New WoSo League Conference Call Highlights
Information comes from @JeffKassouf, @cboehm, @thegoalkeeper, and @richardfarley.
- New league starts in March/April 2013, will run until September/October
- Teams are BOS, NJ, WNY, DC, CHI, KC, SEA, PDX (11 applied, 8 teams accepted - Seattle Sounders women were one of the teams that applied and didn’t make the final cut)
- USSF will help fund salaries of up to 24 USWNT players, CSA will help fund up to 16 CanWNT players, and FMF will help fund up to 12 MexWNT players
- League has no name yet, but apparently there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes prep to make sure league will be up in time
- League name will come “in the next couple of weeks”
- USSF will run/fund league front office
- Games will be in smaller stadiums, i.e. Dilboy for the Breakers. No Toyota Park in Chicago. (I’m thinking they want 2k-5k capacity)
- Player preference will be strongly taken into account during player allocation
- No teams in Canada…yet
- League has a “handshake agreement” with one national sponsor and is in talks with a TV partner for broadcasts
- MLS has made calls to inquire about participation; also Portland Timbers will run the women’s team in Portland
- There will be guidelines for player salaries, but they haven’t been worked out yet; will need to take into account federations subsidizing national team player salaries
- Soccer United Marketing could be involved in advertising new league
- One of the motivating factors was developing national teams in North America, hence federation involvement
