Charting a course for growth of women’s soccer
After their 1999 World Cup triumph, the United States was the role model for women’s soccer around the world.
But, 20 years later, even though the U.S. team won yet another World Cup trophy, the most important role models for the sport lie across the pond in Europe.
Those are the large European soccer clubs that have invested in women’s teams and not only have helped create more parity in the sport but have made it possible for the athletes to earn a decent living and play their sport yearround.
Now it’s time for this country to also find a way to make that possible.
It’s a tougher task, of course, than it is in more soccermad countries. The challenge in Europe was to prove to the men in charge of the sport that women were worth the investment, but the resources were wellestablished. Filthy rich soccer clubs, some of the wealthiest sports franchises in the world, could throw cash toward women’s teams if they were motivated.
Over the past two decades, they have done so in incremental stages. The 2019 World Cup provided the proof that what they have done was worth the investment. The motivation is now there.
What can be done here? Major League Soccer loves to boast of success in its 23year history, and it continues to grow, planning to expand from 24 teams to 27 by 2021
and aiming at 30 soon after that. But can MLS sustain a women’s league? Do its leaders have the motivation and desire?
They should. As the professional league that was created as a condition by FIFA to award the 1994 World Cup to the United States, MLS was born out of the impetus to grow the game in this country. That should not be a genderspecific mandate.
If the league is as established and healthy as it claims, it is time to invest in women’s teams that could share the league’s soccerspecific stadiums (many built at taxpayer expense), team resources and continue to grow American soccer.
The National Women’s Soccer League has a toehold in this country, with almost all of the players on the U.S. team and many other of the World Cup players competing in the league. In the final days of the World Cup, NWSL announced a television deal with ESPN and a multiyear sponsorship deal with Budweiser, which are both positive steps.
NWSL, founded in 2012 with modest goals, has lasted longer than any other women’s league. The WPS was created in the midst of the recession and didn’t have much of a fighting chance. The WUSA, born in the effervescent hopes and dreams of the 1999 World Cup, fizzled in large part becaue of overly lofty ambitions.
Four of the existing nine NWSL teams are affiliated with MLS franchises: Orlando, Houston, Portland and Real Salt Lake. The Portland Thorns are by far the healthiest of those four, with passionate fans, a twin match for the popular and successful Timbers.
Can the Earthquakes support an NWSL team? The ties to women’s soccer run deep in the Bay Area — about a third of the world championship team either played collegiately here or call the Bay Area home or both. The Bay Area CyberRays won the first championship of the WUSA in 2001.
According to a team spokesman, the Earthquakes have explored adding a NWSL team, either by doing it themselves or partnering with another entity, such as a big European club that would share the branding.
Although the Earthquakes have a beautiful venue in Avaya Stadium, the team is cramped in its infrastructure, and finding training and lockerroom facilities for a women’s team that wouldn’t be laughably unequal would require investment.
Unlike the big European clubs, MLS owners don’t have money to toss around. One of the reasons behind the league expansion is that expansion fees provide a quick infusion of cash. Turning any kind of a profit is an entirely different question, and many MLS clubs are underwater.
This is where we turn to the sport’s evil but necessary parent, FIFA. Last week, FIFA President Gianni Infantino made grandiose promises for the women’s side of the sport. He wants to increase the World Cup to 32 teams and double the overall prize money to $60 million (still microscopic compared with what FIFA awards the men). Infantino also promised a $1 billion investment in the women’s game over the next fouryear cycle, referencing the organization’s obscenely large cash reserves.
“We don’t need all this money in the Swiss banks,” he said of the $2.7 billion on which FIFA is sitting.
One billion dollars spread around the globe, especially in countries that have long ignored the women’s game, won’t go far. But it would be nice if FIFA could throw some money to the United States to strengthen and expand the NWSL and incentivize MLS teams like the Earthquakes to take the plunge into the women’s game.
The United States built the women’s game. Now it needs to build a women’s league.