WUSA loses its kick

Sad for some, but true for all Americans, soccer isn't our country's favorite pastime. It's the smell of a worn leather glove and the crack of a bat that are familiar to those in the U.S., not the wear of perfect fitting shin guards or the decision to buy Copa or Beckenbauer cleats.\nThis became all too evident last week when the Women's United Soccer Association announced that its fourth year of play won't become a reality. Limited funds are leaving high caliber players with little choice: aim for the U.S. National Team or call it quits.\n"A shortfall in sponsorship revenue and insufficient revenue from other core areas of the business proved to be the hurdles which the WUSA could not overcome in time for planning the 2004 season," said John Hendricks, Chairman of the WUSA Board of Governors, according to the Board's Web site.\nThe league would have been better off signing with the likes of sports networks such as ESPN or even ESPN2, but it undoubtedly suffered major setbacks after signing with PAX Television, one of the lowest rated television networks in the U.S. Even the WNBA signed with ESPN, and that undoubtedly helped the league prove critics wrong since 1997.\nAs the world's first professional soccer league for women, the WUSA had an average of 7,020 fans in the stands per game in 2002, and over four million viewers tuned in to watch the league's 22 televised games, according to the league's Web site. But despite this, along with the more than $100 million league owners invested to help fund the teams, the seemingly large outpouring of women's soccer hysteria clearly wasn't enough to keep the soccer ball rolling.\nPerhaps men's Major League Soccer, which obviously has its business together, should help the WUSA in structuring, if not funding. The league has been going strong since 1995 and has 20 million fans, according to its Web site. \nThe women's U.S. National Team has won two out of three of women's World Cup tournaments and pulled together for the first-ever women's Olympic soccer championship in 1996. It's because of their incredible talent at the game -- also largely attributed to the increased interest in youth program development in the last few decades -- that it's most unfortunate for college players who once hoped to play professional soccer after graduation.\n"I think it's definitely a shame," Lauren Lamping, a freshman defender for the Hoosiers told the IDS on Sept. 23. "Now, there's nothing for women soccer players after college. I thought it was interesting to watch [the WUSA] because you can learn from watching them play."\nBut while young female soccer stars might turn to professional women players for how to bend the perfect corner kick or maneuver the best give-and-go, historically Americans aren't as in tune with the sport as those from other countries where their athletic foundations are strongly structured in the language of futbol.\nIt takes more than money and network dealings to spark interest in anything. Had Babe Ruth or Ted Williams been knowledgeable in the ways of Cruyff and Pele, America might have been, too.