Wednesday, May 14, 2008

TAMPA, FL - The W-League FC Indiana Lionesses and the PDL Vancouver Whitecaps Residency open unique campaigns for the 2008 season this weekend when they take to the field as professional teams. In some ways, the addition of the pro teams in the two leagues is reminiscent of USL’s past.

Fourteen years ago marked an evolutionary turning point for United Soccer Leagues. The men’s league was beginning to forge into the professional ranks and the organization was embarking on an experiment to test the waters for a potential elite women’s league in a time where there had only been one Women’s World Cup (China 1991) and the second was a year away in Sweden – all while in the shadow of the 1994 FIFA World Cup being held in the United States.

“1994 was pivotal year in the history of USL,” said USL Founder and President Francisco Marcos. “We were experiencing profound growth in the men’s game and we strongly believed that a women’s league could also be possible if we followed the same model we used for the men. Many thought we were crazy, that a women’s league would never succeed. But here we are in our 14th season of the W-League, where countless American, Canadian and international stars have played.”

Since USL, originally launched as an indoor league in 1986, introduced an outdoor league in 1990, it had been comprised of amateur teams. In 1994 as the level of the men’s game began to rise in anticipation of the World Cup and the future launch of Major League Soccer, the desire for professional soccer hit its highest peak since the demise of the NASL a decade earlier. Having grown from 43 teams in 1993 to 72, the league was beginning its path toward individual leagues with an exact split of amateur and professional teams competing side-by-side in 1994. The following year, what is now the USL Second Division would be born from what is now the PDL.

When Vancouver takes to the field Sunday, it will be the first time since 1994 that a professional team will compete against amateurs in the Premier Development League.

“Flexibility to our team and market demands has always been a strength of USL,” said USL Executive Vice President and COO Tim Holt. “Making changes to adapt to the needs of the soccer marketplace is a key component of USL’s management philosophy dating back to the USL’s founding and we take great pride in having been a leader in developing the sport, whether it be the lower divisions of the professional men’s game, the creation of national youth leagues or the launch of the most influential women’s developmental league in North America.”

“The evolution of the PDL and W-League into a Pro-Am league structure is the latest example of this philosophy,” Holt continued. “In doing so, we will continue to be vigilant in ensuring no individual team mixes paid professionals and student-athletes so as to continue to comply with collegiate regulations.”

What began as a small pilot tournament in 1994 became a full-fledged league the following year for the women. What would eventually arrive at its current W-League name debuted with 21 teams in 1995. While the men’s game was becoming increasingly professional, many of the women’s teams were founded by passionate individuals dedicated to providing an elite avenue for women.

As the years rolled by some old and the new ownership groups that came into the league wanted to mirror the professional administrative and entertainment atmosphere of the men’s game and as the league grew, so to did its ambitions. In 1998 the league took a page out of the men’s playbook to address the needs of professional administration and created the W-1 and W-2 leagues to foster business and standards development.

“W-1 and W-2 teams were never about talent on the field,” said longtime W-League Executive Committee member Marcie Laumann, owner of the last remaining W-League team from the 1995 season. “The distinction was made in the early days of the league to allow new teams time to get on their feet while still maintaining the minimum standards that the USL demands of all its franchises. That’s what sets the W-League apart from other women’s leagues across the country.”

“The split league worked for a while and then we just outgrew it,” added Laumann. “The standards are the same now for all franchises from the minute you hang your shingle out. Most of our teams are amateur teams but we are professionally-operated organizations.”

That same desire to raise the level of operation once again has led to the opening of the door for professional teams in the W-League in a Pro-Am format.

“With the launch of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) occurring when several of our franchises are now fully capable of being professional themselves, we felt it was important to allow our franchises the opportunity to structure themselves in the manner that best fits their goals and objectives as a soccer club,” said Holt.

FC Indiana will be the first W-League team to take that step.

“In 2005 we set an objective of becoming the best women’s soccer club in terms of play, training environment, marketing and entertainment value in the world within seven years,” said co-owner and coach Shek Borkowski. “That goal still stands and we will reach it. WPS teams will have bigger budgets than us. But as WUSA (Women’s United Soccer Association) demonstrated, money is not everything. We have intangibles that will allow us to successfully compete against WPS teams.”

