Fish & Chips: Using High-Tech Tools to Learn More About FishBrain before heart
Regarding the recent discussions about the feasibility of the Women's United Soccer League (WUSA) [“Cover Story,” Oct. 29], it appears that sometimes the heart will go to places that the brain will not.
The WUSA presented its supporters with a highly skilled and competitive form of athletic entertainment, positive celebrity role models, family fun and opportunities for the best women soccer players to be paid for their talents. For their part, front office personnel seemed to view their job as a mission of cultural change rather a place to collect a paycheck. Likewise, league investors might have become caught up in the emotional moment and forgot that a successful business requires decision-makers to rely upon the brain more than the heart.
In the short term, it is sad that such a positive enterprise like the WUSA ceased operations, but in the long term, it could turn out to be a good decision. If investors continued to lose the quantities of money that they have lost so far, then the league would eventually fail. This outcome might scare away investors for decades.
In my humble opinion, I would create a semi-professional league located in a region of the country with a soccer-friendly climate and realistic cost of living (Sorry, California, Boston, New York City and Washington D.C). Like the American Football League of the 1960s, establish teams in small cities that show potential to grow and dominate their region in the future. These cities provide more entry-level job opportunities than a more competitive major city. Of course, this means that players would begin or continue a career path, train in the evening and play on weekends.
With few exceptions, this approach provides players with a more secure long-term financial future than could the WUSA. Regardless of its location, a regional league keeps costs and travel time manageable without significantly decreasing the quality of the entertainment-a good value for customers and investors alike. It's the responsibility of players and coaches to create a competitive and professional sports atmosphere.
Fortunately, the WUSA has several successful models upon which to build. Besides some of the independent minor league baseball and hockey leagues, the United Soccer League (USL) and its women's affiliate, the W-League, have been in existence for since the 1990s. Many of the veteran national team players played in this league. The extent to which the WUSA and its leadership want to get involved with the USL, or visa-verse, is not the issue. But their scale and business model can provide valuable information. Why re-invent the wheel? The successful semi-professional leagues in Germany, Sweden and Norway, no slouches in soccer, provide another example.
Americans are sometimes accused of being impatient and will only accept participating in the “first division” from the first day. It's understandable, therefore, why some people might dismiss a regional semi-professional league as too beneath them.
This factor is another reason why the league could not support the unrealistic income expectations of labor, management and investor. They, along with hardcore fans, must be willing to start as did the other professional sports leagues-as a semi-professional regional enterprise. From a commercial standpoint, that is exactly where the WUSA needed to start and, unless investors are willing to lose millions of dollars per season, their re-organization should begin.
People come and go, but good ideas, like what the WUSA tried to do, become integrated into society through patience, sacrifice, persistence and good timing. People like myself who have stood in the grandstands on many shores and in all kinds of weather since the late 1960s are shouting, “Come on ladies, get stuck in!”
Think nationally, but develop regionally. If the brain leads, the heart will follow. Besides, my girlfriend, who is never wrong, says that women are more practical than men.
Ty Liles,
Kensington
Unimpressive ‘cream'
Regarding Jill Stewart's column titled, “Isn't that special” [“Capitol Punishment,” Nov. 26], I just wanted to know if Ms. Stewart watched Gov. Schwarzenegger's finance chief, Donna Arduin, on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
If she did, she would have to agree that Arduin obviously did not have command of her figures and was pretty clueless about how certain propositions work.
Even one of the Republican members who asked about Proposition 98 was confused about Arduin's response and tried to save face by saying something like, “I will follow up with you later” (Translation: I will speak to your staff who obviously know a lot more than you).
If Donna Arduin was the “cream of the crop” in Florida, I would hate to see the crop.
Bill Richter,
Chula Vista
Heaven-made match
I really don't know why you continue to print the trash that Edwin Decker calls a column. He continues to support the pornography industry despite the fact that the industry victimizes women as a rule and preys on children.
Decker's piece about F Street [“Sordid Tales,” Nov. 26] was his most offensive yet. Decker had the audacity to suggest that San Diego is inferior as a city because it comes down hard on lap dancing. I nearly coughed up my sandwich when I read that one. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
He's a pig. Do your community a favor and get rid of him. The only thing I can agree with is how much F Street and Ed Decker deserve each other.
Annie Ellen Barry,
Oceanside
