Tag: wps

soccer

WPS goalkeeping musical chairs

Posted on by Beau Dure

Chris Henderson (not the MLS veteran) follows women’s college soccer in rather remarkable detail, and I’m absolutely not qualified to question his selections in AWK’s 2012 WPS Mock Draft v1.0.

But one point is provocative: Would the Atlanta Beat make a colossal mistake by passing on heralded goalkeeping prospect Bianca Henninger?

A team’s goalkeeping needs may be more obvious than, say, a glaring gap at left wing. But goalkeepers are rarely in demand in the top few selections of the draft.

Check MLS: Out of the 120 top-10 picks of the past 12 years, only six have been goalkeepers. Brad Guzan was the highest pick, going No. 2 in 2005. Adin Brown was No. 3 in 2000. Steve Cronin has bounced between MLS and the second division since being picked No. 10 in 2004. The last three top-10 keepers — Chris Seitz (No. 4, 2007), Josh Lambo (No. 8, 2008) and Zac MacMath (No. 5, 2011) — were picked as prospects.

And that’s no surprise. Goalkeepers typically mature later than field players. We don’t have as much data in women’s soccer as we have in men’s soccer, but it’s safe to say we don’t see a lot of teen phenoms breaking through on the U.S. national team. Hope Solo debuted before age 20 but still wasn’t on the 2004 Olympic roster at age 23.

So if Atlanta is thinking of immediate improvement in goal, would Henninger be the pick? Or would the Beat look for someone who has already gone through the apprentice years?

With only five teams in the league (pending Dan Borislow’s legal action to get magicJack reinstated), you’d have to think goalkeepers would be available. The U.S. player pool lists five goalkeepers, so that’s one per team, right?

Well, no, it’s not that simple. But let’s take a quick look at the goalkeeping pool, focusing with the 13 goalkeepers who saw action in WPS last season. We’ll take into account that some keepers may miss time for the Olympics if the USA and/or Canada can qualify. And if a goalkeeper has retired or definitely isn’t in the mix for the team in question, her name isn’t in italics.

Boston: Has Alyssa Naeher (18 games in 2011) under contract after a successful offseason stint in Europe. Also re-signed backup Kati Jo Spisak, who started a couple of games in 2009 after sticking with the Washington Freedom from its W-League days. Naeher is in the U.S. pool but not in camp, so she’s not expected to miss time in 2012. They’re just looking for a third-stringer. Ashley Phillips played nine games for the Breakers in 2010 and remained on the roster last year along with 2010 third-round pick Kelsey Davis.

Western New York:Like Naeher, Ashlyn Harris (18 games) is in the U.S. pool but unlikely to miss time in 2012. The former Washington Freedom phenom is in U.S. camp, though, so she might get a shot in a friendly or two. She has re-signed for 2012. The Flash had two backups last year — FC Gold Pride alum Brittany Cameron and 2011 draft pick Ashleigh Bowers.

Sky Blue: The Jersey team has Karina LeBlanc (1 game, magicJack) under contract. The former Los Angeles Sol starter, who split time with Val Henderson in Philly in 2010, might miss time if Canada qualifies to the Olympics. Keeper/sweeper Jenni Branam has retired. The question mark is English starter Karen Bardsley (3 games), who played a lot for Sky Blue in 2010 but much less for the club last year due to World Cup duty and Branam’s play. Bardsley is likely to be in London with the one-off Great Britain team; would she want to spend part of the season in the USA? (Bardsley is indeed staying overseas, as Jenna at All White Kit points out.) Sky Blue carried two more keepers last year: Erin Guthrie, who has an FC Gold Pride appearance on her resume, and Kristin Arnold.

Philadelphia: Terrific tandem last year with two-year FC Gold Pride starter and veteran U.S. backup Nicole Barnhart (9 games) and former Los Angeles backup Val Henderson (9 games). Re-signing them would be a great way to signal championship intent this year. Also on the roster last year: Robyn Jones.

That brings us to the team in question …

Atlanta: The Beat’s keepers were certainly busy last year. Allison Whitworth (11 games) had 67 saves; Ali Lipsher (7 games) had 44. Both have experience elsewhere — Whitworth with Gold Pride as Barnhart’s backup, Lipsher with a lot of starts in Boston. They also have one of the two keepers drafted in 2011, Katie Fraine.

So Atlanta could stick with the corps from last season or perhaps take a run at signing Barnhart or Henderson. But then there are all these other keepers in the mix from magicJack, some of whom might not mind signing with a WPS team this season. …

We can probably rule out Brett Maron (4 games), who played for the Beat in 2010 before Hope Solo’s arrival but has signed overseas. Shannon Myers (1 game) also did time in magicJack’s front office and was pressed into service with two goalkeepers out on World Cup duty.

