The women's game can gain a lot of interest when national pride and competition is at stake (see attendance and TV audience for World Cup and national team games and even friendlies) but otherwise continues to struggle. Why? My daughter, a D1 player, often watches the men in EPL, La Liga, Champions League, but almost never WPS. She says "[Women's] Game is way too slow and they just don't play attractive soccer." Suggestions: 1) play Barca ball, not boot and run (Barca and SNT have proved you don't have to be "big and athletic" to play wonderful and attractive soccer so promote and develop the technical players starting at U-10; MORE THAN ANY OTHER CHANGE THIS WILL IMPROVE THE LONG-TERM VIABILITY OF THE WOMEN'S GAME; they simply can't compete with the men on the athletic/physical scale, but CAN compete and excel on the technical/intelligence scale, so EMBRACE that style), 2) here's a radical one, lighten the ball (women simply don't have the strength to drive/bend/make dance the men's size 5 ball, so keep it the same size but reduce the weight so women can drive the ball at about the same speed the men can; would lead to a much quicker, more exciting game, longer and more accurate passes and switches, and higher scores, and may even cut down on injuries and head trauma; WNBA plays with a slighter smaller ball, so why not have slightly lighter ball in the women's game?), and 3) loosen the substitution rules to allow players to be subbed in first half and return in second half (would speed up game and keep fresh legs on the field). Just my suggestions. Oh yeah, also team up with MLS (ala NBA/WNBA). It just makes too much financial sense (facilities, marketing, administration expenses), so long as the women's teams maintain autonomy where it counts. Good luck!

Better suggestion, as I said when they were suggesting a new league. Stick a fork in it, never gonna happen in the US, as even the above's daughter knows what real soccer is.

Smaller ball works wonders for Women's soccer.

Good ideas Kirk. Not a fan of the substitution idea, but the others are good. They definitely need to increase their speed of play... it's just that the big girls they all recruit/draft may not have the technical ability - they are built for 80's English soccer, not 2010 Barca ball.

It would be helpful if they would partner with MLS teams to coordinate scheduling of games at shared facilities, make a "double header" so that costs can be shared and also provide improved facilities that MLS has. A go-it alone approach would seem cost-prohibitive and logistically challenging plus losing out on the added attraction of using the better MLS facilities.

The Freedom tried several doubleheaders with DC United, and it was never a great success. If the Freedom game was scheduled first, none of the MLS fans showed up because they were out tailgating. The one doubleheader where the Freedom went second was more of a success, but still most of the DCU fans left before the game, and most of the rest left at halftime.