Commentary: Why women's soccer failed

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- There was a significant development in the sports world this week, and it generated very little reaction.

On Monday, just five days before the start of Women's World Cup, the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) shut down, citing a shortfall in revenues. Basically, the league had a money crisis brought about by a lack of corporate sponsorship in a tough economic climate.

The decision to suspend operations after just three seasons is an indictment of the American sports fan, and that includes women.

Remember all the good feeling that resulted in this country after the United States won the Women's World Cup in 1999? That, people thought, would be the boost soccer needed for women AND men to help the sport get the kind of interest and enthusiasm it has been lacking, right?

Not even close.

One report I saw indicated that owners invested more than $100 million in the eight-team WUSA, the league lost $40 million alone in its inaugural 2001 season -- an amount the league thought it would lose over five years -- owners and investors pumped in another $60 million last year, and the league needed $20 million to operate in 2004 or face bankruptcy.

Crowds dropped 17.8 percent to 6,667 per game this season from 8,116 in 2001.

How does that happen? I'm going to make some people angry here, but it happened because the sport just could not generate the interest of even the casual sports fan, mostly women. You know, the guy who occasionally watches or attends a sports event basically as a diversion or because he thinks there's nothing better to do or, in the case of many women, just want to be with or around the men in their lives, whatever the reason. I know couples like this.

The WUSA had three major obstacles: soccer is not a widely supported sport in this country, its players were women, and except when a title is at stake, as was the case Tuesday night in the WNBA game between Detroit and Los Angeles, men don't watch or attend women's events. It didn't help that television ratings were minimal.

The Washington Times reported that several investors, including Comcast Corp., privately indicated they wanted to reduce or cease their investment. How could the league continue to exist in this climate?

It couldn't. The fact that we keep seeing these record-breaking contracts in the major sports -- baseball, football and men's basketball - to me makes laughable the argument that this is a tough economic atmosphere. That argument just does not wash when we have billion-dollar television deals for the NFL and men's NCAA Tournament in college basketball and men are being paid anywhere from $10 to $25 million a year in baseball, and a high schooler, LeBron James, signed a multimillion-dollar shoe contract before he was even drafted by an NBA team much less played in an NBA game?

"I haven't given up," said the well-known Mia Hamm of the WUSA champion Washington Freedom, who may be the sport's most recognizable player. "There's just too much good in this league. I believe too much in this product."

If you've ever watched a women's soccer game, you know that Mia Hamm is no slouch. She can play, but so can others. They deserve better. This might not be fair, but if you live long enough, you learn countless times that life is not fair and if you think it is, you've got more lumps to take.

"I was intoxicated by what I saw at the 1999 Women's World Cup and the sponsorships that were associated with that," John Hendricks, the WUSA's founding investor and chairman of Washington-based Discovery Communications, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I mistakenly assumed it would flow over into a league."

Unfortunately, that about says it all, but this may not be the end.

You can bet that investors in other leagues like the WNBA, Major League Soccer, and even the National Hockey League have been watching their bottom lines and have taken notice.