This summer hardly has been the ideal time to start a women's soccer league. While the recession saps the enthusiasm and income from potential sponsors and fans, a series of high-profile events like the Confederations Cup, World Cup qualifying and the tours of popular European clubs such as Barcelona and Chelsea have commanded most of the spotlight.
But then again, women's soccer didn't exactly thrive when launch conditions were ideal. With the U.S. national team and players like Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy at the height of their popularity following the 1999 Women's World Cup and 2000 Olympics, the Women's United Soccer Association nevertheless spent itself into oblivion after just three seasons, failing to attract either the large crowds it expected or consistent television viewership.
For the next four years, former Yahoo! executive (and Foudy's former Stanford teammate) Tonya Antonucci worked quietly but diligently to reestablish the women's pro game in the U.S. The result is Women's Professional Soccer, a modest, seven-team outfit whose playoffs begin Saturday outside Washington, D.C.. Antonucci recently chatted at length with Fanhouse about the ups and downs of the league's first season and its future. The conversation is after the jump:
FANHOUSE: Can you reflect a bit on how it feels to finally see a product on the field after so much time and planning?
ANTONUCCI: To look back on all the effort so many people put into launching the league, it's an unbelievable thrill that we've launched and that we have such amazingly talented players. That's what it's all about. To be able to do that for the players, so that they can be full-time professional athletes and do what they love every day, for fans, the media that covers the sport, to have the world's most popular sport and the world's best players in our country in one league, to be able to live up to the goals we set to bring world class players from the U.S. and across the globe -- we ended up with players from 11 different countries -- it's like having an Olympic tournament week-in and week-out.
The quality of the play has just been shockingly good. Everyone I talk to, all kinds of people are raving how good our athletes are....We're just so proud. We're really really proud of what we're doing out there. We couldn't ask for more.
FANHOUSE: The play may be technically good, but scoring is quite low. Can you explain that? Is that a problem? [Note: With one week remaining in the 20-game regular season, only Los Angeles and Washington were averaging one goal per game or more. In contrast, no team in the three-year history of the WUSA managed to score fewer than one goal per game. There were seven scoreless ties heading into the final weekend of the WPS season.]
ANTONUCCI: You always want to see more goals, for sure. We have amazingly talented goalkeepers in this league. I think we're seeing chances and half-chances created...we're also seeing some amazing goalkeeping and defending. You always want more goals. But I think there have been some really exciting games even when they're low scoring.
The game has been very fast, and I think it's been faster than many fans expected it to be. The skill level is off the charts, technically and tactically. There's been end-to-end action. The players are hitting hard, they're tackling hard and going for it, every game.
FANHOUSE: Can you discuss the main points of the WPS business plan and how it differs from that of the WUSA's? [Note: The WPS plan reportedly includes a salary cap of approximately $565,000 per team.]
ANTONUCCI: We want to keep our eye on the ball managing the operating expenses and not overspend beyond how big the business is in the early years, whereas the WUSA really invested quite heavily, about $100 million, thinking the business would be as big as the [1999] Women's World Cup was. They weren't going to have those type of returns and it wasn't sustainable.
We've taken a more modest set of expectations. Attendance-wise, we want to have investment levels that support 4,000-6,000 fans per game. [Note: WPS was averaging about 4,600 through Aug. 5.] We plan to grow over time. We have growth plans and we have ways to invest in that growth. Initially we're really trying to keep costs contained, and that has some key ripple effects. We're looking for partnerships at the local level, efficiencies and economies of scale in how we put the product out on the field. We're playing in smaller and medium-sized stadiums that promote a great fan experience for the 4,000-6,000 but don't break the bank in terms of opening and operating the stadium.
We're not paying [television] rights fees. We have partnerships. We're investing in getting the product out and programming out to where our audiences our, whether that's Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports Net, or at the regional level with Comcast SportsNet, targeting the right audience -- sports audiences, soccer audiences [as opposed to the WUSA which put its games on TNT and PAX]. The costs are managed and fairly contained. Whether you're looking at TV or in stadium, the teams have an entrepreneurial franchise model approach that frees them, as long as they're meeting minimum standards. They're taking on more grassroots partnerships, have more local sponsorship categories, have more control over their revenues. They keep more of their revenues. There's a local ownership approach that really helps these teams have gas in the tank to launch and sustain.
