A standing room only crowd attended the Women’s Professional Soccer’s Town Hall Meeting at the 2008 NSCAA Convention to get the scoop on the new league. The meeting was moderated by USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and had six panelists representing the league including President and General Manager of the Boston Breakers, Joe Cummings, Boston Breakers Head Coach Tony DiCicco, Chicago Owner Gary Weaver, Chicago General Manager Marcia McDermott, Sky Blue Soccer (NJ/NY) Marketing/Public Relations Manager Gloria Averbuch and former NY Power player Emily Janss. Unfortunately, League Commissioner, Tonya Antonucci was under the weather and was unable to participate.
Two attendees that were especially eager for some news were Christie Welsh and Lori Lindsey. Both played in the WUSA and are among the dwindling number of former players that have been hanging and keeping themselves ready for when and if the league ever came back. Both currently play on the Washington Freedom’s W-League team.
I chatted with them for a few minutes after the meeting to get their take.
FG: What did you guys think? Was this new information or have you been hearing things through the Washington Freedom organization?
CW: I haven’t heard much to be honest. We’ve been pretty much out of the picture and training on our own and trying to get ourselves ready for the eventual launch. Today I was hoping to hear a little bit more about what’s going to happen with players and how they are going to be allocated. Obviously, that’s going to take some time to figure out, but that’s the stuff that we’re really interested in. We want the smart people to figure out the business plan and to get that organized and then as soon as we can, to help in anyway that we can. The t-shirts they handed out, I’ll be wearing this around as much as I can to get the logo out and the name. We’re just wondering what we can do to help and what we can do to prepare.
FG: Both of you were around last time and you stuck it out and kept yourself fit, obviously hoping this was coming and then it always seemed to be “next year”. Does it seem real?
LL: I think finally it seems real. Since 2003 when the league suspended everyone’s been saying “the league’s going to be back next year, the league’s going to be back next year,” and finally I think they’re just taking their time and getting it right. I think we heard some of that today about the front office and there’s going to be more information coming about the other side of things about what we need to do to get ready to come for combines or however they’re going to select players.
FG: How many of you guys are out there that have been waiting and just trying to stay ready for the league to come back?
CW: We were just talking about that amongst ourselves on the way here. We were wondering ourselves, how many people are out there. We play in indoor leagues at night and we just ran into a couple girls the other day that still have it and are playing, but they don’t play on W-League teams and we were wondering if they were going to decide to quit the jobs that they now have and are secure financially and jump into something like this again.
LL: I think there are only like five of us.
CW: We’ve just been focused on playing in the league, whenever it is, it might be ten years from now but that’s what I’m going to do. 20 at most, maybe that are like us. We play in the league, the tournaments.
LL. We play with the National Team whenever we can.
Both Welsh and Lindsey will continue to play with the Washington Freedom this year to bridge the gap and expect that they will see more familiar faces dusting off their cleats to try and get themselves back in the mix.
* Photo - Boston Breakers President and General Manager Joe Cummings and Chicago General Manager Marcia McDermott represented Women's Professional Soccer well at their Town Hall Meeting at the 2008 NSCAA Convention. (Andy Mead/YCJ)
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