Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 110

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAGE 1X1 MONDAY, JULY 12, 1999 ence for both soccer and women's sports. But it cant be overlooked that this was an event and, as Americans, we love to come out for a big show, especially when the head-liners are dressed in red, white and blue. It's no coincidence that the first overwhelmingly profitable Olympics came on American soil, at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. It should have come as no shock that the 1994 Men's World Cup the first ever played in the United States sold the most tickets ever (3.5 million). So, when the USA Women's to watch the world play soccer is much easier than convincing them to watch the top Americans play in a league of their own.

So, while people fought over tickets to watch Hamm, Akers, Scurry take on the world together, it would be much tougher to sell tickets to see those players go against each other in a league with a bunch of no-name teammates. The American Basketball League, which came on the' coattails of the USA women winning gold at the 1996 Olympics, found that out the hard way, folding mid World Cup Organizing Committee said a year ago that its goal was to make this the biggest event in the history of female sports, why was anyone shocked that Americans accepted the challenge? "There was a whole heck of a lot of people that have come out and supported us," said USA striker Tiffeny Milbrett. "It definitely caught us off guard. I think we all knew that way through its third season. The WNBA is off to a solid start, but still has some gray areas to clear before it is unequivocally recognized as here to stay.

A women's soccer league would be even tougher to sell. With women's basketball having been accepted around the world decades ago, the national and international pool of talent for the WNBA makes for legitimate, high-level competition. organized. "We believe there is a marketplace for women's soccer," World Cup Organizing Committee president Maria Messing said. "We'd just have to figure out how to do it.

We'd have to be real creative in comijj up with something that would work. "I certainly don't see it being like the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA or NHL. I dont even see it as the WNBA, because we wouldn't have the backing of a powerful league like the NBA. "We're still very much a niche sport. I'm not sure if there is a model out there for us to go by.

Sure there is. There are already pro leagues for indoor lacrosse, indoor soccer, arena football, roller hockey, bowling and beach volleyball. Late the other night on ESPN2, I saw a game from the Women's Professional Softball League. If those sports can make it, there's likely an autfc ence out there for a nice, little, women's professional soccer league with modest operating costs and modest expectations. Nobody would get rich, but women could keep playing the sport they love and USSF could keep developing the talent necessary to keep the U.S.

at the top of the women's soccer world. "It's fortunate for us as a national team that we'll be together leading into the Olympics," Milbrett said. "There are a lot of players out there who are not national-team caliber, but are still awesome in their own right. We need to start a league so those players can get playing and improving to feed into the national-team program." Send mail to sinallwjpliillyimws.com ASADENA, Calif. "What's 11 PJ next?" is not a timely question II concerning the future, of the I miiJ United States women's national soccer team.

Because 2000 is an Olympic year, the defending Olympic and newly crowned World Cup champions arent likely to fade from the spotlight anytime soon. More than 412,000 fans attended their games, including a women's sporting-event world-record crowd of 90,185 at the Rose Bowl for the title-game victory over China. Television ratings surpassed those of the Stanley Cup finals. So expect another well-sponsored, rock-concert style, sea-to-shining-sea tour leading into the Sydney Games next September. But after the Olympics, that's when the real questions about what happens to Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Briana Scurry Co.

can begin. That's when we will find out whether the great soccer revolution we have been told has happened over the past three weeks actually has staying power, or was just the latest in a long line of big-event attractions that capture the American imagination while they're happening but soon fade into the back corners of our minds. The truth will lie somewhere between overzealous proponents calling this the greatest enactment of "Girl Power" since the Spice Girls toured America and closed-minded detractors pinning the Cup's unexpected popularity on feminists looking for empowerment and hormonally charged boys hanging out in "Babe City." This was real. More than 650,000 fans attended the World Cup games because there is a viable audi 0lL- SMALL 0OD this was going to be huge, but nobody expected it to be this huge." With Team USA pushing itself into the American- consciousness, the United States Soccer Federation made a smart public-relations move last week by announcing it was commissioning a feasibility study into the creation a women's professional league. But those who think a women's league can't miss just because the World Cup went off so well are fooling themselves.

Major League Soccer, which sprung out of the successful "94 Men's World Cup, has found out that convincing American fans The play in the WNBA is certainly on par, and probably better, than what you would see at the top level of international women's basketball. In women's soccer, the United States' national team is a little more than 10 years old and, with the exception of China and Norway, is obviously far ahead of the rest of the world. Even if the top foreign players came into a proposed professional women's soccer league, the talent pool wouldn't be deep enough to produce the level of play that has been displayed over the past three weeks. Nevertheless, something could be Holts Cigar Importers Since 1898 Open 6 Days a Week Elie Bleu Humidor Sale Special from July 12 July 24: CIGARCOMPANY TrMJ The most beautiful and functional humidors in the world. The only humidor rated A by Cigar Aficionado.

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