Laumann offered that the short and long-term benefits of having the Pro-Am league format available would help the W-League as well as Women’s Professional Soccer.

“This option presents a great opportunity for those franchises that choose to accept it,” said Laumann. “This is a very progressive decision by USL. It allows the W-League to morph into a form that the market dictates. It’s a bold move that speaks volumes to not only the history of the league but to the future of the league. To me it says, "The W-league has been here as the foundation for women’s soccer and we will continuing to be here for whatever the future brings, supporting, nurturing, and promoting the beautiful game." Franchises can decide what their individual markets will support and if they choose to go the pro route the W-League pro/am structure allows them that option to grow.”

“I also think this is the best-case scenario for supporting the launch and success of the WPS,” added Laumann. “Again, this option allows W-League teams to grow depending on what their community and market dictates. The best way the W-League can support WPS is by continuing to operate strong, successful, stable franchises across North America. We promote not only the W-League, but the game itself. WPS can learn volumes from the W-League. Many of us have operated franchises for more than a decade and that’s real world experience you can’t learn from a book.”

For teams like FC Indiana who strive to be among the best clubs in the world, competition for the top players has become a global market with the success of the sport having grown immensely over the past five years in Europe on the international and club level.

“The ability to compensate players did have a significant effect on trying to go after the best talent available as it’s hard to compete with some foreign leagues financially,” said FC Indiana General Manager Anton Maksimov. “I can safely say before joining the W-League we lost four or five players that were on our preseason list to European clubs. When regulations restrict you from paying players, you always try to compensate by providing better training environment, but it doesn’t necessarily work with every player.”

“The women’s game, particularly in Europe has made massive strides in the last five years,” added Borkowski. “In my experience the demise of WUSA has hurt a bit. The game day presentation, attendance, marketing of players, media coverage of top clubs in Sweden, Germany and another two or three countries is on par and even better compared to what WUSA offered in 2001-2003. Money available for the best players in Europe is on par with what WPS teams will likely offer.”

With the upcoming launch of WPS, there has been an increase in foreign player interest in coming to the United States, knowing that there would be somewhat limited opportunity for them to sign next year and wanting to show first hand in the 2008 W-League season they can compete at the WPS level. The situation is similar to that of 2000 when the WUSA was preparing to launch in 2001 and the W-League saw an influx in talent from abroad.

While the short-term rise in quality of play was a boon for the W-League in 2000, there were concerns that the launch of the WUSA would deplete its talent the following year and significantly damage the elite level of play. The quality of play was verified by the WUSA teams when 77 W-League players were selected in the pro league’s inaugural and supplemental drafts.

“There was some genuine concern that we would see a drop-off at the time in the W-League,” said Holt. “Even in just the first five years of the league, the quality of play exploded so dramatically we were worried that fans would not continue to support their teams when WUSA arrived on the scene. Thankfully, those concerns proved unfounded. Due to the deep and talented college and amateur player pool, the fans remained loyal and supportive of their local teams.”

With the 1999 launch of the Super Y-League, the philosophy of building W-League into clubs also helped further the development concept which USL takes great pride in, resulting in increased quality of players at even younger ages. In 1998 Abby Wambach was playing at 17 in Rochester and Lindsay Tarpley was playing at 14 in Kalamazoo. They were a rarity in the sport that became more commonplace in the new millennium as W-League teams expanded into clubs.

That quality and depth in talent, which has continued to increase since the WUSA’s launch, is one of the reasons why many in the W-League believe that having a professional team competing in the league will not prove to be a significant advantage competitively.

“There are advantages and disadvantages to not having college players,” said Laumann. “I see the main advantage as not being tied to the NCAA time frame. FCI gets their players in camp much earlier than teams who have college players. That extra time preseason is like gold. Coaches and players are already gelled before the W-League season kicks off. The disadvantage is that you sacrifice the amazing talent pool available in college players in the USA and Canada right now. The collegiate ranks are as good overall as the pro league was five years ago.”

While FC Indiana is a professional team, it is taking the step from being an amateur side gradually in how it approaches compensation.

“The compensation varies but usually includes housing and food allowance and a small monthly stipend at this point,” said Maksimov. “The level depends on the player but doesn’t exceed the lower levels of salaries paid in men’s pro soccer in the US both in MLS and USL. About 75 percent of the roster gets some sort of compensation even if it’s symbolic in some instances.”

