The naysayers are already coming out of the woodwork.
Mere hours after the WUSA announced it was closing up shop this
past Monday, commentators and columnists had already started
pecking at the league’s remains like verbal vultures in an
effort to prove that women’s professional sports cannot
survive in this country.
Armed with smug smiles and declining attendance figures, they
cited the fall of women’s professional volleyball, softball
and basketball leagues over the past five years as proof that most
fans are not ready to embrace female athletes.
The statistics are convincing, but they hardly
credible.
The truth is that women’s sports can succeed in the United
States because the demise of the WUSA had less to do with gender
than it did with money.
Like all secondary sports entities, female pro leagues can only
remain viable by making smart business decisions and finding solid
financial backing.
The WUSA did neither.
A fledgling league born out of the success of the 1999
Women’s World Cup, the WUSA was hurriedly cobbled together in
order to capitalize on the popularity of American stars such as
Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm.
Not surprisingly, such short-sighted thinking was part of what
ultimately doomed the three-year-old league to fail.
WUSA founder and chairman John Hendricks ““ much like his
compatriots in the WNBA and the now-defunct ABL ““ wanted too
much too soon. He planted teams in major American cities, rented
cavernous football stadiums, and modeled franchises after those in
the NFL and NBA ““ two leagues already entrenched in American
popular culture.
But while there was limited interest in the league initially,
that soon fizzled as attendance and television ratings sagged.
With much of the WUSA’s $100 million investment capital
squandered by the end of its first year of existence, the league
was always one television contract or one corporate sponsor away
from disaster.
By the end of last season, the truth was apparent. While the
American public was ready for baby steps, Hendricks instead took a
giant leap of faith.
But while it’s easy to belittle women’s sports now
that the WUSA has folded, that’s no more rational than
condemning the institution of marriage just because Ben and
Jennifer have broken up.
Female pro sports have succeeded in the past, most notably in
the realm of professional golf and tennis where the LPGA and WTA
continue to thrive.
But that prosperity was not built in a day.
It took more than just some “flavor of the month”
stars and a few corporate suits with deep pockets to launch those
leagues. For years, tennis pioneers like Billie Jean King and
Margaret Court Smith toiled in obscurity to pave the way for the
success of the tour’s current crop of stars like Venus and
Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati.
It will take dedication like that ““ in addition to a sound
fiscal strategy ““ for any secondary sports entity to
flourish.
A professional league of women’s teams
will eventually rise to prominence, but chances are it will
not be one that already exists.
Instead, it will have to be a league whose executives resign
themselves to building from the ground up ““ one which is
satisfied with starting out in smaller markets and smaller stadiums
until it is financially stable.
As much as the pessimists would have you believe that the demise
of the WUSA is proof that women’s sports cannot succeed in
this country, that’s just simply not true.
Eventually women will play professionally in front of huge
crowds ““ and the naysayers will be silenced once and for
all.
Eisenberg’s prediction: By the time you read this, the
Dodgers will be eliminated from the playoff chase. All of Nor Cal
can rejoice by e-mailing Eisenberg at
jeisenberg@media.ucla.edu.