|
|
 |
Reality bites for WUSA
by: Shawn Griffin from SportsTerminal.com
(e-mail)
| Pg 1 of
1 |
 |
I am not going to pick on female athletics. It's way too easy. It really is. I have absolutely nothing at all against girls, or women, playing a sport (unless they're in front of me while golfing. That, as Don Corleone says in "The Godfather" while discussing Michael's safe return to the United States, I will NOT accept. I go to the mattresses when that happens). I'm not going to use this entire column to make fun of the WNBA. If you like watching a bunch of he-women run around an empty arena, in a league propped-up…errr, subsidized…errr, supported by the NBA, fine.
As soon as I heard that the WUSA (Women's United Soccer Association) had shut down after three money-losing years (imagine that), I figured the usual suspects (USA Today columnist Christine Brennan) would be out there, finding blame everywhere but where it truly existed…but surprisingly, I only found a couple of idiots making Corky-like comments.
The purpose of this column is to rip…errr…discuss comments made by two people -- a writer for ESPN Soccernet named Graham Hays and the chairman of the WUSA Board of Governors, John Hendricks.
Why am I going to do this? Because I want to. In the politically correct world we live in, speaking the truth is something we're afraid of doing these days.
In a column bemoaning the demise of the WUSA, titled "WUSA collapse leaves void in sports" (which is kind of like saying, "Retirement of Sinbad leaves void in stand-up comedy"), ESPN Soccernet writer Graham Hayes makes some moronic comments. Here are some of them along with mine just below:
Graham: "The WUSA was never just about the players on the league's eight teams, or about who scored the most goals or made the most saves. It was about taking the gains achieved under Title IX and showing a younger generation what was possible."
Shawn: "I have no idea what this statement means. Title IX simply forces universities to take opportunities away from male swimmers and wrestlers in order to comply with a Marxist doctrine which requires, regardless of the desire to participate, equal numbers of both men and women (with regards to their percentage at the school) to take part in athletics at the university level. The only GAINS under this politically correct, big government mandated, Stalinist law was to take opportunities away, not give females any more opportunities than they ever had. I have nieces and female cousins who play soccer, and not one of them even knew of the WUSA. I don't think we're going to see a big drop in participation of females in athletics because of the failure of a league which, in a mid-1990s, dot.comesque way, blew through 100 million bucks in three years."
Graham: " Maybe it died because women's professional sports cannot capture a large enough market share to be profitable for investors and sponsors. But whatever the cause, the league's demise is a crushing blow to an issue whose import extends well beyond the machinations of free-market economics."
Shawn: "This is the liberal mind at its best. Emotion over logic. Fantasy over reality. Idiocy over intelligence. Lunacy over reason…. So let me get this straight: forget about the league making any money…forget about sponsors…forget about the number of people who care about this league. It's so important that we must keep it going regardless of those crucial issues. My question is this, how? Would Graham rather see a company, instead of hiring employees, sponsor a league without fans? Would Graham want this subsidized by the government? He doesn't have the answer, but since it's a 'nice' idea, we must do it. I guess we'll worry about 'how' we do it later…."
I could go on and on with the absolute stupidity contained in his pee-sized brain because there are some more head-shaking statements in his column, but it's kind of like picking on a slow kid -- it just isn't fun. To read his column, go to
ESPN Soccernet.
Let's move on to the other moron in the "tragic" fall of the WUSA.
John Hendricks was the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the league. He blamed "weak corporate support" for the league's failure. He said, "I was intoxicated by what I saw in 1999 (for those of you who don't know, the U.S. women won the World Cup that year) and I mistakenly believed that level of support would flow over into the league."
Yes, he must have been intoxicated to go through $100 million in three years. Where did all that money go? That's the important question in this whole thing. The cash obviously wasn't spent on marketing the league or putting asses in the seats. The lack of corporate support was a direct result of the lack of
fan interest. Very few people cared about this league -- that's why it failed. That's the bottom line that everybody's afraid, out of fear of being bullied by the politically correct thugs, to say.
Let's all put our P.C. hats away for a second. Would you have put any stock in this league three years ago? It would have been as financially savvy as putting money in a new typewriter company. Men's pro soccer leagues haven't done well in this country. What kind of moron thought that women's pro soccer would do well?
It was like the perfect storm -- females…soccer…a professional league…based on all logical reasoning, this was a disaster waiting to happen. The real tragedy was that $100 million was wasted. That money would have been much better spent on building soccer fields for young girls throughout the country.
This is the bottom line: Americans, in large numbers, have absolutely no interest whatsoever in female athletics or soccer. Do I agree with this? That's totally irrelevant.
Combine the two? Forget about it. Sorry, but that's reality.
See more of Shawn at SportsTerminal.com,
and e-mail him at shawng@sportsterminal.com!
|
|
|
|
-
-
-
-
|
|
|
© 2000-2005 Bullz-Eye.com®, All Rights Reserved. Contact the
with
questions or comments.
and
Site Map
|
|
