Freedom rings anew in smarter league

This time, a new women’s professional soccer league has the philosophy, business plan and history lessons to ensure its success.

Well, maybe.

“That’s yet to be decided,” said Abby Wambach, a familiar name - and the biggest - on the latest version of the Washington Freedom. “This league is still budding. Only time will tell.”

The new seven-team league - an eighth is set for next year - is known as Women’s Professional Soccer, and it will take another stab at the market when it starts play in a couple of weeks. The first was the Women’s United Soccer Association, which started in 2001, propelled by the U.S. victory in the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Two years later, the WUSA folded. The Freedom are its only survivor.

Wambach is enthusiastic about the prospects of the WPS. Her caution stems from a realistic grasp of the past. So far, women’s pro soccer has yet to endure. Wambach was there when the Freedom won the 2003 WUSA title, only to learn a few weeks later that their league had died.

Her teammate, former Maryland star Emily Janss, played for the New York Power of the WUSA, and Lori Lindsey played for the old Freedom. Lindsey said the league had problems, but “it was a shock to everybody” when it disbanded.

The WUSA failed mainly because of fiscal irresponsibility and its unrealistic dreams.

“They didn’t want to work for it,” Wambach said. “They had all the money, and they spent it.”

Foolishly, it turned out. Reportedly, a $40 million budget earmarked to last five years vaporized in just one. This time will be different, everyone connected with WPS insists. The league doesn’t own the teams, as in the WUSA; they are individually owned. Expectations and expenses are more realistic. The WUSA provided a blueprint of what not to do.

“Hopefully, you learn from your mistakes,” Lindsey said.

“Teams kind of landed like an alien ship in their markets, and they didn’t have grass-roots support,” Freedom coach Jim Gabarra said. “From the players’ point of view, the WUSA was a nice gig. They worked six or seven months and got paid for 12. It didn’t make economic sense.”

Nor did playing in “massive NFL cathedrals,” as WPS chief operating officer Mary Harvey put it. “We’re setting expectations in line with what we feel we can deliver.”

Gabarra is the only coach the Freedom have had. He and assistant Clyde Watson have stayed on through its various incarnations since 2001. After the WUSA folded, the Freedom played as a club team and competed in the minor W-League. Several players also have hung around through the years, giving the Freedom continuity and chemistry unmatched by other teams in the WPS.

“I had seven teams to choose from, and this one has an incredible base,” defender Cat Whitehill said. “This team was together even when the WUSA wasn’t there. It’s the only surviving team, and that’s appealing.”

Gabarra, whose wife, Carin, coaches the women’s team at the U.S. Naval Academy, said, “We always believed women’s soccer is an important part of the sports landscape in this country. We worked to provide a base for the pro team when it came back.”

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