That leaves three big-time goalkeepers, though we don’t know how much interest they’ll have in WPS:

– Jill Loyden (8 games): Hope Solo’s backup with magicJack (and St. Louis before that) and another contender for the U.S. roster.

– Hope Solo (4 games): With magicJack gone, can anyone lure her to play in WPS, or will she work her way back into Olympic shape in residency?

– Erin McLeod (not in WPS): Canadian starter ditched magicJack to go overseas. Would she come back?

We’re dealing with a lot of moving pieces here. But given the talent that’s available, it’s hard to imagine any WPS team going into the draft with the intent of starting a rookie goalkeeper all season.

Chris sees Atlanta passing on Henninger to make the glitzier pick of U.S. national camp-dweller Sydney Leroux. Then Sky Blue could pick Henninger out of the No. 2 spot. That might be for the best all around. Henninger can sub for LeBlanc during the Olympics and maybe even push her for the No. 1 spot, especially later in the season.

Now if the Beat pass up Henninger and fail to pick up Loyden, Solo, McLeod, Barnhart or Henderson, that would be a sign of trouble.

I’m guessing that some of these keepers have actually signed without having that news announced, so please check back for updates.

0
soccer

WPS vs. the semipros

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’ve all lived ten days since I last posted about WPS and nine days since WPS owners accepted U.S. Soccer’s terms for Division I sanctioning, and yet the debate doesn’t seem to have changed.

One reason it’s still going: We’ve seen a return from hibernation from the blogger known as Fake Sigi. (He’s a bit different from the typical “Fake” or “Not” identities that parody Sepp Blatter, Dan Borislow, “soccerreform” and Grant Wahl in that we know his real name and he spends little time mimicking his namesake.)

I’ve seen Fake at the same table as Canadian journalist Duane Rollins, but they still get pretty annoyed with each other. Duane felt compelled to respond to Fake’s post as well as former Whitecaps player Ciara McCormack, who has written one more post arguing directly with Duane and another that mentions the dispute in passing.

So far, though, we haven’t heard anything from the Whitecaps. They’re the ones called “vicious pimps” in Fake’s piece, so you’d think they’d be the most offended party.

But underneath the occasionally amusing insults, we have a fairly legitimate debate. Duane isn’t the only person suggesting that the top North American women’s league should follow more of a semipro model. Peter Wilt, who qualifies as a co-founder of WPS for his work with the Chicago Red Stars, put forth a detailed proposal and sparked an enlightening discussion. Bonnie D. Ford made similar points at espnW and drew a few hostile comments as well as the typical Internet gaggle of juvenile responses.

Here’s the strange part to me: Why are we having this discussion now?

Last year, when the Washington Freedom went up for sale, the Chicago Red Stars self-relegated and FC Gold Pride joined the ranks of the disappeared, the discussion would’ve been timely. This year, all six teams were willing to return — one was told “no thanks” for reasons other than finances. And for the first time in U.S. women’s history, a league was around to absorb a big bump after a big event — one that has much more impact than the World Cup has on MLS.

We’ll have to see how much of that impact carries over into 2012. But here’s the question I haven’t seen addressed: If five ownership groups are willing to gamble on that, why tell them you’d rather go ahead and start the transition to a semipro, scaled-back league now?

On Twitter, I compared the WPS-vs.-semipro debate to 1993, when U.S. Soccer chose between MLS, the existing APSL (A-League) and the rule-bending League One America proposal to leap into the Division I men’s soccer void. They opted for MLS, which was in many senses a leap of faith. It’s easy to say now that men’s soccer is popular in the USA and Canada today. It wasn’t so easy to predict such popularity back in 1993.

I got this response from @DCUWomen:

In 93, men were playing catch up to the world with huge $$ reward a draw… Women is dif biz, needs lower budgets, more teams.

I can see the lower budgets — no one, not even the free-spending Dan Borislow, is suggesting that WPS teams should start shelling out $3 million to $13 million per team like MLS teams did in 2011. But why more teams?

So that’s two questions: Why does WPS need more teams (more than the eight U.S. Soccer is demanding by 2014), and why should the powers that be insist on going semipro if at least eight owners are willing to play legitimate D1 ball by 2014? Anyone have answers?

2
soccer

WPS vigil’s final hours: The overseas question, U.S. budgets

Posted on by Beau Dure

The U.S. Soccer board will go into a conference call this evening to discuss Topic A in the U.S. women’s soccer community: Will WPS get a waiver to continue as a Division I league with five teams?

