gooooooal!
A U.S. professional women’s soccer league is in the works for an April 2008 launch, with plans to form teams in Los Angeles, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington, and is working to find a sixth city to host a team, the Associated Press reported Feb. 27. Two other franchises are planned for 2009.
The league, organized by the Women’s Soccer Initiative, will replace the Women’s United Soccer Association, which folded in 2003 after low ticket sales. Tonya Antonucci, the initiative’s CEO, said the new league was working to reduce costs and each team would operate on annual budgets between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. The season is expected to run from April into the fall and will include an all-star game.
“The cities they talked about are great soccer communities who I think will really embrace these teams,” said Mia Hamm, a co-founder of the Women’s United Soccer Association.
Hamm and Julie Foudy, who are both former members of the U.S. team that won gold medals at the 1996 and 2004 Summer Olympics, were also inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame Feb. 27.