WPS: Revenue At Any Cost

The most recent incarnation of women's professional soccer, WPS, here in the states is trying desperately to improve upon the failed attempt of WUSA a few years back. That league folded after three years and burned through $40M of seed money intended to last five years in its first year. The league is taking a more cautious approach and actively seeking sponsorships to bring in revenue that doesn't appear to be coming from ticket sales (see pic above). WPS inked its third "founding sponsorship" this past week with health supplement company AdvoCare International.

Only one slight problem. One of AdvoCare's former endorsers, US swimmer Jessica Hardy, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. During Hardy's legal battle, she had an Advocare drink tested and those tests indicated the product was contaminated with clenbuterol, the same substance found in her positive drug tests.

A three person arbitration panel agreed she had met her burden of proof indicating a contaminated supplement and reduced Hardy's suspension. The legal battle continues, however, as AdvoCare seeks to clear its name.

How wise is it to associate the league with a company, while not well known, at least connected a PED controversy. Is any publicity really good publicity? Perhaps.

The cliche is that any money is good money for the league.

AEG, which owns LA Galaxy, LA Kings, and the WPS franchise LA Sol, has indicated it will only be taking on WPS losses for this inaugural season for the sake of the women's game and then getting out of Dodge. Said Tim Leiweke, AEG second in command:

"We've made it clear that our job is to get it started, and then we're going to let others step in here and continue this. But we felt we owed it to the women's game to give them a shot."

"We were never intent on being here forever. Our plate is full."

Taking any money it can get its hands on doesn't seem like such a bad strategy given those words. I hope the league can find more shady investors. Maybe we can get some gambling entity on the shirts.

That concludes our semi-regular WPS updates.

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Sky Blue FC Gets First Win

Yours truly stayed home sick yesterday (awesome!) and caught the replay of the Sky Blue FC - Chicago Red Stars from Sunday. It was matchday five in the inaugural season of the WPS and Sky Blue FC earned its first win 2-0 over previously unbeaten Chicago Red Stars. It wasn't a bad game, but something kept bothering me.

See that pic up there? Which team do you think is Sky Blue FC? Nope, not the team in the light blue uniforms, the ones in all orange. Strategy or irony? You decide.

And that concludes UF's semi-regular coverage of WPS.

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The Good, The Bad, The WTF

The WPS(L) (i.e. the new American women's soccer league) introduced its Puma line of jerseys yesterday, and the internet is just abuzz about one thing--the damn shorts. Actually, I would call them skorts. Despite what Sepp Blatter may want, I'm going to go ahead and call this out as a marketing ploy to get people talking about WPS(L). Those stupid little flaps will not see the pitch, simply because they would impede play.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's take a look at what this column really cares about, and that's the shirts. There is one definite winner out there, some who came close, and then a host of also-rans.

Let's start with the loser of the day.

Poor Boston Breakers. Not only do you share the name and certain design elements of a USFL team, you also got stuck with the least imaginative look from Puma. It's Blue. It's White. It's symmetrical. Yay for symmetry, but otherwise--blah. Hope you stick around in Boston longer than your American Football counterparts.

The worst name in WPS(L) goes to FC Gold Pride. It probably wouldn't shock you if I told you that the team was located in California, would it? As you can probably guess, these shirts were made on a template. I'm not really big on shirts all looking the same, differentiated only by color, but that's pretty much what Puma does. This is slightly better, I guess, than the Breakers kit, but only just. While I guess that's supposed to be black and gold, I just see black and sand.

If you want to go for the prize of "least thought given to what we want to do," go give it to the Los Angeles Sol. Their badge mimics the old Galaxy one, and their colors do the same. I guess Anshutz Entertainment Group didn't want to mess with the winner it had on the MLS side of things.

Now things are starting to look up. For the next three teams, I feel there is a dead heat for second place.
I'm going to give the first of the seconds (I know, I know) to the Washington Freedom. Copious amounts of navy and red are perfect for the national capital's team. Plus that badge is well-done too. I definitely have a soft spot for the incorporation of the city's flag into the badge. Now if only they could steal the "Taxation without Representation" off of the license plates, they would be set.

Sky Blue FC do not operate anywhere where you expect these colors, but instead in New Jersey. While one would figure on the sky blue for the home kit, I really like the orange for an away shirt. That badge is nice as well, if a little abstract (what is that, a bird?).

Much like the above entry, I'm not sure if I equate Saint Louis with Emerald Green, but that doesn't make the shirt any less nice. I'm not sold on two parts of this team and its shirt--the nickname Athletica and the badge that looks like it belongs in lower-league England where the clubs just take the city crest. Still that green is rather swell, and, as you can see in the slideshow at the bottom, Hope Solo looks very nice in it.

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

THIS is how you do it. Chicago Red Stars (or should I say Rad Stars?) add a little flair to the shirt and it just pops. Plus, in so doing, they pull out the ü75 favorite--incorporating the city flag. As Precious Roy said in the emails earlier--this is what the Fire should be doing as well. And they could, but they wouldn't get the extra subliminal bump that the ladies get with the stars right across their breasts. I don't consider myself to be a mouthbreathing neanderthal, but that is marketing well-done. Now if we could only do something about those skorts.

The promised slideshow. Hope is toward the back

Find more photos like this on Women's Professional Soccer

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