Don’t expect any board members to chat openly before that meeting, but in the meantime, we’re getting some interesting conversation that relates at least indirectly to the concept of professional women’s soccer:

The Whitecaps’ white hat knocked off? Canadian writer Duane Rollins chatted with Vancouver Whitecaps exec Bob Lenarduzzi recently and confirmed that the Caps aren’t interested in WPS at the moment. Rollins concluded that if the Whitecaps were turning down WPS, perhaps something is wrong with WPS.

Irish-Canadian player Ciara McCormack fired back a response that made other journalists (well, me, anyway) wince in terror. She has had a couple of stints with the Whitecaps and takes issue with the notion that they’re committed to the women’s game or should be considered any sort of bellwether on WPS’s viability. (I’ve asked the club for a response and will post it as soon as I get one.)

McCormack and Rollins have continued a polite but firm discussion about his reporting. I took issue with the shots at Rollins initially (disclaimer: I know him from MLS circles), protesting that he couldn’t have known that the Whitecaps were anything other than a model women’s team that had a lot of terrific players. (One quibble: I don’t think “just a blogger” applies to Rollins. He’s a journalist. And since so much of the best reporting on women’s soccer takes place on blogs — All White Kit, Equalizer, etc. — I don’t see that as a meaningful distinction in the first place.)

But that disagreement has led us all to a larger issue, which McCormack raises: Let’s start talking openly about the conditions of the women’s game. We’ve seen a wall of silence in women’s soccer this year — players who used to be open with the media have been guarded and even cliched, and no one’s willing to talk about the astounding case of Dan Borislow.

Which leads to this curious case:

No peace in Perth: Two international players left the W-League (Australia)’s Perth Glory soon after Sydney FC beat the club 11-0, a score that has never, ever been approached in WPS play. The initial story was that Norway’s Lisa Marie Woods and New Zealand’s Emma Kete were sacked “for the benefit of overall team harmony” after some sort of incident.

Woods and Kete released a joint statement acknowledging that they had a heated argument in their shared living quarters but denied that they had a physical altercation. And they didn’t appreciate their demeanor being questioned. The club apologized, adding this: “We acknowledge that there may be a somewhat disparity between the culture and professionalism of the W-League and what you may have been used to in Europe and that on the pitch and at training you have acted professionally and given it your all.”

How professional is Europe? From a BigSoccer discussion, I was directed to a couple of entertaining reads on how much money players are making in Europe — both in French. At this point, French soccer in particular seems to have a couple of fully professional teams and some that are nowhere near. If you’re looking for an underdog story, consider Juvisy, which leads Lyon in the current French standings despite operating on less than 10% of Lyon’s budget.

The tips came from a BigSoccer reader who goes by “Katreus,” whose Twitter feed is a recommended follow. Also from Katreus comes this shocker:

Pro women’s soccer in Los Angeles! Ali Riley, Christen Press, Rebecca Moros, Sarah Huffman, Jen Buczkowski, Tina DiMartino, Val Henderson and other WPS veterans — all on the same team? Yes indeed. This makeshift squad will apparently play Mexico and Trinidad/Tobago in friendlies in January. They also have really ambitious plans for 2012, trying to bring Sweden, Canada and Mexico to California for a December tournament.

And they apparently scrimmaged against the U.S. women’s team recently. Here’s some footage. The U.S. defense might want to watch that counterattack.

Safe to say I’m looking into this. If you have more info, please share.

The petition drive. Former Boston Breakers exec Andy Crossley isn’t impressed with the WPS petition drive or the idea that women’s soccer should be sold as a “cause.” I don’t think Andy — who has already shared plenty of WPS info in his piece on FC Gold Pride and his interviews with former Gold Pride exec Ilisa Kessler and player/journalist Tiffany Weimer — would object to me saying his piece raises more questions than answers.

One thing I’ve kicked around in my head: Many sports teams are owned out of affectations. Russian moguls lavish luxuries on women’s basketball players. Barcelona’s finances are questionable. Plenty of American sports teams lose money. And some — from Manchester City to magicJack — are essentially loss leaders for companies.

Given that, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to reach out to the Ellens and Oprahs of the world. Ellen DeGeneres has a show to advertise. Oprah has a fledgling cable network that needs to advertise. If one of them were to buy a WPS team and operate it for roughly the same money that Puma spent each of the past three years to equip WPS teams and then have stores that don’t even offer soccer gear, would that be such a bad investment?

And for many fans, petitions are all they can do. It’s not reasonable to ask someone in Seattle to buy Sky Blue season tickets. That fan can only support the league by watching games and possibly buying merchandise.

So maybe instead of U.S. Soccer requiring a season-ticket drive, it should require a merchandise drive? Get all 45,000-plus signees to buy a T-shirt?