We think our model's working, despite a tough economy. We have new investors that believe in our model and our approach. They believe in our product and our fanbase. We have money in the bank from both [expansion franchises] Philadelphia and Atlanta.
FANHOUSE: The WPS seems to be taking some very innovative approaches on certain fronts but may be repeating some of the WUSA's mistakes on others. One well-received innovation has been the unique playoff structure, which rewards regular season excellence more than any other American pro league while also giving the hosts time to market the games.
One concern has been a few of the team names, which have raised a few questions. While the WUSA suffered as fans and media tried to distinguish between or identify with the Power, Charge, Freedom, Spirit and Courage, WPS has allowed two franchises -- FC Gold Pride and Sky Blue FC -- to choose seemingly inscrutable names that reflect no geographic location at all. Is the criticism justified?
ANTONUCCI: The league is involved in approving those names. We have a role in that. We have struggled with this. I think we have learned since those names were approved and put out there in the media that there's a challenge to identify with a city. That's a big part of the goal -- "This team plays in this city." The association with a city, a place, a pride in a community to get behind a team, those are important factors. We're looking at ways to improve that identification. It's a concern for me. I think you need to associate the city with the team. I don't have an answer today, how we're going to reach that goal, but we're not going to gloss over it and say we don't understand.
FANHOUSE: On the plus side, however, you signed Marta, who is almost unanimously considered the best female player in the world. [Note: Marta leads both the first-place Los Angeles Sol and the WPS with ten goals heading into the playoffs. She was FIFA world player of the year in 2006, '07 and '08 and won the golden ball and golden shoe at the 2007 Women's World Cup]. How important was it for the league to sign the Brazilian?
ANTONUCCI: Signing up Marta and signing up the U.S. national team, those things were really monumental for us to set a tone for the quality of play and set a tone for players around the world and in this country to say, "I want to play with and against the best." Getting them was game changing for us because it set a tone for the quality of player we're going to have in this league. It really did. This is a league that has had stars from day one.
FANHOUSE: The WUSA attempted to capitalize on the popularity of Hamm, Chastain and a few of their teammates and marketed around those individuals. Does the WPS need that sort of individual star power to survive? If so, who are those stars, or what can you do to help create them?
ANTONUCCI: All we can do is create the environment and support them so that our players become transcendent stars. The important lesson we've learned is that we can't require or expect ourselves to have that to define success. We want to create stars and amplify stars within the audience that we feel will support WPS. We want to grow with our audience. To have a household name, right away in the first five years or so of this league, if we put that kind of pressure on ourselves it would make for tough expectations.
1999 was lightning in a bottle. It was just a seminal moment in women's sports. Big, big stars came out of that, with the support of Nike. Those things were wonderful and to achieve them immediately in a brand new league may not be realistic. The objective we have is to set some really modest and attainable goals right away, try to meet those and beat those and grow stars as we go through the process. Not have any expectations to do that right out of the gate or else we failed. We know how great these athletes are. The soccer community knows and embraces that. Our job as marketers and business people is to introduce them to the public the best we can. These things catch fire when they catch fire and we have to have some patience.
FANHOUSE: That raises the big question, however. How do you market this league? Do you go for the committed soccer fans who may be skeptical of the women's game? The elusive family and ponytailed hooligan demographic that proved to be so inconsistent during the days of the WUSA? Will you attempt to sell "dreams" and "the cause" like the WUSA did, or are you taking a more pragmatic approach?
ANTONUCCI: One of the lessons we learned from the WUSA and that we continue to learn is that you have to get out and meet the fans where they live, the grassroots, do things for the fans within the soccer community that are really partnership oriented to make them feel good about coming out to support the team. It's not a one-way street. You have to put in time and effort in order to be relevant in their lives. It's like electing a political candidate.
It takes time to build trust. Ultimately whomever you're attracting to your sport, they have to become loyal to our players, they have to become passionate about their team in their market. It becomes part of the fabric of their lives. One of the things we're learning, the core fan base is certainly the soccer family, the 8 to 18-year-old girl and boy in the family, the soccer dad looking for experiences with his daughter or daughters, to create a relationship and get passionate about sports together. The soccer mom, who has always been a useful political idea, she's a pretty complex person. She doesn't just ferry kids to practice and games. She's a person who has goals and values what she's achieved in life, she's someone who might look at our athletes and might relate to them more as peers, respecting them as successful women, looking up to them as competitive, fit, attractive women who are succeeding.
