Timbers Tid Bits: USWNT Edition

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/09/backe-suspends-marquez-for-saturdays-game-after-controversial-comments.html

Rafa Marquez’s controversial comments have cost him a spot in the lineup for the New York Red Bulls’ crucial match this Saturday against the Portland Timbers.

Intrigue!

Soccer is generally perceived differently than B-ball though. There’s a lot of respect for the national team, but it’s tough to say if it would extend beyond that.

Attendance is terrible to be sure. Looks like they averaged about 3500 per game last this year. I think WNBA is about double that.

That said, I think the WNBA has a better model, in that it’s more directly tied to the men’s league. I kind of feel like if WPS teams were tied directly to the more popular men’s sides, there would be some interest there. Take advantage of the existing emotional connections.

I know that I’d be more interested in going to a Timbers Women’s Team game than I am in going to reserve games or U-23 games. Of course those don’t make money either.

I’ve no doubt that Portland would instantly be at or near the top of the WPS in attendance, but right now its not realistic for the league to go back to being bicoastal. In the first year of WPS, the LA Sol had the best record and lost in the final… and then folded. The following year, the Bay Area Gold Pride (featuring Marta and Christine Sinclair, among others) totally dominated the league… and then folded (at least partly owing to playing their games in a terrible location in Hayward, but still).

The league is in some trouble. Being connected to the MLS would help, but right now MLS may not be strong enough to support it the way the NBA supports the WNBA. Of course, many would argue that the NBA has no business propping up the WNBA.

As a fan of women’s soccer and the USWNT, I’d like to see the WPS survive, but I’m not sure whether its in the cards or not.

and the atmosphere was nice, but different. It’s probably what MLS would be like if their soccer mom
strategy had worked.

On a related side note, Freddy Braun was at the game and was an informal goodwill ambassador for the Timbers. He went out of his way at half-time to take pictures with kids in the south end.

As for WPS, one big problem imo is that many people view the USWNT as the only professional womens team. It’s like they’re seen as a serious Harlem Globetrotters traveling the country beating up on the soccer version of the Washington Generals.

You guys take a look at the rejuvenated BC Place? Its downright epic. You realize the first Whitecaps game there is against PTFC? Yup. What should be a gimme now looks like a booby trap! Wish I could make it!