It’s moot at this point, anyway. The call is due to start in less than an hour. We might hear nothing tonight, or U.S. Soccer could just punt a decision once again. Or the next few hours could be the most important in league history.

4
soccer

WPS: It’s pretty much officially not going to be six teams in 2012

Posted on by Beau Dure

The reason given for the delay in WPS sanctioning was to give the league time to line up a sixth team.

That has not happened. Here’s WPS CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan:

While our discussions with expansion candidates continue to be positive, we are now at a point in time where adding a team for 2012 at this late date could put the club at a great disadvantage both in a business and competitive sense. We are moving forward in planning the 2012 season with the current field of five teams that are committed to play in the League and continuing expansion discussions for 2013.

So O’Sullivan and company have been making the case to U.S. Soccer’s Pro League Task Force that the league should be sanctioned in 2012. Not much comment about those discussions beyond this, also from O’Sullivan:

While we won’t comment in detail about our ongoing discussions with U.S. Soccer, we can say our meeting on Tuesday with U.S. Soccer regarding the sanctioning of WPS for 2012 was productive. Discussions will continue and we’re hopeful to have an opportunity next season to build upon the league’s strong momentum, both on and off the field.

Also today, U.S. women’s national team captain Christie Rampone did a Twitter chat on the U.S. Soccer WNT feed. She likes to sew, wants to be remembered as someone who led by example, treasures her fitness and prefers chemistry to biology. She did not address WPS.

Other WPS-related reads:

– GOOD suggests women’s sports should be run as a charity, not as a business. That’s an unfortunate choice of words (“degrading,” said at least one sane person on Twitter), but the notion of subsidizing a sport isn’t unusual. It’s done in other sports all the time, but it’s usually a bit more subtle than saying “charity.” (For a contrasting view, see the espnW piece that former WNBA president Val Ackerman wrote in October.)

– A couple of us have reported for a while that the Vancouver Whitecaps weren’t planning to leap into WPS as it currently stands. This Canadian Soccer News interview goes into more detail.

3
soccer

Great time for promotion/relegation fans to step up

Posted on by Beau Dure

Because I wrote a book about Major League Soccer that sold at least 10 copies and long held a position in which USA TODAY tolerated a small amount of soccer writing, I’m something of a lightning rod for what we might call “promotion/relegation zealotry.”

The funny thing is that these folks don’t say, “Hey, you’ve done a lot of painstaking and not particularly profitable research on the business of American soccer — let’s talk about what would need to happen to make a traditional league system work in this country.” These folks insist on yelling at me and ignoring what I have to say in response, as if I’m completely ignorant of the issues but would have the power to push their cause forward if I’d only adopt their slogans. People don’t do this in MMA — I’ve never had people yell at me to say, “Admit it — you’re part of the coverup to keep the UFC from adopting a tournament format!” In soccer, I’m not alone in this — every once in a while on Twitter, you see another soccer journalist say, “Enough. I’ve tried to be reasonable, and now I’m blocking you.”

Every once in a while (and it happened in the past week), someone’s reasonable about it. But more typically, I draw people who think (A) promotion/relegation should happen now or (B) there is an active conspiracy to prevent promotion/relegation from happening.

The simple fact is this — to my knowledge and to the knowledge of other journalists and soccer scholars,  no one has ever put forward a plan to put capital behind a promotion/relegation system. You can’t vote “yay” or “nay” on something that doesn’t exist.

Soccer leagues of the past certainly weren’t lining up to mimic the English way. David Wangerin’s must-read Soccer in a Football World tells us about owners of 1920s and 1930s who came from other sports and sometimes resisted putting their “major league” clubs in the same Cup competitions. The NASL pretty much didn’t even bother with the Open Cup, and it had quite a few gimmicky rules. And yet its “closed system” and Americanized game didn’t prevent a flood of investors, including quite a few English and European folks, from jumping in with both feet.

The reality is that promotion/relegation has simply never been on the table. If you don’t have 20 or more teams lined up and ready to go, there’s not much point. And when we’re still facing the reality of a successful MLS team (D.C. United) unable to make a deal with any of the quirky municipalities in its metro area to get a stadium built, we can’t say we have the facilities in place, either.

But remember, we’re dealing with conspiracy theorists here. So when you raise these arguments, you’re just part of the conspiracy. And you get asked questions like “I don’t understand why non-MLS shareholders work so hard to defend model which blocks more investment in the American game.” (Well, MLS teams now have a few Designated Players spots to use, teams can develop Home-Grown Players through youth academies, Toronto is spending $20 million on a youth facility, and Kansas City’s ownership has revitalized a moribund MLS market with great marketing, a good team and a beautiful stadium, so … what investment is being blocked?)

