If the world’s best female soccer player scores two goals in the tiny township of Bridgewater, N.J. (population: approximately 45,000/game attendance: 6,053), does anybody hear it? That’s more or less the question put forth by Goal.com’s Andrea Canales, who wonders whether WPS, despite featuring a player like Marta that “legitimizes WPS as the highest echelon of competition,” can survive the current economy and a cluttered sports landscape to escape the fate that befell an equally optimistic WUSA.
Although league officials and fans alike might be a bit haunted by “the ghost of the departed Women’s United Soccer Association,” Canales makes the case that “the WUSA didn’t die in vain,” as that league’s failures helped WPS organizers adapt to more “modest expectations” and correct the flaw of “standing alone when trying to build soccer in the United States” and not partnering with the already established MLS.
This time around, the smaller venues of WPS mean “a crowd of 6,000 or so can be deemed a sellout” and a brother-sister act with Major League Soccer means doubleheaders that will help cross-promote two teams in the same market. The WPS is also smart to establish a team in MLS-less cities like St. Louis, where there is “the potential to be the big draw in soccer for the region.”