Bay Area presence in new league?

Soccer beat: Women's league seeks kick-start
By Debbie Arrington -Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Tonya Antonucci knows Northern California's love of soccer. She played at Stanford with Julie Foudy, the future captain of the women's national team. Antonucci later served as an assistant coach at Stanford and Santa Clara, another powerhouse, and played for the California Storm in Sacramento.

Now, Antonucci is trying to bring back women's pro soccer through the Women's Soccer Initiative Inc.

"I'm open to suggestions," she said of possible places new teams could play. "I would very much like to see a team in the Bay Area. Sacramento is also a very viable place for a team. That's a very, very strong market."

The WSII, a nonprofit organization, will try to succeed where the Women's United Soccer Association failed by relaunching a women's pro league in 2008. The WUSA, which included the 2001 champion Bay Area CyberRays in San Jose, folded in 2003 after three seasons and $100 million in investment. The new league might use the WUSA brand name or develop a different moniker.

Antonucci, the WSII chief executive officer, said she thinks her group has developed a business model that will work by capitalizing on ties to Major League Soccer and new soccer-specific stadiums while maintaining its independence.

The WSII has commitments for teams from investors in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis and Washington, with a sixth franchise seeking the "best possible market," preferably in the West.

According to Antonucci, the WSII has had "meaningful discussions" with A's co-owner Lew Wolff's soccer group, which also is trying to bring back an MLS club to Northern California. "We're very aggressively pursuing the Bay Area and Northern California," said Antonucci, who lives in San Francisco.

Ideally, the WSII would like eight teams for its first season. Other sites with strong interest are Cary, N.C.; Boston; metropolitan New York/New Jersey; Rochester, N.Y.; and Atlanta.

Antonucci hopes the new league will get a kick-start from two major international showcases: the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2008 Olympics. Both tournaments will be held in China. The new league would hold its first season between the two events, most likely with an April debut.

"This is just the first step," Antonucci said. "The groundswell of support for women's soccer has only grown since 2003. The time is right."

Fans can find out more through the group's new Web site, www.wsii.org.