Future of WPS

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Coach Shawn Daugherty on September 22, 2009 at 10:52pm

I'm seeing a lot of things that revolve around two particular areas:
PR (Personal Relations)
Finances

Why those two? If you were in charge, like Red Blue noted, how would you change things. We want to hear your thoughts, encourage your creativity. Look, this post has already gathered the attention of WPS, so we might as well brainstorm on the ideas of what the future COULD hold for this program.

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Permalink Reply by Red and Blue on September 23, 2009 at 10:48am

A few more ideas...

- The Red Stars practiced all over the Western Chicago Suburbs. Now maybe not all of the practices need to be open, but what about notifying people where a practice is in case they want to go and watch...like football preseason practices. Especially in the summer. Maybe a "Where are the Red Stars today" ..
- The first game or so the developmental players walked the parking lot and greeted people. That should have continued all season long.
- Access to the visiting players. Lets face it, the Red Stars had some good players, but so did the visiting team. For Marta they did a promotion, which was great. How about with other teams and their players?
- They did a ticket special on Mothers day, but not Fathers Day. I know some Dads who were not that happy. Also would have been nice if they did the pre game recognition of Fathers.
- St Louis really got their fans going with those little soccer balls after half. It was fun. Figure out how to get the fans going.....
- Loved the Green shirts - this is a Chicago tradition...now why cant we buy them?
- The price for shirts in general is way too high....
- Sky Blue does a great job with Rampone's Rowdies, Kais Krazies....is anyone else creating these cool cheering blocks?
- If we cannot get a game broadcasted, then webcast. If we cant because of contracts, how about a webcast the following week??? What about audio? I listened to the Germany vs England via audio.
- The Tweets were sporadic at best. Since we cant get every game broadcast, figure out how to improve this....
- Would like to see less than $10 seats during the season. Also, the $15 parking price was high....

Okay, I think I am done for now.... :)

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Permalink Reply by chevy on September 23, 2009 at 5:30pm

I know that SkyBlue had their own webcast of each home game available by mid-week following the game on their website. Is there any chance that the rest of the clubs can follow suit? Even if it is an intern doing the play by play.

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Permalink Reply by solalive on September 23, 2009 at 6:08pm

For me WPS was a tremendous success.. The field of play was Amazing. It only will get better when the world cup is finished and more internationals become available.

Points to improve
Longer season
more help from MlS teams to schedual more better start times.
More better webcasts like NFL . Com
fantasy WPS
more VIP experiences for season tickets



WPS said:

Thanks to everybody for your tremendous insight and ideas, :-) we do value your feedback and weigh it heavily in our strategy discussions! Keep the comments coming.

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Permalink Reply by Huey Bahr on September 24, 2009 at 10:26pm

WPS is a good start. Personally, I won't be going to any games for a few seasons because there is no team in my home state and there is no team in an adjacent state. So I would like to see a team in Austin, Texas.

Saturday Evening games are the best for me, because I will likely have to travel several hours each way to make a game. So travel Saturday, go to a game, stay at a motel, and travel back home on Sunday. Obviously not something I would do every week, but we have been making a MLS game about once a year. And since we tend to make it a family reunion, FCD can expect us to buy at least 15 tickets when we come. But here is where WPS would profit if the had a team nearby...I have more daughers than sons.

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Permalink Reply by Bret Leuthner on October 14, 2009 at 1:20pm

To answer both Chevy and Red and Blue...

First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed covering Sky Blue FC games this year and hope to be returning to the booth for their title defense! And once I updated my equipment, we even did live "audio only" webcasts for fans to listen in. Those games were even more fun to do! That said, the posting of games in midweek might actually get moved up, as I have been experimenting with SportsNet America and Sports in the Garden State to upload games faster.

But now as for next season...while Red and Blue has a very good idea with covering away matches, it just isn't cost effective enough yet for a club to send out a crew to do a webcast for a game. These are tough financial times, and having to shell out extra cash for travel expenses would be tough.

What I think should happen is that the home teams have a webcast ready to go...live or delayed...so that EVERY WPS game is covered. And have both teams promote the webcast on their team website as well as all the social networks (Twitter, Facebook, myspace, etc.). That would go a long way in helping fans follow their team all season long.

-Bret Leuthner

chevy said:

I know that SkyBlue had their own webcast of each home game available by mid-week following the game on their website. Is there any chance that the rest of the clubs can follow suit? Even if it is an intern doing the play by play.

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Permalink Reply by Bret Leuthner on October 14, 2009 at 1:27pm

A lot of these are great ideas...but we all also have to consider the economic climate that these clubs face. The clubs have things to consider such as player and staff salaries, rent for the facilities and office space, overhead cost to have the materials made for resale, insurance considerations, and so on. All that said, I believe the prices of many things WPS is very reasonable, especially when compared to other sports leagues. Keep in mind, these are the best female soccer players in the world that are playing, so they have to be compensated more than your typical minor leaguer!

