US-L folding

[Anonymous]

Average attendance at NWSL is 12k. Average USL attendance about 1k. The lady few games have been closer to 200 attendees. DC POWER home game was 250. How can the league sustain this? Are players not paid?

[Anonymous]

Ok. USL Super League. Not USL as a whole because they have a ton of teams in about 3 different tiers for men and just announced promotion/relegation.

I agree the USL Super League is struggling in certain cities - IDK why it was decided to put a team in DC when there was already a NWSL team in place, that's entrenched and well financed. Doesn't make sense to try to compete against that even with the seasons being at different times.

Plus, the DC squad is playing at Audi Field as well - has to be a huge loss to open that place up and only put a few hundred fans in the seats.

Having teams in places without a women's team's presence makes sense or put them where there is already a strong fanbase for women's soccer - see places that draw well for the short season summer league, USLW.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if having a pro team in the same local area is really the reason for the disinterest. I think there is finally some interest in pro womens soccer.. there definitely isn't any in the lower teams. This is less than most college games.

[Anonymous]

Whats weird is somehow NWSL womens pro soccer is what everyone wants to watch. According to the media companies paying for their product. But theres little to no interest in other pro womens leagues? It doesnt make sense. DEI sport? (along with womens basketball)

I wish someone with deep pockets would just buy their way to an amazing Womens USL team then taunt NWSL clubs that have a salary cap.

[Anonymous]

I think there is a pro-team tournament that could match-up USL teams vs NWSL teams. Maybe they would bring some interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a pro-team tournament that could match-up USL teams vs NWSL teams. Maybe they would bring some interest.

NWSL will never play against a USL team. This is because if USL is able to get traction since they have no salary caps they can just buy a team that could beat every NWSL club.

BTW this is also why NWSL is pushing so hard for stadiums with all new franchise clubs. Theyre trying to counter less quality play with the razzle dazzle of in game experience + looking professional on TV.

[Anonymous]

It’s not easy to start a new project sports league. It takes many years of investment and sometimes ends up in surviving or merging with the competing league (AFL football, ABA basketball). And sometimes it fails (USFL). It’s still too soon to tell with USL Super league

[Anonymous]

Odd that the website owner hasn’t deleted this anti women and full of bigotry posts. He must be canvassing for the Governor candidate that wants dudes in female sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Odd that the website owner hasn’t deleted this anti women and full of bigotry posts. He must be canvassing for the Governor candidate that wants dudes in female sports

You win non-sequitor of the day, buddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not easy to start a new project sports league. It takes many years of investment and sometimes ends up in surviving or merging with the competing league (AFL football, ABA basketball). And sometimes it fails (USFL). It’s still too soon to tell with USL Super league

I agree with your comment above - getting traction with a new league isn't easy. What defines success as well? Because I really can't think of a league that hasn't merged with their big brother. or folded. ABA to NBA, AFL to NFL, WHA to NHL.

There are a ton of interesting stories out there about these mergers and how they went down. One of the great stories is from the ABA. The owners of the Spirts of St. Louis negotiated a deal where they collected a small share of television revenue en perpetuity from the 4 ABA teams that were moved over. What a deal - it ended up being millions and millions of dollars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzie_and_Daniel_Silna

The USFL is another great case - the book - Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL is a really good read. I think if the owners would have stayed the course and ran a spring league, they might have had longer term success. But, of course, there was a developer from NYC who got involved and pushed the league to complete directly against the NFL in the fall and pretty much ran it into the ground. There's also a 30 for 30 ESPN episode out there where DJT is interviewed and the $1.00 check the league was awarded was shown to him. Classic!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Like any new league, there will be ebbs and flows and you may see merge and disband. What I don't think that you have seen are any top players jumping over to the USL SL, unlike the USFL, ABA, WHA where you had top level talent playing in the upstart league. What if a Trinity Rodman left DC United and went to the DC Power for bag of cash? Others do similar. That would generate some significant interest for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not easy to start a new project sports league. It takes many years of investment and sometimes ends up in surviving or merging with the competing league (AFL football, ABA basketball). And sometimes it fails (USFL). It’s still too soon to tell with USL Super league

I agree with your comment above - getting traction with a new league isn't easy. What defines success as well? Because I really can't think of a league that hasn't merged with their big brother. or folded. ABA to NBA, AFL to NFL, WHA to NHL.

