Women's United Soccer Association

The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the United States.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> The league suspended operations on September 15, 2003, shortly after the end of its third season, after making cumulative losses of around US$100 million.<ref name="Confident, yes, but can new league survive?">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Establishment

As a result of the US women's national team's (USWNT) first-place showing in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, a seemingly viable market for the sport germinated.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Feeding on the momentum of their victory, the twenty USWNT players, in partnership with John Hendricks of the Discovery Channel, sought out the investors, markets, and players necessary to form an eight-team league.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The twenty founding players were Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, Tracy Ducar, Lorrie Fair, Joy Fawcett, Danielle Fotopoulos, Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Shannon MacMillan, Tiffeny Milbrett, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Christie Pearce, Tiffany Roberts, Briana Scurry, Kate (Markgraf) Sobrero, Tisha Venturini, Saskia Webber, and Sara Whalen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Initial investment in the league was provided by the following:<ref name="Women’s United Soccer Association">Template:Cite web</ref>

• Time Warner Cable, $5 million<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Cox Enterprises, $5 million
• Cox Communications, $5 million
• Amos Hostetter Jr., $5 million
• Comcast Corporation, $5 million
• John Hendricks and Comcast Corporation, $2.5 million each
• Amos Hostetter Jr. and John Hendricks, $2.5 million each

The U.S. Soccer Federation approved membership of the league as a sanctioned Division 1 women's professional soccer league on August 18, 2000.<ref name="WUSA Granted U.S. Soccer Membership as Division I Women's Professional Soccer League">Template:Cite web</ref> Tony DiCicco was made commissioner.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Media coverage

At various times, games were televised on TNT, CNNSI, ESPN2, PAX TV, and various local and regional sports channels via Comcast,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Cox,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fox, AT&T, and MSG.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) Announces Television Coverage for Every Game During Inaugural Season">Template:Cite web</ref>

TNT and CNN/SI (2001)

TNT<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> broadcast the first<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> WUSA game on April 21, 2001, which was contest between the Atlanta Beat and New York Power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Former U.S. national team member Wendy Gebauer Palladino helped called the game alongside broadcaster JP Dellacamera<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and American soccer great Michelle Akers. About 22 games<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> were scheduled to be broadcast nationally on TNT or CNN/SI<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in 2001. 15 games were initially expected to be shown on TNT<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> and seven games<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> on CNN/SI over the course of June to August.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The deal included broadcast of playoffs and the championship game,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the Founders Cup.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> During a four-year span, TNT and CNN/SI were due to televise at least 88 games,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> under a $3 million TV contract.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Ratings were not available for CNN/SI<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> for the 2001 season as the cable TV provider did not reach enough households to be a statistical factor.

Pax (2002–2003)

After the 2001 season, the WUSA opted out<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> of its four-year<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> agreement to go with a two-year pact<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with the Pax network.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The WUSA's reasoning that Pax's offer for a 4 p.m. Saturday timeslot was more desirable<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> than the noon<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> timeslot that TNT offered.

The change<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> from TNT and CNN/SI to Pax however, may have immediately depressed ratings by confusing fans.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> To be more specific, the WUSA's ratings plunged from the 0.4<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> to 0.2<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> average it got on TNT to a 0.1 average on Pax. In other words, where as an average of 425,000 households tuned in to watch the games on TNT, fewer than 100,000 watched them on Pax. Keep in mind that Pax was a station available in 90 million,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 5 million more than TNT.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The move to Pax also came as AOL Time Warner<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> considered morphing CNN/SI into a basketball channel that would be co-owned with the National Basketball Association.

Pax's coverage in itself, concerned the broadcast of the WUSA Game of the Week, on 19 consecutive Saturdays<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> beginning in April at 4:00 p.m.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (ET). In 2003, the league wouldn't decide on the opponents for the final Pax Game of the Week on August 9 in order to provide soccer fans with the best possible matchup with playoff implications. The decision on the two opponents for the August 9 game would be made in early August. In total,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Pax was scheduled to televise 18<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> regular season games and one WUSA Playoff Semifinal in the second week of August.

Pax would receive certain cross-promotional opportunities with the league, including signs at each team venue, although the WUSA would handle ad sales for the games. The agreement carried a reported value of $2 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ESPN2 (2003)

For the WUSA's third and final season,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> they announced that ESPN2<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> would join Pax in broadcasting 23 league games in 2003. This would begin with a rematch of Founders Cup II<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> with the Washington Freedom visit the Carolina Courage on April 5. ESPN2 was scheduled to broadcast only four of the 23 nationally televised games. This included the All-Star Game<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> on June 19 and the Founders Cup<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> on August 24. Beth Mowins<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Anson Dorrance handled WUSA games on not just Pax<ref>Template:YouTube</ref><ref>Template:YouTube</ref> but ESPN2 also.

