The financial mess in St. Louis has claimed its first victim. It was announced that St. Louis Athletica of the WPS will fold, becoming the second club to fold this year in the league. Jeff Cooper, one of the financial backers in St. Louis, broke the news to the team.
A financial crisis that impacts both the Athletica and the USSF D-2 side A.C. St. Louis is at the heart of the issue. The men's side will remain afloat for the time being, as bonds were issued to meet the club's payroll.
“We looked at a few options as a league together with our Board and U.S. Soccer, but the operational hurdles and finances just didn’t work out," WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci said in a league statement. "In the face of a severe funding gap in St. Louis, the local ownership group is shutting down the team at this point.”
Athletica players will become free agents on June 1, and the club won't play its scheduled match this weekend against Atlanta.
What do you think of the news? Will A.C. St. Louis survive?
Share your thoughts below.
Right, which is why everyone else in the world is rushing to adopt it.
Wait. That’s not right. They think it’s idiocy. Well, what do they know? They’re furriners, not like us red-blooded American males! We’ll show them…
OK, enough of that. The fact that a few guys have managed to succeed to a modest degree despite the system is not evidence of its success. American soccer player-development is amateur hour when you compare it either to European teams or to other American sports like baseball. The reason why is that there is not enough money in it.
There are only two solutions to “not enough money”: government subsidies or sell more tickets. If you’re going the subsidy route, then at least spend the subsidies in a way that actually makes sense, instead of one that not only does a crap job of developing players but (if you get rid of Title IX) aggravates gender biases on top of it.
“Women’s soccer is unwatchable.”
“it’s women’s soccer and no one cares.”
Such idiocy.
You do Pat Cash proud while insulting world class athletes and the women and men and teens and kids who like to watch them play. If the USMNT had half the success of the women, everyone here would be in heaven.
(And yes, I know WPS is not international play, it’s just a comment in response to the ones quoted.)
what mls fans want a team in st louis???… i would rather have a tampon crammed up my bung than have a team in that slum hole…speak for yourself…they dont deserve one ….if you want one there then make them move KC seeing how its in the same state…oh wait they wont move it because they dont see st lame as being the same savior as you….st louis is a dump and should be avoided at all cost
your a moron….st louis is capable of getting an std that is IT…they are not worth anything…I HAVE NO IDEA WHY PEOPLE STILL BRING UP THIS LAME DUMP AS THE CENTER OF THE WORLD…you know what?? life moves on as does the world….st louis is nothing more than a dump….plain and simple…and all the morons that think that they deserve a team should just look at the numbers with their wpa team and 2nd division team this year that just came about….lets not forget these losers could not have a 2nd division team before, but other markets could, and actually send some people to a game. These people cant hold an nfl team and should not ever have a mls team with a limited market.
The WPS business model is actually sound – their operational budget only targets needing 5000 fans per game, which I believe is an achievable and sustainable number for women’s soccer. This was a case of partners in the owners group not paying up when the money was due.
Will women’s soccer ever be a major sport in this country? No, but I do believe that a solid, sustainable league that gets 5000 fans per game is not only a worthy goal but an achievable one.
The air fare alone would bankrupt them face it, no one gives a sh!t about womens soccer until its WC or Olympic time and only if they do good.
is AC St Louis going to survive you ask?
More like is the WPS going to survive?
Doesnt look like it.
I thought that St louis was suppossed to be a soccer hotbed? Guess not.
Its a one sport town with that sport being a bunch of overpaid fat guys who scratch their nuts and chew tobacco for a living.
No they cut the business with no revenue to save the other business which has future revenue potential…it’s not a sexist decision, its business. I won’t say no one cares, but very few people will ever care about women’s professional sports, and those that do wear Birkenstocks.
A women’s professional league will never work in the US, I don’t know why we keep trying.
I believe that is the way as well. I already drive 3 hours for a Fire game (at least once a season), and I would stay later or arrive early to watch the Red Stars or “Lady Fire”.
So does FIFA take away its status. I thought a league needed 8 teams. Which makes you wonder why keep AC STL, and drop the Athletica.
Since when is a football game 4 hrs what’s wrong with you son
So they cut the women’s team to save the mens?
indeed, but since there are no schools that field teams, well, you’re kinda stuck, right? there are 196 NCAA men’s division I soccer teams in the US, and another 168 in Division II. that should work out to roughly seven a state. if the South isn’t pulling their weight on this, despite producing great players, well, maybe that’s a problem in the South? or we can blame title IX whichever.
Because the first one is doing so well…riiiiight.
