MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that the league is
"prepared to compete against" the WUSA "for the right to
launch a women's professional soccer league as early as next
year," according to Shipley & Solomon of the WASHINGTON
POST. Garber said that MLS "intends to inform" the USSF of
its plan by the USSF's April 1 deadline. Garber: "We hope
that the relationship between the two leagues can be close
and beneficial to both in the end." USSF Dir of
Communications Jim Moorhouse said that the sanctioning
"issue would come before" the USSF BOD "no later than"
August and said that it's "highly unlikely that more than
one league would receive sanction." Garber added that under
MLS' proposal, all of the teams "would be based in current"
MLS cities. Garber, on the two competing bid groups: "At
this point, while the potential for cooperation exists ...
it seems as if their approach is to remain as independent
from the men as possible" (WASHINGTON POST, 3/28).
WUSA TV DEAL? Internetsoccer.com's Tim Nash wrote that
former U.S. women's team coach Tony DiCicco said that a TV
contract for the WUSA is "imminent. And it will include a
rights fee, unlike [MLS'] TV deal" (Internetsoccer, 3/27).
FREE KICKS: In Seattle, Angelo Bruscas wrote that while
a new Seahawks football stadium could be "available for a
MLS team or any other potential soccer event," execs of team
Owner Paul Allen "are also sending out clear signals that
someone else will have to come up with the money to finance
the team." Bruscas: "The promise of a team by 2002 now
looks remote at best" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 3/27).