While FC Indiana may have paid professionals in 2008, it will still be competing against a number of teams who have been fortunate to recruit and feature top senior and youth international players without compensation the past few years since the demise of the WUSA. Teams like Atlanta, Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Jersey, New Jersey and former WUSA member Washington Freedom have had a wealth of talent on their sides. Hampton Roads was one of the original teams to welcome players from abroad and is still the home club of Nigerian internationals Mercy Akide and Florence Omagbemi.

Laumann believes that having the ability to sign 7-10 players as paid professionals is not necessarily a great competitive advantage given the quality of some of the teams and players around the rest of the W-League.

“Again there are two sides to this debate,” she said. “Obviously just because you pay someone to play a sport does not make that person more talented, dedicated, or competitive than a non-paid player. Just look at the Olympics. Most coaches in the W-league expect the same amount of dedication and professionalism from all their players on the field. However, on the business side of this, team executives can and should demand more from a paid player. The on-field expectations will remain the same but the off-field expectations and responsibilities will increase. When a player becomes a "pro" they are expected to represent their team with a certain amount of professionalism at all times.”

The opportunities afforded by the Pro-Am league format are also expected to play a major role in the years going forward for W-League and PDL sides. One of the benefits of not having collegiate amateur players on a team is that it allows for player movement between teams in different leagues. FC Indiana, for example, could loan players to its affiliate WPS Chicago team upon its launch and Chicago could loan players down that are still in need of development.

That very concept is the heart of the Vancouver’s program.

“The Whitecaps are leaders in the area of elite player development, particularly in Canada,” said Holt. “The club has been an longstanding member of the Super Y-League and is at the forefront of trying to change the culture of youth soccer over the past five years.”

“This is a huge milestone for our club and an integral piece of our player development model,” said Bob Lenarduzzi, Vancouver Whitecaps FC President. “The PDL is a leader in player development in North America and a perfect fit for our Residency program. In addition to our young stars competing, it will be extremely beneficial to our first-team players, who might need additional playing minutes.”

The Whitecaps Residency Program is a full-time program dedicated to developing North America’s top youth players in Vancouver. The program allows elite youth players from U-17 to U-19 to achieve professional opportunities with the Whitecaps USL First Division team and world-class European clubs using the European club model of identification, development and placement.

“With the residency program being the pinnacle of our youth development portion of the club, I think the ability to have those players showcase in a structured North American league is not only great for the development of our residency players, but also a great league to profile ourselves to the rest of North America, as we continue to recruit players into our residency program,” said Lenarduzzi.

Although the player development program is in its inaugural year, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency is quickly making a name for itself in the soccer community. The roster totals 16 young stars from across Canada, including 11 members from Canada’s U-17 national team, as well as the Jamaican under-17 national team captain. In a recent trip to Germany, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency showed quite well against some of the top youth teams in the German football league system, including Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart.

The program has also seen success in exhibition matches against domestic universities and local top-level senior men’s teams, but the Whitecaps were looking for more.

"The biggest thing for us and for the players is that they’re playing in a league that puts stress on them in terms of getting competitive results and being able to perform in a game that has some meaning to it,” Lenarduzzi said. “It will also be a good measuring stick for ourselves, as to where we are across North America at that age group.”

“While the players we are playing will be much younger than the players we are competing against, the club will have the ability to play some of our first-team players in the PDL who may need to get game fitness back. It is a concept that I think other professional clubs will use. As we move forward, we’ll find that the PDL will become a really viable reserve development system for a lot of professional clubs, as well as amateur clubs.”

The team’s dedication to developing the younger generation of players will likely make it one of the youngest teams in the league, counteracting the side’s advantage of being able to pay players professionally.

“While fielding a professional team in the PDL affords any such teams the ability to sign and pay older players who are current or former professionals, all teams are still bound by the PDL’s U-23 rules which limit over-age players to eight,” said Holt.

“Vancouver is the first men’s professional club in North America that will have its own in-house professional development team with its own dedicated roster serving as its reserve team,” said Holt. “It’s another example of the organization’s commitment to creating a sustainable, vertically-integrated structure for both elite male and female players and evidence why the Whitecaps are one of North America’s most important and innovative soccer clubs.”