WPS rang in Year Two with promise and optimism. Season ticket sales were reportedly up 15% from last year, commitment from local sponsors had increased, eight franchises were back in the fray – including two debutantes, each squad had been bolstered by a deep draft class and, perhaps best of all, the league was committed to a second year after surviving its maiden season.

The league was tested quickly, as the Saint Louis Athletica folded in late May. Yet another franchise met its demise due to circumstances that were out of the league’s control. But much like the death of the Los Angeles Sol five months prior, the shuttering of the Athletica didn’t kill the league.

Attendance figures continued to slide over the summer months, however, which perhaps posed an ever bigger threat to the sustainability of the league than the folding of two franchises. In 20 weeks of regular season play, WPS has averaged 3,611 attendees per match this season. That’s a 23% decrease from the overall regular season average last year. League attendance hit an all-time low in early July, as three weekend matches produced an average attendance of just 2,982.

WPS recognized this and adapted to these new challenges. In late July, the league gutted its front office and cut its national marketing arm. The layoffs occurred as a result of the unforeseen paradigm the league was now operating in. WPS’ zealous embrace of social media perhaps worked to develop a national community but wasn’t necessarily making season ticket holders out of casual fans. Focus was averted away from marketing from the top-down to generating interest from the bottom-up. Promotion would take place at the team level, in an attempt to spur local interest. It was a concession of defeat perhaps, but it was also a critical step taken to assure the league’s survival.

WPS has heeded change and adapted once more, as Chief Operating Officer Mary Harvey has been released from her position, effective last Friday. Harvey was a member of the United States’ Women’s National Team that were crowned world champions in 1991 and Olympic Gold Medalists in 1996. She also spent time in senior management with FIFA before overseeing day-to-day game operations and on-the-field matters as WPS’ COO.

United Soccer Leagues’ W-League Sr. Director of Operations Melanie Fitzgerald has been appointed as WPS Manager of League Operations and will begin work next week, just as the WPS Regular Season reaches its conclusion. Fitzgerald was the Director of the United Soccer League’s Super Y-League and Super-20 League Operations for two years before assuming the position of Director of W-League Operations in April of 2008. 

Fitzgerald tells All White Kit, “I view this as a great opportunity for me both personally and professionally speaking.  This is both an exciting and critical time in history for women’s soccer and I couldn’t be more thrilled that I was not only able to have an impact in the W-League but now WPS.”

“My role with WPS will in fact be very similar to what I am doing now at the USL and I look forward to both implementing best practices from my past role but tackling the new challenges that WPS will bring to me,” Fitzgerald continues, “With that being said, I couldn’t be more appreciative and complimentary of those that were before me at WPS as they played a key role in the launch and success of WPS to-date.  This is a new chapter for me and I am excited for what the future holds in women’s soccer.” 

Fitzgerald’s arrival should help bring renewed energy and direction to WPS. Granted, yet another stark shift in strategy so late in the game could be disconcerting. It’s difficult – if not impossible – to put a positive spin on failed franchises, widespread lay-offs and such dire attendance figures. Rational concerns over WPS’ overall viability are certainly warranted.

Make no mistake: trying to get people to care about women playing soccer is hard. Trying to get people to care about a women’s pro soccer league in a country that remains generally apathetic to both soccer and women’s sports is even more daunting. Compound that with a terrible economy and what do you get? It depends on your perspective. Some might say the situation is unworkable while others would suggest it’s worth a shot.

Commissioner Tonya Antonucci and others within the WPS brass have subscribed to the latter view, and have vowed to fight on despite such adversity. The prognosis of the league remains uncertain, but not untenable.

WPS is still the best-attended women’s soccer league in the world (last weekend’s Frauenbundesliga match between heavyweights Turbine Potsdam and FFC Frankfurt was witnessed by just 1,707 people while merely 291 people saw USV Jena’s 0-0 draw with Essen Schönebeck). WPS also remains the only fully professional women’s league in operation, and has the international star power to prove it. Four of the six current top goal-scorers in WPS pledge their allegiances to countries other than the United States.

It’s natural for such an ambitious project to be thwarted by setbacks. The league may not have the same vigor entering the postseason stretch as it did in preseason, but you wouldn’t know it from the action on-the-field. The 2010 season remains highly-competitive as it enters the final two weeks of the regular season. Five of the seven teams are still jockeying for playoff positions while FC Gold Pride dazzled their way to the regular season title.

Year Two was never going to be easy, but WPS has nearly made it to the final whistle. And besides, the two’s are supposed to be terrible.

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