Did you read the story written above???? No Mlsteam in st louis for now they just aren’t strong enough financially for the mls and we dont need another Tampa/Miami in the league
Pretty much seems true. So they’ll probably go until the end of the season, or maybe whenever they crash out of the US Open Cup.
wrong. Georgia isn’t restricted from having a men’s team simply because of Title IX, they are restricted because the school chooses to spend 25 million a year on men’s football.
for all the complaints about Title IX, how is it that Maryland, which has fewer women’s sports than Georgia (no equestrian team, natch) somehow manages to field both a men’s Football team and a men’s soccer team? somehow the ACC manages to field nine men’s teams, mostly in the South, compared to twelve women’s teams. the reason Georgia doesn’t is because their entire conference, the SEC, doesn’t have a men’s soccer division. Somehow, the ACC, the Big Ten and the Pac Ten all manage to have men’s soccer, with most of the schools playing. with all the great interest in the sport in the South, you’d figure the SEC and Big 12 would be on board, right? or do people just not care?
Exactly. It’s not about the fan support because that’s there and is on par with any other team. It’s the bonehead owner.
The worst part is that we already have two owners in town that already have MLS teams – Kroenke (St. Louis Ram/Colorado Rapids) and Dave Checketts (St. Louis Blues/RSL). Unless somebody like Kroenke steps up to bat, not sure we’ll have a good enough ownership group.
Cooper’s a tool, and should be reviled. Any progress that was expected from this will be set back ten-fold if this team folds.
Before people blame investors for pulling out, I can say I’ve looked into more than one football club’s failure in the past, and investors often scarper when they know the management team is heading for an iceberg.
SO if the costs were out of control, it might well have been that they got scared off. That’s a product of poor management (hypothetically, of course), not poor finances.
I’ve read USSF has kept ACSTL going by floating a bond.
MLS made the right call on this one. They knew all along the money was not there and decided to go with Philly instead. Rut Roh somebodys doing their homework lol!
Careful now, people might start thinking we actually care about soccer in the south and that we have good players down here. Heaven forbid our homegrown talent be allowed to play for a hometown team…
st louis blows… i have stated this over and over if they were the soccer central everyone says they are they would of had a 2nd tier team already…they have one and nothing is happening unlike the Canada teams…Rochester or Charleston would be a better pick than these losers if your going small market…..KC in the same state has a team why didnt they just move it there if it was so great….lets not forget the rams are thinking of moving already and the nfl rules in this country….they are a joke…mls can find better places to move too than that crime ridden dump…im sick of even talking about that lame city
I’m not sure MLS has the financial resources to subsidize a women’s league, even if they wanted to.
I know the NBA is putting more pressure on the WNBA to become financially independent, which has led to a couple of teams folding.
I don’t take any great joy in it, but I just don’t think the male half of this country, by and large, is willing to pay to watch women’s sports…and men are still the largest slice of the target market for live sporting events, mens or womens.
I think there’s a better chance such a league may be viable in another generation, but I’m not sure I’ll live to see it.
I hate when sports and politics mix. How about an International Womens League with like 4 teams in the USA, 4 teams in So America and other teams in Europe. These four teams would rep a region of the Country. It would be the Women Champion league. Each game in the US can be at different venues in the ea. region
Equality for men and women vs. success in Int’l Soccer is a false argument. Tens of thousands of young men in this country can’t play intercollegiate sports because federal law prevents their schools from adding sports for their gender, unless they add another women’s sport simultaneously. And to gripe about football (American) getting the lions share of the funding is irrelevant, since they pay for entire athletic programs at most universities.
Like I said elsewhere, the Nats are littered with players who spent time in college: Onyewu, Cherundolo, Feilhaber, Dempsey, etc. College will always remain an important component in our program and should be encouraged not discarded.
It looks as if Cooper started the Athletica to gain traction and credibility in order to get investors to invest in ACSL. And now that both are threatened with failure he chooses to shut down the less expensive team. Although he is probably keeping the Athletica staff in place to run the day to day operations of ACSL (which was one of his supposed big wins in this setup).
Poor form by Cooper. Isn’t he the president of NASL as well? I was surprised to find out that he did not own these teams but sold his interest before the season and only owned minority shares in both teams. At the very least he could have done better in finding investors of his ‘products’. Keep that man away from any other soccer leagues.
As for whether Title IX holds back the Nats, I don’t think so…not directly. But to assume that in the States we will go to a straight out of HS program to the pros is equally unrealistic. Dempsey played in college, as did Onyewu and a lot of other national team players. It will always remain an important part of our pipeline. The more options our young men have the better.
England is revamping the womens league and creating a brand new league. It will now be fully professional. All womens teams before were semi-pro including the Arsenal Ladies who have the best set up.
red boolean is right…my alma mater-Georgia-can’t have men’s soccer because of Title IX. Clint Mathis, Josh Wolff and Ricardo Clark all hail from Atlanta, and had to leave the state to pursue their dreams.
