Women’s Professional Soccer drops St. Louis team, citing financial difficulty
For the second time in less than a year, Women’s Professional Soccer is closing a franchise.
WPS said it is dropping the St. Louis Athletica club mid-season after a “funding crisis has left the team without the necessary funds to operate.”
The fate of the St. Louis team was sealed after British investors Heemal and Sanjeev Vaid couldn’t get additional money to keep the team afloat, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. The newspaper said the Vaid brothers joined Athletica founder and chairman Jeff Cooper as co-owners last year when they formed a partnership agreement with parent company St. Louis Soccer United.
Based in San Francisco, WPS is the second attempt to run a professional women’s soccer league in the U.S. The first attempt — with players like Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain — operated from 2001 to 2003. That previous league shut down after revenue goals fell well short of expectations.
After dissolving the St. Louis club, WPS now has seven teams, the same number it had when it began its inaugural season last year. The teams are in Hayward, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and New York.
“It’s incredibly difficult to lose a team in mid-season like this,” said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. The 2010 season began April 10 and continues until September.
WPS dissolved its Los Angeles club — its most successful — last January after owner AEG Worldwide wasn’t able to find a buyer for the franchise.
WPS said that many clubs lost as much as $2 million after its inaugural season in 2009. Losses will continue for most franchises for at least five years before breaking even, Antonucci said.
Filed under: business by Specialist