We also want to expand to the male soccer fan, the traditional soccer fan who follows the EPL, MLS. That male soccer fan, we're inviting him more than the WUSA did. There's no reason to exclude him. We have the best female soccer athletes in the world. We believe we can give him a really entertaining experience, a fast, exciting, skillful game.
We've rebranded in an important way. WPS is about the pinnacle of sport. It's great to have role models for little girls, and we are that, but we're not that exclusively. We are the pinnacle of our sport. We're taking a totally different approach. We're partnered with MLS. We have owners in common. We have facilities in common. We have a strategic operating relationship in common, all at the team level.
At the league level, SUM [MLS's Soccer United Marketing arm] is helping us sell sponsorship rights at the national level. We're trying to grow soccer together. In some cases we're sharing fans, in other cases we're complementing each other, but we'll get there together. Whenever male soccer fans get exposed to what we're doing, enjoy the match, enjoy the quality of players, that's thrilling for us. I think it means a lot to the players as well to see fans of all kinds.
Gone are the aspects of the message that its charitable, that you're obligated to support this, that it's something we must have for little girls to dream. We think all of that is wonderful that little girls have their heroes, but you can't sustain that type of message. It's not a sustainable platform.
FANHOUSE: And part of positioning yourself as a more a genuine sports property has been the choice of television networks. You're on Fox Soccer Channel instead of general interest cable networks. Was that the right choice?
ANTONUCCI: We're exposing a lot of soccer's traditional male audience. We're doing our part to bring more females into the audience, who are coming to the network to specifically watch our games. We're pretty pleased with it. I'd love to have ratings that are more in the 0.2 range. We've had games that are more than 0.1, averaging just shy of 0.1....For the regular season games in the first few weeks it's a fine start in terms of the launch of a new sports league. I've had people tell me it's the best they've seen in a long time in terms of how we've been received and in terms of programming and media coverage.
The good news for us is that we have a blended approach. A pretty decent Sunday time slot [on FSC] and for our postseason, we're going to cross over to 80-90 million homes for the whole Fox Sports Net. We'll go from 32 million homes with Fox Soccer Channel to 80-90 million for the playoffs. It's going to be great exposure. Being on these channels is a matter of perception. It's legitimacy. It's how we're going to pull in additional and new fans. This product is so good, I'm thrilled we're getting it out there on sports platforms.
FANHOUSE: Regarding your attempt to attract the 'traditional' soccer or sports fan, one of the WUSA's most significant successes in that arena was the popularity of Heather Mitts. Many may know her as much or more for her appearance than for the fact that she's won two Olympic gold medals. How do you feel about positioning WPS players that way, and are you ready and willing to let your players go a little PG-13 in order to broaden the league's appeal? [Note: Mitts currently plays for the Boston Breakers.]
ANTONUCCI: We don't have to have all of our players fit into a box. I'm so happy the league exists for young girls and I want to our players to be role models. Heather Mitts is a complex person with different facets of who she is and what she wants to do. Many of our players are offered all kinds of things, and we're really about helping the players amplify who they are off the field. If promoting their looks and lifestyle and attractiveness is part of that then we embrace that.
We have players like Natasha Kai, who's a bit of a wild child in terms of personality and appearance, and we know that's going to appeal to some fans. If it's not appealing to you, then don't pay attention to her. We want players to be the kind of athletes and personalities that reflect who they are inherently. We want to support that. It's sort of a women's tennis analogy -- we have some amazing, kick-butt athletes who look great doing what they do, by objective standards.
It's all about your perceptions. We're not going to shy away form this notion that we've got the girls next door, who are great people who look great doing what they're doing. That's part of who we are and we're certainly not going to try to shut it down. We want to embrace who they are and get their personalities out there and get them talking and sharing with people. That's what American sports fans like, whether it's male or female. American sports fans want to know more of the stories. They want to see the personalities.
One way we see it so far, in a lot of the media coverage we see, and we embrace this, is that it's more feature oriented. We're in a lot of the agate, but beat writers aren't necessarily covering us and reporting game results, but we're seeing feature stories. I think that's one of the unique aspects of the soccer athlete, male or female, and we'll take it. We'll go with that as a way to tell our story and hopefully create compelling story lines for fans.