I’ve got three daughters, love my wife and love soccer. But Men’s and Women’s Soccer are not the same sport and the WPS cannot possibly succeed in the marketplace of pro-sports. Its not that I wish them to fail, but it just not viable, imho.
The WNBA and NBA are married together and the only way that women’s soccer becomes viable financially is if MLS, after it gets its house in order, sponsors a women’s league, like has happened in Germany and England. Don’t know if they’re profitable either.
When will the cycle of Women’s Soccer stabilize? Ever?
The major factor behind Title iX is not just women’s soccer or women’s sports, but other male sports that dominate the scholarship field, such as football. Due to sports such as football with their 9,000 scholarships and roster spots, sports such as soccer and other so-deemed smaller Mens sports are unable to exist. If you abolished Title IX, the only sports that would receive any funding would be those that which bring any type of money to the University – and sadly you count those soccer schools on 1 hand, if there are any. I want college soccer programs across the country as much as anyone, its just not as easy axeing Title IX.
Yes, this must be it. The men’s national team isn’t that great because we don’t spend enough money on academic scholarships for marginal 18-22 year old pseudo-prospects who aren’t good enough to sign professionally.
What a ridiculous assertion. The US men’s national team isn’t that great because soccer attracts like 2% (if that) of the top athletes in this country. The way to change that is by paying professional players through ticket sales, not by self-entitled whining about comparatively tiny amounts of money being used to fund amateur athletics for women.
And which do you think should be a more important priority for this country, equality for men and women or success in international soccer?
A soccer fan should know better than to use the phrase “no one cares,” since he’s heard it enough times coming from baseball and basketball fans.
it’s women’s soccer and no one cares. imagine all the major universities that could pick up varsity men’s soccer if title IX was abolished. it would incentivize young men to pursue the game at a higher level by rewarding them with a scholarship.
do you think this would improve our standing globally against other soccer powerhouses? of course it would. let me reiterate: title IX holds back our national team’s success.
the wps is a pc-driven pipe dream of a business model. the wnba bleeds money every year, but david stern values the positive public relations enough to keep them around. there will always be an insufficient demand for women’s sports.
Women’s soccer is unwatchable.
A second New York team would be more profitable than something in St. Louis.
How is a team allowed to field a team in the first place if they only have enough money to cover just 4 paydays???
I’m sorry, but even if you supposedly have people with lots of money coming soon, you need to be able to start with more than 4 payrolls in the bank.
Whoever OK’ed this team should be fired.
This had nothing to do with the city or its fans. The reason that they folded was due to investors not owning up to what they said they would invest. Plenty of fan support and St Louis is a huge soccer city. An MLS (real team) team would be huge in this city.
I also think that WPS is just not a viable institution at this point. Attendance numbers are abysmal to say the least. I’m not putting down the quality or players. It’s just a weak market overall. A better option would be a WMLS where each MLS team is based and back-to-back games. Americans are used to 4-hour games already (footnall). Why not have access to two games?
In truth, my proposal probably won’t work either because MLS is still growing and fragile (just look at the FC Dallas and Revolution attendance). It will likely be at least 10 years before anything like the WMLS can be accomplished.
ummm… its women’s soccer and its gonna go bankrupt. you can’t equate soccer with women’s soccer.
I’d be very surprised at this rate if AC STL survives. They are praying an investor at this point
Aaaaand this is why MLS is picky about getting the right ownership group in place. They had reservations about Cooper’s group, which seem pretty founded now.
I could have told you when WPS was a rumor, that it was a financial Mistake… I love and respect women.. i want them to be treated fairly, but i have to say… A successful womens sports league will not happen.. ever. I feel bad for the little girls who look up to them but, hey watch MLS… and if you like footbal and want to be around it, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be the best WAG you can..
If you read the link, it sounds more like a problem with ownership/investors than with fan support in St. Louis.
Sad news though for women’s soccer. I think WPS will fold soon. It’s sad, but there just isn’t support for women’s sports. They would need the backing of MLS (like the NBA supporting the WNBA) and I just don’t think MLS will make that commitment at this point.
I want a team in St. Louis, yes. I think it’s a totally viable market. It’s going to take an owner that isn’t a screw-up like Cooper. I’m glad MLS passed over him when he was up for an expansion spot.
St. Louis is probably still capable of supporting an MLS team, but this sure creates problems for a bid at a time when they can’t really afford to have them. My guess is that MLS won’t go beyond 20 teams for quite awhile, meaning getting the 20th team is crucial. Just bad timing.
What are you saying? We’ve seen that D2 support does equal MLS support. Both Toronto and Seattle had weak attendance before getting an MLS team. As for the ownership, MLS realized it wasn’t strong enough and didn’t grant them a team. Looks like MLS was right on this one.
Its only a matter of time before the whole league (WPS) folds. Too bad for Atlanta and their new stadium.
And MLS fans want a team in St. Louis…