That usually leads to every criticism of MLS, just or unjust, being laid at your doorstep as if it’s your fault. Or that all of these problems would be magically fixed by waves of moneyed investors if U.S. Soccer would simply force a promotion/relegation scheme into existence even though no one has made a proposal for such a league (and certainly didn’t back in 1993, when MLS was the winner among the three bids to bring Division I soccer back from the dead in the United States).

And it doesn’t matter if you believe on a personal level that it’d be really cool if the USA had a promotion/relegation system, in part because it would mean that a lot of logistical hurdles and cultural antipathy had been overcome. I wouldn’t stop following MLS if it suddenly went pro/rel, and I think most fans would stick around. (At the league level, at least — demoted teams tend to lose a little bit at the gate.)

Anyway, the point isn’t to rehash what I’ve said before or what keeps going around BigSoccer (coincidentally, a great summary was posted on Tuesday). It’s tempting to do a thorough list of promotion/relegation myths akin to anti-creationism sites like TalkOrigins.

Here’s the point: Promotion/relegation fanatics have a golden opportunity to step forward. In women’s soccer.

As of today, WPS is awaiting word on Division I sanctioning for 2012. Regardless of whether that goes through, 2013 might be wide open. WPS likely will need some expansion to maintain sanctioning for 2013.

If someone wants to present an alternate plan for a soccer league based on promotion/relegation, now is the time.

So there you have it. Want promotion/relegation? Convinced investors would be more likely to go for that than the U.S. model? Great! Let’s see it.

17
soccer

Brainstorming as WPS deadline approaches

Posted on by Beau Dure

Update: Jeff Kassouf says on Twitter that the Monday deadline may be extended so that WPS can make a presentation to U.S. Soccer, which may not happen until Tuesday. I’m not sure that WPS had a representative in the room when U.S. Soccer’s board initially voted. I know Jennifer O’Sullivan (death in the family) wasn’t there.

Also an interesting interview with Christine Sinclair, who envisions a lot of players going overseas if WPS isn’t sanctions. The European calendar (see a colorful version) actually suits players pretty well, with the Champions League wrapping two months before the Olympics. I see German league games listed for May 28, still nearly two weeks before the Games kick off. Whether U.S. Soccer would let players venture overseas is an interesting question. (Sinclair’s Canadian.)

Original post: The U.S. Soccer board met Nov. 20 and gave WPS a 15-day extension (or ultimatum, though WPS CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan isn’t reading it that way) to come up with a sixth team to get Division I sanctioning for 2012. It’s Day 12. Deadline Day is Monday.

But since then, I’ve spoken with a few people who think Division II wouldn’t be the end of the world. By the letter of the law, that makes no sense — the same “eight teams or waiver” restriction for Division I also applies to Division II or Division III, unless there’s a bylaw amendment I don’t know. (That’s certainly possible.) Yet these people think Division II may be a better description of the league next season, and it would reduce some pressure to rev up spending in a year in which the league needs to retrench.

What would be lost? Some talent, surely. International stars would be less likely to sign, as would the top U.S. national team players. But those losses might be unavoidable, anyway. The Olympic schedule leaves little time for a full season with London-bound players, especially with the league’s current state of limbo making it unreasonable to kick off the 2012 season early in the year.

Another issue that has been kicked around — were U.S. players overtrained in 2011 between their clubs and the national team? Perhaps. And surely that’s something they can solve. MLS players operate on more compressed international windows than WPS players, and we didn’t hear rumblings that they were being stretched too thinly. Most of the rumblings I’ve heard pin the blame on WPS teams, but perhaps the WNT can scale back a bit as well?

But the communication lines to solve that problem well be better-established in 2015 than in 2012. For next season, the most reasonable course might be to let the national team players spend most of their time in residency with just one coaching staff monitoring their fitness.

Notice that I said “most.” Here’s an idea to keep national team players involved without overstressing their bodies or putting their medal bonuses/sponsorships in undue jeopardy.

In 2004, the WUSA played a few exhibitions, cobbling together makeshift versions of the Washington Freedom, San Diego Spirit and company to play a couple of games to keep the WUSA concept afloat. It didn’t work, of course — these were the last gasps of a dying league.

But now we’re in another Olympic year with a few teams ready to proceed with a league. The infrastructure is in place.

So how about playing a few exhibitions in which some national team players join existing teams as guest players?

Even in a best-case scenario, most national team players will be around only for a few games next season. So why not separate those games from the league schedule and sell them as special events? And if they’re called exhibitions, perhaps the risk of injury will be lessened — players shouldn’t be at any more risk in an exhibition game than they would be in a U.S. practice.

