Women's soccer league folds. Do I care? No!

[Snooooopy]

In fact, I'm pretty pleased that the WUSA called it quits! I don't like watching soccer in the least and regard any inroads made into the United States as a bad thing. Soccer may one day burrow into the national consciousness. It may one day take over Monday Night Football (which wouldn't require a name change, in a way). Its athletes may one day achieve Michael Jordan-like fame and riches.

BUT NOT TODAY!!!!!

(does dance of joy)

Personally, I think the WUSA might have survived if the teams didn't have such idiotic names. Courage? Freedom? Power? CyberRays? What the hell were they thinking?

[Coldfire]

Well, if it's any consolation, women's football is hugely unpopular in Europe, too.

Men's football is, of course, the most popular game on the planet. Except in the US.

[Angua]

Originally posted by Coldfire
Well, if it's any consolation, women's football is hugely unpopular in Europe, too.


Apart from with the women who play it though, such as myself.

[Coldfire]

Didn't mean to come off as harshly as I did - I meant to say that compared to men's football, the popularity of women's football is severely lacking here in Europe. Hell, women's football is probably more popular in the US than it is here, where it's largely seen as a bloke's game.

I'm sure you and your friends have a great time playing football. :)

[Angua]

Yeah, I know. I didn't mean to sound snarky either. And yes, I think in the States, football is seen primarily as a girls' game. Strange.

Still, we have fun. Our team's called the Astrettes, and if anyone can guess how it came about, I'll buy them a beer. :)

[Boo Boo Foo]

Originally posted by Snooooopy
In fact, I'm pretty pleased that the WUSA called it quits! I don't like watching soccer in the least and regard any inroads made into the United States as a bad thing. Soccer may one day burrow into the national consciousness. It may one day take over Monday Night Football (which wouldn't require a name change, in a way). Its athletes may one day achieve Michael Jordan-like fame and riches.

BUT NOT TODAY!!!!!

(does dance of joy)You know, I read this post, and the abundandtly clear message that I heard was fear. Fear that your world might be changing, and that you don't like what the unknown might bring.

I'll say this though... American Football gains nothing by having xenophobes trash other sports on it's behalf. The only American I can observe at such times is your classic "ugly American", and I honestly don't think there's anything noble in that.

It's a bit like music. We all tend to identify ourselves by what famous artists we most like to groove to. But some of us are a little bit insecure, and to bolster our decisions, some of us will go out of our way to trash the artists who are held in high esteem by others. That's a way uncool thing to do. And to trash someone else's sport just because you're insecure is just as uncool I reckon.

Now, if, on the other hand, you'd just created a thread extolling the positives of American Football I would have gladly bought into that thread and made some laid back cool comments - but the tone you set in your OP is that your love of American Football is only relative to how much you can trash women's soccer, and that sucks quite frankly.

[Snooooopy]

Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo
You know, I read this post, and the abundandtly clear message that I heard was fear. Fear that your world might be changing, and that you don't like what the unknown might bring.


Ain't nothin' "unknown" about the situation -- I don't like soccer, and increased popularity of soccer I just KNOW will irritate me.


I'll say this though... American Football gains nothing by having xenophobes trash other sports on it's behalf. The only American I can observe at such times is your classic "ugly American", and I honestly don't think there's anything noble in that.


And where exactly did I do any trashing? I mean, the part about the names isn't specific to soccer -- I would think such names would be terrible for teams of any stripe. I merely expressed an opinion, and you demonstrated the classic "anyone who doesn't worship soccer is a bad, evil, terrible person" soccer fan. You sure feel like the world owes it to you to like your sport, doncha? Soccer has conquered virtually the entire world, but THAT ISN'T ENOUGH, is it?

[the Scarlet Pimpernel]

Whaddya mean the Women's Soccer League folds?!? Link please? Yes, this is a big deal to me. Call me pathetic. The Women's World Cup was supposed to start on Saturday, and I was all set to sit down in front of the boob tube (no pun intended, although it's a particularly good one) with some friends and some beers and have me a time!

Rats, does this mean I have to go to an early music concert Saturday night instead?

[Boo Boo Foo]

Originally posted by Snooooopy
I merely expressed an opinion, and you demonstrated the classic "anyone who doesn't worship soccer is a bad, evil, terrible person" soccer fan. You sure feel like the world owes it to you to like your sport, doncha? Soccer has conquered virtually the entire world, but THAT ISN'T ENOUGH, is it? And this is where your lack of knowledge about anything outside of the USA is doing your arguement in. I live in a country where Rugby Union, Rugby League, and Australian Football are way, WAY more popular than soccer. And Australia is but one of many countries where this is the case. As they say, never assume.

