Thanks for your comments. I am a big women’s soccer fan and attendee. Even during the first incarnation of WUSA, we had 5 season tickets (and I actually won a refrigerator!)

I appreciate your point that you are not pining for the fans who live in their mom’s basement ( a characterization that is from sports talk radio, not my invention, of course), but it is understandably hard not to want what they get: tons of media coverage, buzz, visibility. Poor (and by this I mean virtually non-existent) reportage is frustrating — I’m sure to you — and to fans who want to get to know the players and read about the drama on and off the field.

I also appreciate your broader point — that is about wanting to be viewed as legitimate entertainment by a broad following. This is a fundamental and important challenge to women’s sports with high profiles. Women’s college basketball is too often positioned as Saturday afternoon birthday party fare — not positioned, marketed, and scheduled as evening entertainment.

I believe women’s basketball and women’s professional soccer are GREAT products — and we do need women execs to use WPS games as a site for business deals. And if you can just hang in, I do believe those girls (and a generation of boys) will be there years from now in season seats. My son still cherishes his Ducar T-shirt with the autograph on the shoulder. My daughters’ Lilly shirts, of course, are still wearable.

First of all, the quote is entirely accurate. However, that statement was part of a larger dialogue where I said our sport has been painted – by supporters and detractors alike – as SOLELY being about providing proper role models for young women, and not given any credit as a pure ENTERTAINMENT experience on its own merits, which is accessible and enjoyable to a broad and diverse group of fans – adults and children, men and women, soccer players and non-soccer players.

In our case, we market quite heavily to an audience of young athletes – largely female – and their parents. However, we also take great pains to ensure that the game day experience is not geared solely to a pre-teen female audience. We feel our sport and our athletes do an excellent job inspiring these young women, but we need to make sure that other elements – music, video board content, food & beverage offerings, the style of the public address announcer – make the stadium inviting and enjoyable for a broader audience than solely young female fans.

I think your interpretation of my “soundbite” is entirely fair and compelling with one exception. You’ve made the inference that our desired audience are “beer swilling” men who “live in their Mom’s basements”. Yes, I suppose that is a recognizable stereotype of a certain segment of the male sports audience. But I think we can agree that it isn’t one of the primary audiences for soccer and that I didn’t say anything to indicate we are pining away for that fan. All I did was use the word “Dad”, although that was trimmed out of the excerpt you posted above.

I think a more accurate inference would be that I think Dad (or Mom) should have just as good a time as Daughter (or Son)…no matter what his drinking habits or living situation.

We are not in a position to take any fans for granted. I don’t think any pro team is. I hope you have the opportunity to attend a Breakers game this season or in 2010 and see whether you feel we are getting it right.

Best regards,

Andy Crossley

And all the women out there that are not supporting female sports: shame on you! I don;t care if you have played sports, have an interest in sports, or even know the difference between a softball and a basketball. This is MUCH bigger than that. It is another step in ensuring equality. It is about shifting attitudes toward women and shifting the paradigm. Its about having woman’s bodies looked at not as a sex symbol, but a symbol of strength, grace and power.

If you have no interest in sports, but you have the ability to buy some tickets, give them away!Support Women’s professional sports!!!