Here’s how it would work for all the people involved:

USWNT core players: They can spend most of their 2012 in residency but still get a few competitive games with club teams.

Other players: They keep playing. Salaries shouldn’t change too much. Without paying the WNT players for most of a season, teams should have enough money to pay everyone else what they were making in 2011 for non-Borislow teams.

Hard-core fans: They get a full WPS season with decent players and a few chances to see the top players in action as well.

The Abby-autograph cult: Think Sahlen might sell a few tickets if Abby Wambach made an appearance in a Flash uniform? Probably. Think the fans will be too distraught over the fact that the game doesn’t count in the league standings? Probably not.

WPS and its owners: One more season of continuity without breaking the bank, giving them time to line up the expansion teams and sponsors they seem confident of getting down the road.

The long-term goal is to have a fully functioning league in 2013. USWNT players should be less reticent to play in the league that year because there’s nothing significant on the international calendar, and they’ll need competitive club games to stay sharp.

So perhaps the “guest players” for those exhibitions aren’t really guests. Maybe they sign two- or three-year deals with their clubs now with the agreement that they won’t play league games in 2012. So when, say, Heather O’Reilly appears for Sky Blue in a 2012 exhibition, it’s a reminder of what’s to come in 2013.

I have to stress — I have no reporting to suggest that this modified 2012 schedule is one of the options WPS and U.S. Soccer are discussing. The idea came to me while I was making breakfast for my kids.

What I can say from reporting is that it’s going to take something creative to make this work for 2012. Everybody (well, almost everybody) wants a league. In 2013, that league should have at least 7-8 teams, with whatever salaries the market will bear. In 2012, it’s going to take a clever compromise.

4
soccer

The WPS vigil: Nov. 30 update

Posted on by Beau Dure

The WPS saga is starting to creep out beyond the women’s soccer media into some other outlets:

  • The Soccer America headline “History isn’t on WPS’s side” doesn’t quite tell you what’s in Paul Kennedy’s analysis. History isn’t on WPS’s side in the sense that World Cup booms typically don’t last. (Not mentioned here: That’s also true in men’s soccer. Or any Olympic sport, frankly.) Kennedy states two points well worth remembering. First, WPS doesn’t have its Anschutz or its Hunt, someone with extraordinarily deep pockets who has demonstrated that he’ll stick it out no matter what. (Little wonder the Twittersphere reaches out to Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey or, more curiously, Rachel Maddow. Being on TV doesn’t make you a megamillionaire, folks.) Second, if WPS fails, it’s likely to be a long time before we see another Division I league. We’ll get back to this point.
  • The head of women’s soccer for FIFA, Tatjana Haenni, hopes WPS survives. That’s not the most interesting part of this AP story. Check out Eniola Aluko, saying she was fortunate to play for a big salary in the league’s first year and that it should’ve been more conservative from the get-go.
  • Venerable soccer writer Frank Dell’Apa summarizes the story for Boston.com. The suggestion that WPS terminated magicJack “mistakenly having been assured a replacement had been lined up in Connecticut” is interesting. I’d like to find out more about that. Surely the league would deny it, and in any case, they seem to have reached their breaking point with Dan Borislow no matter how many teams they had.
  • Player signings! Anita Asante and Carolyn Blank will stick with Sky Blue.
  • Fox Sports Southwest pounces on Megan Rapinoe’s Tweet to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, imploring him to buy a team. Cuban’s HDNet once broadcast MLS. But the reality check here is that it would be awfully difficult to start from scratch and start a team.
Back in our cozy women’s soccer world, Lauren Barker adds some levity (and insight) in a post at All White Kit.
The big argument for WPS overnight: Anthony DiCicco (not the former WUSA commissioner or Breakers coach) offers a long, eloquent open letter offering unsolicited advice for everyone involved — the league, U.S. Soccer and fans.
  • To the fans: Twitter isn’t going to help. (This is where I disagree — Twitter is a useful rallying point. If it’s the end result, maybe that’s a bad thing. But it’s a convenient place to start.)
  • To the league: Put forth a compelling, sustainable vision.
  • To U.S. Soccer: Yeah, we know the league is flawed, but come on! Do you really expect to have a competitive national team without a top-level league?
He actually sounds a lot like Kate Markgraf, though Markgraf might be more of a Twitter fan than he is. (And again, apologies — Markgraf certainly wasn’t “ranting” in any pejorative sense. She made a good strong case, particularly given the limitations of Twitter.)
Back to the other front of WPS’s current battles — I asked Dan Borislow if he had a court date for his lawsuit yet, and his response was, “Wed for venue.” WPS has argued that Florida lacks jurisdiction over this suit, and that Borislow should’ve filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Borislow has said he’ll pursue justice wherever he needs to go — I was joking when I said “Mars,” but I take him to be quite serious. I’m not sure moving the case helps either party. A delay would surely irritate Borislow. And it might leave the league in limbo a little bit longer while it tries to line up sponsors and perhaps another team, all while the clock is ticking.
5
soccer

All the Borislow-WPS legal documents (so far)

Posted on by Beau Dure

Plenty of people have been asking to see the exhibits. Careful what you wish for. See the whole thing at Scribd. Some language NSFW.