So let me restate my original premise in even simpler terms. I don't perceive you as being a bad, evil, terrible person. That's just your paranoia talking. I merely perceive you as being dreadfully insecure and thoroughly xenophobic.

[friedo]

As a soccer fan, I must say I am very sad.

:(

See? I'm all blue and frowny.

Oh well. Our hot wimmins did win the wimmins world cup, so nyah.

/me waits for the WNBA to go away...

[Jonathan Chance]

The World Cup is still on but the WUSA is gone. No corporate support = no league.

And it's nice to hear that the 'rest' of you like it soccer so much. Heck, I liked the world cup.

But I've always figured America was to the rest of the world like New York City was to America. If you're not popular there then you don't count.

[garius]

Originally posted by Angua
Still, we have fun. Our team's called the Astrettes, and if anyone can guess how it came about, I'll buy them a beer. :)

Its because you are all either astronomers and/or students of astronomy. Possibly with a few who are simply astro-enthusiasts thrown in.

Beer please :D

[Angua]

Originally posted by garius
Its because you are all either astronomers and/or students of astronomy. Possibly with a few who are simply astro-enthusiasts thrown in.

Beer please :D

Arse! You got it. Right, IOU 1 beer at the next Mini -DopeFest we're both at - the one with Coldfire et al.

[garius]

Woohoo!

Good job i didn't go with my second choice guess -

you were once some kind of disco diva in the 70s. Back then you had one top ten hit which peaked at no. 9. You're subsequent career was a failure and you failed to chart higher than the mid-50s. You tried to stage an unsuccessful comeback last year with a remix of your hit but that too failed.

Now all you have is your memories of that joyous time - hence your decision to name your women's football team after your original backing group.

[Angua]

Yeah, but the second guess was more amusing...

Iwasn't even born in the 70s

[ShibbOleth]

I think it's pretty sad that the WUSA folded. I think it was the best shot we had at having a legitimate* pro women's sports league. They got badly hurt by lack of a decent television package, and marketing, at least outside of their home markets, was non-existent. I think it was odd that they had no midwest presence, given the sports popularity with women here, but I suppose that they had to choose their markets carefully. While I can understand that many people might not be soccer enthusiasts, I am curious as to what was so threatening about it to non fans in the USA that they would actually celebrate it's demise. Perhaps it was pre-empting a favorite show on PAX?

Well, I think tha they are on their 3rd or 4th incarnation of a pro women's basketball league, so maybe another one will come and stick someday. We'll be in Columbus this weekend for some of the matches, then back up to Columbus the following weekend for the American women's first round final against PRK.



*Legitimate = strongly supported and attended, particularly by women.

[Snooooopy]

Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo
I merely perceive you as being dreadfully insecure and thoroughly xenophobic.

I'm not xenophobic. I find that other countries and cultures have many wonderful ideas and attributes. Soccer I would classify as being, er, less than wonderful.

As for insecure, well, I think I have every right to be! America's resistance toward soccer, despite this setback, is markedly less than it used to be.

[Boo Boo Foo]

Don't let it bug you Snoopy. You've got the choice to ignore it and go about your life anyway you want. The choice is yours.

America is a shithot country for a shitload of reasons OTHER than your choice of sports.

[friedo]

What's a shithot?

[ShibbOleth]

Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo

America is a shithot country for a shitload of reasons OTHER than your choice of sports.


That's about the nicest thing anyone's said about our little Republic in the past several years... *sniff*... thanks!

[seal_cleaner]

It's funny. My daugher is very sports-involved. Plays soccer, softball, volleyball. Wants to play (american) football when she hits HS - YIKES!! but is not interested in watching women play any of same. We live near a university with a good womens' sports program, but the only thing she will attend is MEN'S football. And watch the nfl on TV.
Go Bears!:(

[ruadh]

I was outraged and offended when I first read the OP too, until I realised that if I still lived in the US I'd have pretty much the same reaction if the NFL folded. Selfish? Absolutely. Xenophobic? Not necessarily at all.

[VenusProbe]

As a fan I'm saddened, as the father of a player I'm heartbroken. My daughter and I have the schedule stuck to the fridge and the TIVO set to record the first match (she has a game at the same time) we have lost some really good bonding time. :( She's 11 and soccer(football) is a major part of her life and so a large part of mine as well.

[astorian]

I've never understood the appeal of soccer, but that's neither here nor there. I've already had this argument with lots of people- I've never persuaded a European that baseball is interesting, they've never convinced me that soccer is exciting. So, there's no point fighting over this. Best we all agree to enjoy our favorite silly sports, and let other people enjoy THEIR favorite silly sports.