And as for webcasts...see my other post here.

-Bret Leuthner

Red and Blue said:

A few more ideas...

- The Red Stars practiced all over the Western Chicago Suburbs. Now maybe not all of the practices need to be open, but what about notifying people where a practice is in case they want to go and watch...like football preseason practices. Especially in the summer. Maybe a "Where are the Red Stars today" ..
- The first game or so the developmental players walked the parking lot and greeted people. That should have continued all season long.
- Access to the visiting players. Lets face it, the Red Stars had some good players, but so did the visiting team. For Marta they did a promotion, which was great. How about with other teams and their players?
- They did a ticket special on Mothers day, but not Fathers Day. I know some Dads who were not that happy. Also would have been nice if they did the pre game recognition of Fathers.
- St Louis really got their fans going with those little soccer balls after half. It was fun. Figure out how to get the fans going.....
- Loved the Green shirts - this is a Chicago tradition...now why cant we buy them?
- The price for shirts in general is way too high....
- Sky Blue does a great job with Rampone's Rowdies, Kais Krazies....is anyone else creating these cool cheering blocks?
- If we cannot get a game broadcasted, then webcast. If we cant because of contracts, how about a webcast the following week??? What about audio? I listened to the Germany vs England via audio.
- The Tweets were sporadic at best. Since we cant get every game broadcast, figure out how to improve this....
- Would like to see less than $10 seats during the season. Also, the $15 parking price was high....

Okay, I think I am done for now.... :)

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Permalink Reply by Coach Shawn Daugherty on November 6, 2009 at 5:59pm

Financially the WPS were in a much better position then WUSA, except for creating it during the time of a downturn in economic activity. However, if anyone else has noticed, slowly but sure, the economy is getting better. Slowly. I agree, next season will really test the program. That is where we will be to determine how long WPS will last.

This is a bold statement, but as a high school coach I'll say this:
There is a good chance that if WPS plays their cards right, and the USA Women's NT keeps doing well, then I would not be surprised if WPS can compete with with MLS...yes, it will take a while, but just from dealing with my players, girls are up in action about women players. Good luck WPS!

Katy Jones said:

Only way to tell if it was successful is to be able to say if it was profitable or not. Did the investors make a return on their money from ticket sales, advertising and TV rights being sold? I really hope they did and it does come back. It was unfortunate that it started after the economic down turn but after the olympic success it had a lot going for it. If the WPS fails after that publicity, it may well be another 10 years before investors want to risk their cash in a women's soccer league again!

Anyone have any idea on the financials? Are they better than the WUSA?

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Permalink Reply by Supermokh on November 7, 2009 at 5:20am

How long WPS can survive, we are not sure, but I guess right now, WPS should look for more and big time sponsor.
Professional sports need a big time sponsor.
Can't wait for the WPS 2010 season.

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Permalink Reply by Coach Shawn Daugherty on November 8, 2009 at 2:22pm

Granted, WPS does have one large sponser, that being Puma. Obviously Adidas goes over to MLS and such. I agree, more major sponsers need to be landed. Any ideas on those who might be remotely interested? Remember, this time in our economy many businesses do not want the risk if it isn't an assured profit of the sorts.

Supermokh said:

How long WPS can survive, we are not sure, but I guess right now, WPS should look for more and big time sponsor.
Professional sports need a big time sponsor.
Can't wait for the WPS 2010 season.

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Permalink Reply by Sammie Daniels on November 10, 2009 at 6:52pm

If the program is going to grow the league must recruit players from the state from which they play.
There are a lot players in the communities and people will attend games more often to see players that they know
oppose to seeing players that they do not know especially when it is a professional game and on television
When the team visit the parks what better way to sell the wps program than to have a player that not only the
young players can identify with the parent can say hey" I know you from two or four years ago and the parent will ask when is your next game because I want to bring my family and friends to see our home town girl play
The more hometown and state players a team can add to a roster it will be a win for the league
There is way too much time spent trying to sale the older wusa players ,and yes some of them can still play

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Permalink Reply by StarCityFan on November 11, 2009 at 2:21pm

Sammie Daniels said:

If the program is going to grow the league must recruit players from the state from which they play.
There are a lot players in the communities and people will attend games more often to see players that they know
oppose to seeing players that they do not know especially when it is a professional game and on television
When the team visit the parks what better way to sell the wps program than to have a player that not only the
young players can identify with the parent can say hey" I know you from two or four years ago and the parent will ask when is your next game because I want to bring my family and friends to see our home town girl play
The more hometown and state players a team can add to a roster it will be a win for the league
There is way too much time spent trying to sale the older wusa players ,and yes some of them can still play

The Freedom have tried very hard to recruit locally for their W-League team, but unfortunately the way the WPS draft is set up they have very limited control over bringing those players up to the professional team when they're ready to play at that level. They did a good job last year, but there's no guarantee that they'll be able to continue.

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