Links to the individual documents follow (since I can’t get the Scribd widget to embed here) …

Previously linked here:

Borislow’s exhibits

  • Exhibit A: WPS LLC agreement
  • Exhibit B: WPS agreement with teams
  • Exhibit C: Sun-Sentinel feature on Wambach
  • Exhibit D: Letter from WPS attorney Pamela Fulmer on summer dispute
  • Exhibit E: Follow-up letter from Fulmer
  • Exhibit F: espnW story on new CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan
  • Exhibit G: One page of an invoice. WPS disputes that it sought $2.5 million from Borislow. There’s no context in this invoice, so it’s very difficult to tell what’s being sought.
  • Exhibit H: Letter from Borislow attorney Louis Ederer on “purported termination”
  • Exhibit I: Response from Fulmer to Ederer
  • Exhibit J: Palm Beach Post story on termination
  • Exhibit K: Palm Beach Post story from summer

WPS exhibits

  • Exhibits 1-15: BoingBoing story on Borislow’s suit against their site, email exchanges over sponsor signage, email from Briana Scurry, and a couple of insulting emails.
  • Exhibits 16-28: League notice of several violations from first magicJack home games and from public comments.
  • Exhibits 29-40: Atlanta Beat protest, email exchange over whether Borislow contacted bench during suspension, union grievance.
  • Exhibits 41-62: All about the termination.

And that’s all for now.

6
soccer

WPS rips Borislow in legal documents

Posted on by Beau Dure

Update: My story on the situation has been posted at espnW.

For those just joining us: Dan Borislow, who turned the Washington Freedom into a star-studded South Florida team called magicJack last year, is suing WPS over his termination from the league. See the legal documents on his lawsuit, the espnW story on the suit, Borislow’s statement on the suit, and Borislow’s second statement after WPS was not immediately granted Division I status with five teams for the 2012 season.

Today, I’ll have another story at espnW on the league’s response to the lawsuit and U.S. Soccer’s decision to delay Division I sanctioning for next season. In the meantime, I have the league’s legal response to the suit (“opposition to motion”) and its motion to dismiss the suit. They’re PDF files, of course:

Opposition to Motion

Motion to Dismiss

WPS is seeking dismissal of the suit plus legal fees for this suit and the August lawsuit.

 

2
soccer

Borislow: Reasons WPS is dead, how to save it

Posted on by Beau Dure

Update: From Philadelphia – “The accusation that the franchise offered $6,000 to a WNT member for the year is completely false.  The Independence has been in talks with WNT members and none of them have been offered the amount put forward by Dan Borislow’s statement.”

Original post: The dispute between magicJack owner Dan Borislow and Women’s Professional Soccer could have an impact beyond the courtroom. Over the weekend, U.S. Soccer decided not to sanction WPS as a Division I league next season — for now. U.S. Soccer says it’ll give WPS 15 days to expand from its current five teams to six.

Two ways to read that decision:

1. USSF will sanction WPS but wants to give it a little more time to nail down a deal for an expansion team. No point in sanctioning five right now if there’s a significant chance of having six instead.

2. USSF has given WPS an ultimatum — get a sixth team, or you’re not Division I.

The latter would be a major problem. If WPS isn’t a sanctioned Division I league, there’s no way U.S. national team players would participate. (They’re already hesitating to sign up for next year, multiple sources have said.)

A sanctioned Division II league really wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Why have only five pro teams in a league when they could just as easily join one of the existing pro-am leagues (WPSL or W-League)?

Another option: Just take a year off, given the fact that the Olympics will pose a major conflict in the first place (assuming the USA qualifies, which is not a safe assumption). Perhaps teams could play a brief exhibition season, which would provide a nice change of pace from residency and friendlies — which also cost U.S. Soccer a considerable sum of money.

No one has raised that option in public, though Borislow suggests a one-year hiatus below. But WPS and USSF aren’t saying anything in public right now. They’ve made it clear that they prefer to keep their discussions private.

That’s not the Dan Borislow way. The following statement includes a few substantive disagreements over the direction of the league — how much to pay players, how much emphasis to put on U.S. national team players and so forth. It also includes a few petty insults of a few of the league’s officials.