Do I get any enjoyment of seeing women's pro soccer fold in the USA? No- but I WILL get a kick out of something that's bound to happen over the next few days.

American newspapers and TV networks have completely ignored the WUSA for its entire short existence. They rarely bothered to cover the games at all. But now that the league has folded, watch all the sports columnists and commentators shedding crocodile tears! We'll be treated to hundreds of columns and TV editorials about how tragic this is- even though the reporters doing the weeping NEVER showed the slightest interest in the WUSA while it was a going concern!

We'll be treated to a similar show of false grief when David Stern gets tired of propping up the moribund WNBA.

[Snooooopy]

Originally posted by Coldfire
Well, if it's any consolation, women's football is hugely unpopular in Europe, too.

That does kind of surprise me. The Norwegians have had such strong Women's World Cup teams that I thought perhaps that country was a hotbed.

[ShibbOleth]

Originally posted by VenusProbe
As a fan I'm saddened, as the father of a player I'm heartbroken. My daughter and I have the schedule stuck to the fridge and the TIVO set to record the first match (she has a game at the same time) we have lost some really good bonding time. :( She's 11 and soccer(football) is a major part of her life and so a large part of mine as well.

VenusProbe, just to be clear the Women's World Cup is still on; I think that there is even a later round game scheduled in Portland, IIRC. Maybe you could make it down? So don't throw out the TV schedule if that's what you're referring to. Just the women's pro league has gone belly up; the sport will persist, particularly with kids in that age group.

[bump]

I personally don't think it has anything in particular to do with soccer/football, but rather the perception that women's sports are sub-par when compared to men's sports. Oddly enough, soccer/football is one of the few where the women's brand of the game can be just as exciting as the men's.

[Götterfunken]

Originally posted by the Scarlet Pimpernel
The Women's World Cup was supposed to start on Saturday, and I was all set to sit down in front of the boob tube (no pun intended, although it's a particularly good one) with some friends and some beers and have me a time!

Rats, does this mean I have to go to an early music concert Saturday night instead? I think the World Cup will still go on--it's just the league that's gone. Just like how we almost always had a US men's national team even when we didn't have a league.

I agree that the names are pretty stupid, but that seems to be a feature of new teams, no matter what league they're in. [aside: Whatever happened to the days when teams were named after quantifiable objects/personages instead of vague concepts? Now we have teams like the Orlando "Magic," the Colorado "Avalanche," the Dallas "Burn." I don't understand this trend at all.]

I never watched the women's league, or the MLS for that matter (I prefer the English Premiership). So I guess the disbanding of the WUSA shouldn't affect me like, say, the disbanding of the English league would.

Still, I couldn't gloat over the demise of any professional league, even those sports that I don't care about, like the NBA or the NFL (I would be really upset if MLB went under). I feel bad for the fans, especially the younger ones, like VenusProbe's daughter--I can't imagine how distraught I would have been as a kid if Major League Baseball had been disbanded.

Stupid corporate sponsors.

[Zebra]

Wait a second.

Were these the women who tore their clothes when they won? I wanted to see that!



I'm a pig, I know.

[MovieMogul]

And where exactly did I do any trashing? I mean, the part about the names isn't specific to soccer -- I would think such names would be terrible for teams of any stripe. I merely expressed an opinion, and you demonstrated the classic "anyone who doesn't worship soccer is a bad, evil, terrible person" soccer fan. You sure feel like the world owes it to you to like your sport, doncha? Nobody thinks you're a bad person for not liking soccer and nobody feels you owe any loyalty to the sport. Actually, nobody in this thread even said anything to that effect.

But I think the OP was incredibly jerkish for revelling in the downfall of something that a lot of people enjoyed but which had absolutely no genuine impact on your life and served no inconvenience to you in any way. Was your life any worse with soccer around? Has your life changed for the better with the WUSA out of business? No and No.

But that's not true for the soccer fans. Obviously, you don't think the two sports can peacefully coexist, so you feel obliged to gloat like the 300lb schoolyard bully when the 80lb weakling suffers misfortune. That certainly makes you a lot of things, I suppose, but I'll agree it doesn't make you a xenophobe.

[Snooooopy]

Originally posted by ArchiveGuy
Was your life any worse with soccer around? Has your life changed for the better with the WUSA out of business? No and No.

Actually, I do think my life was just a tiny bit worse with soccer around, and I feel that much better with the WUSA out of business.


Obviously, you don't think the two sports can peacefully coexist, so you feel obliged to gloat like the 300lb schoolyard bully when the 80lb weakling suffers misfortune.

Please. Soccer enjoys worldwide popularity, while football is of regional interest. Who's the 300-pounder here?

