Some thoughts on WPS

I have quite a few thoughts and suggestions for the WPS.

The first suggestion is to develop some rivalries, some controversy some star players. All of these things are important to increase awareness and media interest. A lot of people aren't interested in WPS because they have a bad perception of the product. When you say women's soccer to them they automatically assume that it is second rate, or boring or slow. These people need to have their preconceived ideas of the sport changed by star players and the media.

Can you tell me which one of these people is a WPS starter and National Team Player?
A) Loren Sherer B)Kelly Chapman C) Katriana Wilson D) Stephanie Cox

How many American Sports fans have heard of Marta? and if they have do they know she won the FIFA Women's Player of the Year award?

How many know who Abby Wambach is? If you are from Rochester you know who she is. Outside of them and a few die hard fans not that many others know who one of the leagues premier players is.

How many WPS fans hate Hope Solo. If the answer is only a handful then they probably aren't paying much attention to her tweets. I love Hope Solo to be honest. The Women's game needs more people like her. She creates controversy and that creates interest.

Poor perception of the league isn't the only thing hurting it.

The venues hurt the league. Some teams play in poor facilities that our not soccer specific and are not decorated in the WPS's teams colors. This causes problems.

A large market for the WPS is the young family with girl soccer players. Big problem here is that to generalize most of these families devote all their weekends to soccer. Most parents aren't thrilled about taking a day that doesn't revolve around soccer and making into a trip to the stadium that revolves around soccer.

Young girls also tend to forget about the game afterwards. They get excited about the team and autographs they get but the next day they often don't go to school and tell all their friends about it. They don't go and read the newspaper for the latest WPS rumors and they often don't try to organize trips with their friends to a WPS game on Friday night. They certainly don't get excited about a fantasy draft for a WPS team.

Many families who watch women's soccer are affluent. Women's Soccer is a wealthier sport than many people probably realize. Wealthy families can afford to do many different things, like going on vacation, the theatre, trying wakeboarding and surfing. These families will go to a WPS game, but not more than once or twice a year because they can afford to spread out their entertainment dollars across many different activities.

Some of my tips for the WPS:

Shorten the season. There are too many games. Less games should increase demand and at the same time lower operating costs. The average fan doesn't go to a large percentage of games. I don't think they will mind a shorter season.

US Soccer and the WPS needs to market a new generation of women's soccer players. Women's Soccer is not remotely close to being on the nation's radar. The chances of WPS being on our radar is about as good as a single engine plane in Alaska being on the radar at JFK International Airport. America should get to know Hope Solo, Kelley O'Hara and Amy Rodriguez.

Take next season off. Next year is the women's world cup. This goes back to supply and demand too. Does Women's Soccer really want to have the small amount of women's soccer fans splitting their money and eyes between the WPS and the Women's World Cup. Splitting their viewership and money will lower ratings for both events/organizations. That's a bad thing.

Try to grow Women's Soccer as a sport and not WPS. Make people interested in the U.S. National team and hope that will generate some interest for pro soccer the year after. The WPS has enough problems to worry about for next season. It should shut next season down and not have to worry about getting people interested in watching a league whose best players will all be on National Team duty. The WPS can use the time to evaluate their business operations and make things more efficient. They can re-evaluate budgets and plan for the future.

One thing the WPS has not done is try to be TOO big like the WUSA. This doesn't mean that the WPS won't have the same fate of the WUSA, but atleast this time the WPS isn't putting itself into debt up to their eyeballs. It might be at their belly button, but it's improvement.

The WPS doesn't lack effort. Everyone in the league works hard and long hours. I do think adopting some of those tips will help the league out.

I don't know if the WPS has hit an iceberg yet and is taking on water. However, I do suspect that it's headed for an iceberg now and the league needs to take measures to change its course and avoid sinking.

WPS fans, I think, should just hope that the league takes next year off. I really believe it's vitally important to do that.