BY SCOTT FRENCH Nov. 1 is the target date for the WUSA to complete moving its league offices from New York to Atlanta, but even league president Lynn Morgan acknowledges that it’s an “aggressive deadline.” Nobody has yet made the move, which was announced shortly after the Aug. 25 championship game when Cox Enterprises — a WUSA investor and operator of the Atlanta Beat and San Diego Spirit — offered the WUSA office space and company resources. There’s still much work to be done, but Morgan — Atlanta’s general manager last season whose promotion was part of the move south — is confident everything will be in place by mid-November, if not sooner. “It’s a pretty massive undertaking,” she says. “We’re actually ready to move down, the question is can we make the move as seamless as possible — get all the computer set-ups and telephone lines in place, the furnishings.” The plan is to avoid a “blackout period” in which the employees are unable to do their jobs because their workspaces are not operational. No word yet on how much WUSA personnel will relocate, but Morgan says the league staff will be “smaller than the one that existed in New York.” Cox will absorb some positions, primarily administrative support — payroll and benefits and human resources and the like. Some marketing services will remain in New York, and Commissioner Tony DiCicco, a Connecticut resident, will continue to work from New York, at least for next season and perhaps beyond. “A lot of administrative infrastructure exists here,” says Morgan, a former University of Georgia tennis player who has been with Cox nearly a decade. “As we get deeper with the Cox organization and understand what other roles [Cox] needs to step up and take over, we’ll make decisions as we go.” Actually, there will be two moves. The WUSA will occupy Cox’s current offices starting in November, then move to a building Cox is having constructed a block away. Morgan says the new building should be ready early next year. Morgan is focusing most of her energies on the shift south, and she’s also evaluating how best to move forward in Year 2. “We’re starting to evaluate some of our best practices, to understand where we did some really good things and where we need to step up and do things more effectively,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to step back and visit the lessons we’ve learned, where the league as an operation can be more helpful to the individual teams and where the teams can provide knowledge to the league. We’re going to learn as the league goes on how we can serve as a resource to [individual teams].” One of the biggest challenges facing the WUSA is how to improve sponsorship during a recession. The league did not meet its sponsorship goals last season, and companies are thinking much more carefully about how to spend marketing dollars in a slow economy. “We need to be a creative partner with the sponsors, provide to them all the opportunities we know we can,” Morgan says. “We’re so very different, perhaps we’re a distinct way for people to extend their marketing dollars. Even though the [economy has slowed], people are not going to stop marketing or advertising. … We need to make them understand the value of spending dollars with us as opposed to someone else.” There’s much else to do. The league would like to increase attendance by 50 percent — which would mean an average of about 12,000 per game — improve its name recognition within the marketplace, and continue to take steps that will cement its future. “I think we’ve been very smart in [that we’ve been taking] baby steps,” Morgan says. “We recognized we need to walk before we run. We’ve done a good job at that this year. Now we may start jogging. We’re not about to go into a full sprint.” BIASES: Morgan was GM of the Beat, and she set up San Diego’s operations before handing off to GM Kevin Crow. Now she’s in a position where she can’t publicly cheer for any one squad. With Atlanta the pre-preseason favorite to capture the second WUSA crown, will Morgan find it difficult to cease being a Beat supporter? “I don’t think so,” she says. “I think it’ll be fun. I’m a fan of the league. I’ll be a fan of the home team in every market.” She may need a few lessons in this regard from Bud Selig, who was owner and president of the Milwaukee Brewers before he became Major League Baseball’s commissioner. “I may,” she says, “have to call him for help.”