WPS' Antonucci, Epstein Discuss Marketing, Growing The League

WPS Hopes To Build Off U.S. Women's Gold Medal-Winning Performance In Beijing

ESPN SOCCERNET's Lindsey Dolich conducted a Q&A with Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) Commissioner Tonya Antonucci and WPS Dir of Marketing Rachel Epstein. Antonucci said of building on the U.S. women's soccer team's Gold Medal win at the Beijing Games, "Obviously the win is huge, a lot of momentum coming off that. And we certainly want to make sure the athletes, as they go through their [post-Olympic] tour, they're able to talk about where they're playing." Antonucci: "Our hope is to potentially leverage the beginning of the post-Olympic tour and take advantage of the fan presence. We're doing something on the site, sort of a marketing-driven event involving the 'WPS Top Town Challenge.'" Epstein said, "This Olympics platform was sort of the first thing we could harness and leverage," also noting that U.S. MF Leslie Osborne and D Cat Whitehill are on the league's social networking site. Antonucci said former U.S. D Brandi Chastain is "interested in playing" in the league and she has spoken with former F Mia Hamm, and said Hamm is "supportive of the league and wants to help." Antonucci: "There's a lot Mia can do to get involved with us off the field, to get behind supporting this. We're going to continue to work with her to make sure that happens." Asked where she sees WPS five years from now, Antonucci said, "From a business perspective, we've tried very hard to manage expectations, have a conservative model, to grow steadily, so I think in five years we will have surpassed the 12-team mark and we may very well be up more in the 14-team range as a possibility, but not a requirement. I think that any players who were tied up in long-term contracts, you'll see more and more international players coming into our league over the course of those five years" (SOCCERNET.ESPN.com, 9/6).