the WUSA averaged a 0.4 on TNT while airing at a variety of times; CNN-SI did not have enough households to generate ratings. For comparison, cable ratings for the now-defunct XFL on TNN ranged around 1.0. Despite such low audience numbers, the WUSA's financial basis appears sound at least for now. It has companies such as AOL Time Warner, Cox Communications and Comcast in ownership roles, and is in the final negotiating stage on deals with Coca-Cola and McDonald's. It also recently signed a deal with Maytag, the appliancemaker's first sports sponsorship. In its inaugural season, the league surpassed its projected attendance, averaging 8,104, then increasing that to 13,657 for the two playoff games and the Founders Cup. Those numbers were 25 percent higher than the 6,500 initially envisioned by the league. But officials want more. ``Our goal in 2002 is to increase our attendance,'' Morgan says. ``If you look at start-up pro sports leagues during the last 10 years, you'll realize that this goal is an ambitious one. Very few leagues have managed to increase their attendance in the second season. ... ``Ultimately, the novelty does wear off and you must build on your core consumer.'' Surveys indicate fans attended an average of three games last year, and season-ticket sales are up, Morgan says. ``We think we've developed a better awareness in Year 2,'' Morgan says. ``We don't have the hurdles of educating the consumer as to who we are and who the players are.'' Few other nations have even a fledgling women's league. But the WUSA is not comparing itself to other soccer leagues or other women's organizations. Instead, it is trying to become a major part of the soccer community, then the crowded U.S. sports landscape. ``The product we are delivering on the field and certainly in our stadiums suggests that we are doing some things right,'' Morgan says. ``Our focus needs to continue to be to reach the soccer players and soccer families to come out to a WUSA game."