Originally Posted by AdolfOliverBush (Post 17047679)

You said it yourself: Women's soccer needs help. It's not just a marketing thing. Women obviously aren't supporting the sport in large enough numbers. If they were, the revenue generated by the men's and women's teams would be comparable.



And those inferior sports/athletes generally don't bring in as much revenue as their superior counterparts.

Originally Posted by Woogieman (Post 17047743)

The money will improve and slowly but surely, global talent will come at younger and younger ages and a Top 8-10 league in the world is very realistic in the next decade.

Originally Posted by Ocotillo (Post 17047747)

The draw of watching men's soccer is to see the skill of world class players.

The skills of women are not even remotely close. The same problem with women's basketball.

That's not to say women sports can't be marketable. There's a reason why women's tennis has equal interest to men's tennis and why women's figure skating is more popular than the men's. Women fights are also popular in the UFC because a fight is a fight.

Originally Posted by Razaele (Post 17047768)

I don't believe that, simply because there's nothing that can rival the academy system and all the rest of the development structure that you see in Europe. There is a reason why there are no great American players and that Americans are virtually absent from top professional leagues. The player development structure still isn't there.

Originally Posted by Razaele (Post 17047779)

Really, it's the same as comparing MLS to other top professional leagues. I follow the Premier League avidly and watch every one of my club's matches and many others. I pay the subscriptions, I listen to the podcasts, I love the game. But there's an MLS team in the city where I live and I can't muster any interest because the level of play is so much lower. It's not quite like watching the XFL, but kind of.

I don't see men avidly following NWSL for that reason, but half the country is female and you would expect there to be no trouble selling out a 10,000 seat venue night after night if women supported the women's game the way men support the men's game.

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501 (Post 17047758)

Sure but that's different from saying nobody watches it. Premier league will always be vastly superior to mls which will be superior to nwsl. That's a given. Of course it's crazy to ever believe revenue streams will ever be remotely comparable.

Equal pay on the surface is a crazy idea. But it's also not that simple. Growing women's soccer is good for both men and women, and now they get to jointly share in that growth. It brings in a lot of new fans and sponsors that are unique to women's instead of mens, and as the game grows it brings in more revenue to close the gap. The US is also a unique situation where the women (this year as an exception, of course) close the gap substantially when they play into the semis/finals where the men are typically bubble qualifiers. Men probably still deserve more pay but they are probabky on board with the idea that a strong men and women's sport is good for everyone.

Originally Posted by LoneWolf (Post 17047825)

JFC, zilla. Do you have a word quota you have to hit today or what? Every post in this thread from you is a couple paragraph novella. Just say "I love women's soccer and sports bras" and be done with it.

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501 (Post 17047430)

That's fair that pro league games will be slow to catch on. Nationalism is easier. But without a doubt that has boomed over the past few cups. We can see it in the quality of the teams, the players, and the attendance and ratings. But you can't just footnote the success of these more nationalist matches. It shows the support is there but it just hasn't yet trickled down.

That will take time. Way better talent has emerged recently which leads to more superstars and better quality of play. Better players and pay will improve development leagues as kids aspire to professional careers. More marketable names on the national stage will trickle down support to champions leagues and ultimately club level. So many of these comments about giving up and saying people just won't accept inferior women's soccer are similar to what we heard about MLS. A vastly inferior product vs international leagues. Americans will never accept soccer. They've proven everyone wrong. But it required decades effort and those efforts on the national level are brand new for many counties and on the club level for the US. It takes infrastructure, stadium experiences, years of marketing and TV deals. It's not like the wnba where the effort has been there but it has not correlated with any success. Here the effort was not there but it's undeniable that once they started putting the effort in there have been sizeable gains.

Originally Posted by JPH83 (Post 17047938)

I don't think national level success shows latent potential support for club level necessarily. There's plenty of sports where the national level is the cash cow. But I do agree it COULD be there and it will take time. My only point is that right now, it's not there and the best chance of it growing is not only marketing and investment it's women putting their money where their mouth is.

Originally Posted by Razaele (Post 17047518)

MLS has a decidedly minor league feel, but there's nowhere near the money that there is Europe, unless you're one of these gray haired superstars on a retirement tour.

But the league has stuck around for almost 30 years old now, and the teams play in better stadiums than comparable teams in other leagues... the third tier in England or whatever. It's doing OK for what it is.

The level of play won't improve until the money improves, but with changing demographics in the US the money could improve over time.

Originally Posted by GloryDayz (Post 17051175)

At least one of the other national players hit the nail on the head today, paraphrasing here, but the one lady said the USNWT should have backed up all the pre-tournament talk on the pitch.

Very well said. Thang God the queen freak is gone...

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2023...3fb1526df9.jpg

Originally Posted by CatinKS (Post 17051301)

Why, Why, a soccer post on a "TRUE FOOTBALL MESSAGE BOARD." Go to Europe if you wish to dribble on this sport. I understand most of the world luvs it, but it boring, boring, boring.