ESPN reports return of professional women's soccer in the U.S.

Similar information appears in the current issue of _Fair Game_ magazine. The sad part here is that there is nothing planned for the Bay Area. My hope: that when Lew Wolff gets serious about building a home for the expansion version of the MLS Earthquakes, that will lead to a women's franchise as well, for reasons that Carlisle in his article touches upon. But what to do in the meantime--commute to Rochester?--James
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WUSA revival looking more like reality
Jeff Carlisle

Contrary to popular belief, when Tonya Antonucci took over as CEO of the Women's Soccer Initiative Inc. in November 2004, she was not asked to walk on water. She was asked to raise the dead, however, especially as her appointed task was to resurrect the WUSA. A little more than two years, not to mention thousands of frequent-flier miles later, Antonucci is closer than ever to making that dream a reality.

Not that you'll see the Stanford grad shouting this news from the rooftops, at least not yet. Antonucci has gotten this far by playing things so close to the vest that a guest shot on the "World Series of Poker" isn't out of the question. But some recent developments are allowing her to at least make some whispers about WSII's progress, and they are all pointing to what was unthinkable two years ago: The WUSA just might make it back.

The league has opted for a franchise model, as opposed to a single entity structure, and to that end, three investors have signed on the dotted line to be owners of a WUSA team. Antonucci is also optimistic that she'll soon get enough additional signatures to relaunch the league in spring 2008 with a minimum of eight teams.

"We feel like this phase of the project -- the capitalization phase -- is coming to a close very soon," Antonucci said. "We hope to have an announcement by the end of this year to assure marketers, sponsors and fans that the investors have signed on."

Just who those investors are Antonucci wouldn't say, although she did mention that "we have some owners in common with MLS." (When asked what Anschutz Entertainment Group's plans for a revamped WUSA were, a spokesman for the mega MLS backer had no comment.) What the former Yahoo executive did identify were the 11 markets where the league likely will set up shop. They are: Los Angeles; St. Louis; Chicago; Kansas City, Mo.; Dallas; Washington, D.C.; New York/New Jersey; Rochester, N.Y.; Atlanta; San Diego; and Cary, N.C.

Even though much work remains to be done, that's heady stuff for an organization whose rebirth has faced the steepest of odds. So what has changed since the league shut its doors in fall 2003? In short, soccer-specific stadiums and what Antonucci calls the "soccer network effect" that relies heavily on shared infrastructure with existing sports teams....
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Read the entire article at http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=394952&root=us25&cc=5901