For those who were excited about the WUSA on its best days and all it could do to raise awareness, build brand and launch a legitimate stand-alone women's professional sports entity comes Women's Professional Soccer, which launched this past weekend. The good news is from a brand standpoint WPS has taken the best practices from WUSA and all the lessons learned, mixed in some WNBA smarts and a salesforce that has kept MLS growing and combined them into a neat package under Tonya Antonucci's vision. The bad news is they are launching a national niche product in the worst economy on very limited funds, sponsor support and name recognition to the casual fan, who they intend to go after as much as the millions of young soccer playing kids across the country. Will it wor. From a business standpoint for sports in general needs it work, as the more positive movement even a niche sport like women's soccer has will help shake the tree for bigger established brands. From a casual fan standpoin. Tough to say. WPS is doing some very smart things…they have picked small venues to fill and grow, are marketing multinational players to a diverse audience, and are working with a single entity format which can combine expenses and push the brightest faces and smartest stories forward. They are attempting to use new media to push the product, although without a major brand spend and a big media partner that will be a challenge, and they are also looking to pair with the best and brightest stars from outside of women's soccer to also push the brand off the sports page (and given the limited dollars for sports coverage these days their exposure would be small regardless). Will brand and media partners and the casual fan com. In this economy it will be wait and see for sure, and not wait and see for success, more wait and see for survival. If they can push the personalities of the players to diverse markets and tell those stories to the right media (some nice hits for the launch this past week) they have a chance. MLS continued growth will not hurt WPS success either. The question will be what deems success over tim. If the answer is more young women being heathier, new role models and an exciting diverse product, then the chance is strong. If it is to make a windfall of cash, lure big brands and gain national broadcast TV exposure for the sport, then there will be some challenges, big ones. Regardless, the message that the league has sent to all by getting games started and looking globally for talent is a smart one, and one that, if there are brands ready to spend in the women's soccer marketplace, or the women's sports marketplace, they can take advantage of. Hopefully WPS catches a perfect storm to ride to success with some amazing play, activation and personality. The business could use more success stories.
Some other good reads…Bill Lyon in the Philly Inquirer has a great piece looking back at how Philly sports gave the country's BiCentennial celebration a big boost in 1976… Rick Morrissey in the Chicago Tribune has the comeback story of boxer Mark Allen…the Boston Globe's Bob Ryan has a good look at both side's of Villanova's win over Pitt Saturday.…and George Vecsey has a great look at Sunday's first game at CitiField...
