Women's Pro Soccer Makes a Comeback

Professional soccer will be coming to Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. when the new Women's Soccer LLC league begins play in the spring of 2009, according to a press release.

Funding was available for a 2008 start for the league, but the launch has been planned to take advantage of the expected increase in visibility for women's soccer provided by the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup an the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. "We fully expect that the FIFA 2007 Women's World Cup, which will be broadcast on ESPN, as well as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, broadcast on NBC and its family of networks, will provide excellent exposure for our players and sport as we build momentum toward opening day," said league commissioner Tonya Antonucci.

Boston Women's Soccer , LLC managing partner acknowledges the impatience many feel for the start of the league, but agrees with the decision to delay the launch.

"We would very much have liked to start playing games in 2008 and in fact several teams were able and ready to do so. However, as a league we are very focused on how we fit into the overall sports landscape and two overwhelming factors contributed to the decision to start playing in 2009.

"The first was being sure that we have longevity in our league and we overwhelmingly believe that starting in 2009 will assure the long term success of each and every team. And most importantly our sport has two critical events during 2007 and 2008, namely the FIFA World Cup starting in several weeks and the Olympics next summer. We did not want to impact the various national teams between these two events and we did not want our league to take the focus away from these two great events for our players or our fans."

The league has plans for a comprehensive marketing and branding campaign in the 18 months leading up to the league launch and has paired with Soccer United Marketing, the commercial branch of Major League Soccer to secure corporate sponsorships and launch consumer products.

Soccer is one of the most popular participatory sports in the United States, with more than 3.2 million youth players registered nationally. Organizers of the new league point to the growing numbers as a sign that the U.S. is ready for another women's soccer league. "The start of a women's professional league in 2009 is further evidence of soccer's continued growth and potential in the United States," said MLS Commissioner Don Garber.

Source: Press Release (http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=3547989&view=LOCAL)