There are a ton of interesting stories out there about these mergers and how they went down. One of the great stories is from the ABA. The owners of the Spirts of St. Louis negotiated a deal where they collected a small share of television revenue en perpetuity from the 4 ABA teams that were moved over. What a deal - it ended up being millions and millions of dollars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzie_and_Daniel_Silna

The USFL is another great case - the book - Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL is a really good read. I think if the owners would have stayed the course and ran a spring league, they might have had longer term success. But, of course, there was a developer from NYC who got involved and pushed the league to complete directly against the NFL in the fall and pretty much ran it into the ground. There's also a 30 for 30 ESPN episode out there where DJT is interviewed and the $1.00 check the league was awarded was shown to him. Classic!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Like any new league, there will be ebbs and flows and you may see merge and disband. What I don't think that you have seen are any top players jumping over to the USL SL, unlike the USFL, ABA, WHA where you had top level talent playing in the upstart league. What if a Trinity Rodman left DC United and went to the DC Power for bag of cash? Others do similar. That would generate some significant interest for sure.

who is trinity rodman? Therein lies the problem with female sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats weird is somehow NWSL womens pro soccer is what everyone wants to watch. According to the media companies paying for their product. But theres little to no interest in other pro womens leagues? It doesnt make sense. DEI sport? (along with womens basketball)

I wish someone with deep pockets would just buy their way to an amazing Womens USL team then taunt NWSL clubs that have a salary cap.

There are no amazing USL teams.

Basketball and soccer are fairly popular women's sports. Women don't have football or baseball teams. I think the real pros are doing ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a pro-team tournament that could match-up USL teams vs NWSL teams. Maybe they would bring some interest.

They scrimmage each other preseason and the NWSL just slaughters USL teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not easy to start a new project sports league. It takes many years of investment and sometimes ends up in surviving or merging with the competing league (AFL football, ABA basketball). And sometimes it fails (USFL). It’s still too soon to tell with USL Super league

I agree with your comment above - getting traction with a new league isn't easy. What defines success as well? Because I really can't think of a league that hasn't merged with their big brother. or folded. ABA to NBA, AFL to NFL, WHA to NHL.

There are a ton of interesting stories out there about these mergers and how they went down. One of the great stories is from the ABA. The owners of the Spirts of St. Louis negotiated a deal where they collected a small share of television revenue en perpetuity from the 4 ABA teams that were moved over. What a deal - it ended up being millions and millions of dollars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzie_and_Daniel_Silna

The USFL is another great case - the book - Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL is a really good read. I think if the owners would have stayed the course and ran a spring league, they might have had longer term success. But, of course, there was a developer from NYC who got involved and pushed the league to complete directly against the NFL in the fall and pretty much ran it into the ground. There's also a 30 for 30 ESPN episode out there where DJT is interviewed and the $1.00 check the league was awarded was shown to him. Classic!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Like any new league, there will be ebbs and flows and you may see merge and disband. What I don't think that you have seen are any top players jumping over to the USL SL, unlike the USFL, ABA, WHA where you had top level talent playing in the upstart league. What if a Trinity Rodman left DC United and went to the DC Power for bag of cash? Others do similar. That would generate some significant interest for sure.

With the revenue from the 250 fans in the stadium they will never be able to pay for anyone with real talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a pro-team tournament that could match-up USL teams vs NWSL teams. Maybe they would bring some interest.

They scrimmage each other preseason and the NWSL just slaughters USL teams.

They also do friendlies with Mexician teams and college teams like Florida State. (Who I think some NWSL team lost to last year)

The point is that if some really rich person wanted to make NWSL look bad they could just fund a USL team with superstar players. USL has no salary cap so this is completely viable. Think about it, the new Denver NWSL franchise was 110 million. Instead of paying NWSL why not just pay 20 of the top players in the world 1 million each season for 5 seasons on a USL team and beat everyone.