The WUSA ultimately scored a 0.1 percent rating on Pax and 0.2 percent on ESPN2.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Teams

The WUSA franchises were located in Philadelphia; Boston; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Cary, N.C.; Atlanta; San Jose, Ca.; and San Diego:

Team	Stadium	City	Founded	Joined WUSA	Left	Notes
Atlanta Beat	Bobby Dodd Stadium	Atlanta, Georgia	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
Boston Breakers	Nickerson Field	Boston, Massachusetts	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
Carolina CourageTemplate:Efn-lr	SAS Stadium	Cary, North Carolina	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
New York Power	Mitchel Athletic Complex	Uniondale, New York	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
Philadelphia Charge	Villanova Stadium	Villanova, Pennsylvania	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
San Diego Spirit	Torero Stadium	San Diego, California	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
San Jose CyberRaysTemplate:Efn-lr	Spartan Stadium	San Jose, California	2000	2001	2003	Dissolved with league
Washington Freedom	RFK Stadium	Washington, DC	2000	2001	2003	Hiatus, resumed with USL W-League in 2006

For the inaugural season, each roster primarily consisted of players from the United States, although up to four international players were allowed on each team's roster.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Among the international players were China's Sun Wen, Pu Wei, Fan Yunjie, Zhang Ouying, Gao Hong, Zhao Lihong, and Bai Jie; Germany's Birgit Prinz, Conny Pohlers, Steffi Jones and Maren Meinert; Norway's Hege Riise, Unni Lehn, and Dagny Mellgren; Brazil's Sissi, Kátia and Pretinha; and Canada's Charmaine Hooper, Sharolta Nonen, and Christine Latham.

The league also hosted singular talents from nations which were not then at the forefront of women's soccer, such as Maribel Dominguez of Mexico, Homare Sawa of Japan, Julie Fleeting of Scotland, Cheryl Salisbury of Australia, Marinette Pichon of France, and Kelly Smith of England.

WUSA Awards

Founders Cup champions

The Founders Cup (named in honor of the 20 founding players) was awarded to the winner of a four-team, single-elimination postseason playoff.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Season	Champion	Score	Runner-Up	City
2001	Bay Area CyberRays	3–3 asdet 4–2 pen	Atlanta Beat	Foxboro, MA
2002	Carolina Courage	3–2	Washington Freedom	Atlanta, GA
2003	Washington Freedom	2–1 asdet	Atlanta Beat	San Diego, CA

"asdet" stands for "after sudden death extra time". WUSA's sudden death overtime was 15 minutes long (two 7½-minute periods) and used only in the playoffs.

League suspension

The WUSA played for three full seasons, suspending operations on September 15, 2003, shortly after the conclusion of the third season.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Neither television ratings nor attendance met forecasts, while the league spent its initial $40Template:Nbspmillion budget, planned to last five years, by the end of the first season. Even though the players took salary cuts of up to 30% for the final season, with the founding players (who also held an equity stake in the league) taking the largest cuts, that was not enough to bring expenses under control.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> In the hopes of an eventual relaunch of the league, all rights to team names, logos, and similar properties were preserved. Efforts to line up new sources of capital and operating funds continued. In June 2004, the WUSA held two "WUSA Festivals" in Los Angeles and Blaine, Minnesota, featuring matches between reconstituted WUSA teams (often with marquee players borrowed from other teams), in order to maintain the league in the public eye and sustain interest in women's professional soccer.<ref name="SOCCER; Women's Soccer League Folds on World Cup's Eve">Template:Cite news</ref>

With the WUSA on hiatus, the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) and the W-League regained their status as the premier women's soccer leagues in the United States, and many former WUSA players joined those teams.<ref name="SOCCER / Collapse of WUSA leaves void / College, pro players ponder their futures">Template:Cite web</ref>

A new women's professional soccer league in the United States called Women's Professional Soccer started in 2009. However, that league suspended operations in January 2012.<ref name="Goal Goal The New York Times Soccer Blog W.P.S. Suspends Operations">Template:Cite web</ref> It was succeeded by the National Women's Soccer League which continues to this day.

See also

• List of WUSA drafts
• Women's Professional Soccer
• National Women's Soccer League
• Women's sports