I feel compelled to point out that some of the things stipulated here are not verified. The accusations that the league “extorted” and “stole” from magicJack without due process will be argued in court, unless the parties settle before that date. We don’t know CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan’s compensation or Philadelphia’s contract offers.

Several league officials have been contacted for comment. They may choose not to comment because litigation is pending, and if they choose not to speak, their silence should not interpreted as acceptance that the following statement is accurate.

With all those disclaimers out of the way, here is Dan Borislow’s statement.

The 10 reasons the WPS is Dead and the only possible life support

1. The Governors thought they were bigger than the rest of organized soccer. They never follow rules including the USSF rules. The Governors and their coaches oversize egos thought they could have a successful league without the best US National team players. They have no idea it’s all about these players.

2. They hire “yes” CEO’s who cannot control their constant misbehavior and bad decisions, therefore there is no checks and balances.

3. Mike Stoller and the Boston Breakers are a solid pair, but they will never close their investors to keep the team alive after the league stole the magicJack team without due process. Who could ever give somebody money knowing the other side has a history of stealing it after extorting the investor for even more money?

4. After the owners find out what the teams want to pay Women, they will bail on the team and the league. I believe the owners of NJ haven’t a clue of what their Governor is doing. I do not believe a person who owns Bed, Bath and Beyond can support a league who wants to pay Women close to what the average income is in the poverty line. These Women would be better of on welfare in many cases. Recently Philadelphia offered a US WNT player $6,000.00 for the year.

5. The proposed pay schedule would have an inexperienced CEO of the league get paid more than what the whole starting team of the US Womens National team get paid. The CEO will make almost as much as what Atlanta wants to pay all their players combined.

6. The league hasn’t an idea of what the product should be. To me ,it is so obvious when we saw Abby’s name being chanted so loud at AWAY games. These games are like rock concerts, where they are just looking for the best performance from World Wide stars. Most teams believe the league can prosper without these type of players. They believe a competitive game is the key. The fans can care less. They want to see Abby, Hope, Christie, Meg and Shannon.

7. The league grossly miscalculated almost every important decision. They first extorted and stole money from magicJack and then when that didn’t work, they seized the team without due process, never thinking they needed a sixth team to be certified a Division 1 team when they are supposed to have 8 teams. They actually think our best WNT players will degrade themselves and play in a Division 2 league without pay. The best players look to endorsements to make a fair living. Who wants a Division 2 player endorsing their product? Injure themselves for what?

8.The league will lose it’s litigation with magicJack and the only chance it had was to listen to us about what the product should be and how to build it. It takes an investment to build something good. They want to pay a worse than worthless CEO and most of the other league leaders, but they dont want to pay the players. What kind of professional sports league is this? It reminds me of the NBA who pays their leader $20 Million a year? are you kidding me and where are they now? Part of the whole problem of the NBA is what this one person makes. But at least he does not get paid more than a whole team does. They will lose the litigation because they are wrong and think they are above the law, the USSF and the players.

9. The league never realized they were in a crisis situation. They thought once they had magicJack save the league, that they would use us as a place holder until they found another sucker who would bow to their demands. I begged and pleaded with the Governors to act like they were in a crisis situation, but like most Bankruptcy situations, the owners don’t know they are dead even after they are sitting in Bankruptcy court. It’s will be a remake of the “Night of the Living Dead”

10. The league is represented by one of the the dumbest lawyer’s, Pam Fulmer who is actually involved in the conspiracy to attempt to destroy magicJack. The league has three Governors who couldn’t run a lemonade stand. They have coaches who couldn’t train Lassie to bark. I genuinely feel sorry for Boston and New York who wanted to put on a great show and willing to make the investment to do so.

magicJack believes to save the league, the WPS needs a whole new management team, lawyers, business plan which includes wanting to pay the real Pros real money. All the players would have to become free agents again. The league should ask for a one year hiatus from the USSF and get its act together during that time, including getting owners who can afford to make the proper investment. With the Olympics and all the current controversy, it can never be a successful year for the league. Philadelphia and Atlanta must be replaced for they will never understand what will make this league succesful. New Jersey needs to replace it’s Governor. A reporter said that the players should potentially play this season for the betterment of women’s soccer. This notion is ridiculous, for all of the Women in the world, they should seek some form of equality when they are the most successful soccer team in the US and one of the most succesful -Men or Women-in the World. This league is not good as it stands,it needs a major overhaul. Just because the great majority thinks something is right,doesn’t make it right. Some of the greatest tragedies in the World were premised on that line of thinking. It takes a lot more courage to do something different than the rest of the crowd, but it doesn’t take any courage if it is the ethical thing to do.

Albert Einstein quote:

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

21