The WUSA Strikes Back?

This article caught my eye tonight as I was looking through the sports headlines. Apparently, because the abject failure of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) wasn't enough, many of the same principals behind the WUSA are back with a new league called the WSI (Women's Soccer Initiative).

Particularly eye-rolling is this passage:

The league is three-quarters of the way to reaching its goal of 8 charter teams and has plans for expansion in 2009.

Okay, so wait...you don't even have enough teams to field a start-up league and you're already talking about expansion? After the the last women's soccer league failed massively, spending its entire five year budget in a matter of ONE YEAR? Have you people lost your minds?

I can only conclude that the WSI people are smoking the same ganja as the "leaders" of the latest incarnation of the American Basketball Association, a league whose business plan involves having as many franchises as Amway (only far less reliable), reaping franchise fees from them, and then running as fast as they can to the bank before the checks bounce. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Another point (minor as it may be) is that this press release specifically mentions that all its teams will play in soccer-specific stadiums. DC, however, has not built a stadium like that, nor has St. Louis (unless you want to count the bandbox that the SLU Billikens play in, which has just about enough seating for a first-grade class school trip).

I do wonder whether there'll be a return of the Bay Area CyberRays, though (no, I am not making that up. Check Wikipedia. I swear to God), my #1 Grade-A Genuine 100% favorite so-bad-it's-good team name of the last decade:


I mean, doesn't that logo just make you want to go "Boogity-boogity!" ? Oh-so-scary...