[flodnak]

Originally posted by Snooooopy
That does kind of surprise me. The Norwegians have had such strong Women's World Cup teams that I thought perhaps that country was a hotbed. Europe isn't a monolithic place. Women's football is popular in Norway, though if you're thinking league football it's not as popular as men's. The national teams are another matter - the women's national team has been consistently among the best in the world for years, while the men's team has a distressing tendency to play well when it comes to qualifying for something, and then once qualified, play something that is almost but not quite entirely unlike football...

Back in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics the whole country almost shut down for the women's football final. This is unusual for any event not involving skis :D

[Rune]

I think Denmark won the woman’s World Cup once?
While men’s football is the unrivalled number one, as a spectator sport woman’s football is very long, very very long down the list of popular sports. There is even this saying: “Life is too short for women football” which has moved into everyday life. Though, as a practised sport, it has gained some popularity, especially among young girls – still nowhere like boys football. And if women’s football is popular in Norway, it’s of course only because their men’s team suck so really really badly. :)

Originally posted by Snooooopy
[...]anyone who doesn't worship soccer is a bad, evil, terrible person"What’s wrong with saying that? :confused: Those are wise words that need to be said. Wasn’t it the Liverpool manager who first uttered the famous and very true words: “Football is considerable more important than life and death”?

Talking about gloating. I read some men were quite miffed that the rebel rally yell for the last woman’s World Cup apparently was “Girls rule; boys drool; soccer's cool”. This was a female on female tournament, why the need for this swing at the poor boys?

- Rune

[JohnT]

There was a womans soccer league here in the US?

[ShibbOleth]

The first Women's World Cup was in 1991, won by the USA in China. Norway won the second in 1995 in Sweden. USA won again, this time on home soil in 1999. Denmark have never won (although they may have won the UEFA championship).

The fourth WWC kicks off at noon tomorrow, Saturday September 20th with Norway vs France, in Philadelphia.

[Coldfire]

Originally posted by WinstonSmith
What’s wrong with saying that? :confused: Those are wise words that need to be said. Wasn’t it the Liverpool manager who first uttered the famous and very true words: “Football is considerable more important than life and death”?Bill Shankly. (http://www.shankly.com/lifeanddeath.htm)

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." :)

I don't really understand the attitude of the OP, either. I'm no fan of women's football either (and let's not get into the male vs. female debate here), but what's the point in doing the happy dance when something someone else enjoys, stops?

It presumes some sort of system where if football becomes more popular, this automatically must mean more "American" sports will vanish. Why the insecurity? They started up a European NFL competition a couple of years ago. Yup, American Football, played in Europe. It's not my kind of thing, but it doesn't make me all defensive, either. I just don't pay that much attention to it. But anyone who does, be they European, American, or otherwise: more power to them, and I hope they enjoy the games.

[ElwoodCuse]

Of course the league folded. The only question is why this didn't happen sooner. "Women's" and "soccer" are the kisses of death for a pro sport league in the U.S.

[Barks' dog food]

Originally posted by flodnak
Europe isn't a monolithic place. Women's football is popular in Norway, though if you're thinking league football it's not as popular as men's. The national teams are another matter - the women's national team has been consistently among the best in the world for years, while the men's team has a distressing tendency to play well when it comes to qualifying for something, and then once qualified, play something that is almost but not quite entirely unlike football...

Back in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics the whole country almost shut down for the women's football final. This is unusual for any event not involving skis :D

I think it's safe to say that the men's national team is followed by many more than the women's.

[Balle_M]

Originally posted by bump
Oddly enough, soccer/football is one of the few where the women's brand of the game can be just as exciting as the men's.

I agree 100%, but probably NOT the way you intended...

[Balle_M]

Originally posted by bump
Oddly enough, soccer/football is one of the few where the women's brand of the game can be just as exciting as the men's.

I agree 100%, but probably NOT the way you intended...

[Balle_M]

Sorry...

[everton]

Originally posted by Coldfire
They started up a European NFL competition a couple of years ago. Yup, American Football, played in Europe. It's not my kind of thing, but it doesn't make me all defensive, either. I just don't pay that much attention to it. But anyone who does, be they European, American, or otherwise: more power to them, and I hope they enjoy the games.
For "a couple of years ago" read 1991 (http://www.nfleurope.com/news/historyindex.html). There's even a team in Amsterdam, so that shows how much impact it's had on you (and it's the same story over here of course).

There have been several attempts at popularising American Football in Europe. Channel 4 in the UK televised NFL games for a few years in the '80s, NFL teams have played exhibition games at our biggest stadiums and the organisers have ploughed a lot of money into subsidising teams with zero local support. I won't be celebrating when it folds though and I can't understand why this thread was launched.

btw, Shankly died a Blue y'know.