Poor crowd for Flash debut
- by Soccer America , May 2, 2011
[WPS] Featuring Brazilian superstar Marta, the Western New York Flash opened its WPS campaign at home with a 3-0 win
over the Atlanta Beat before a poor crowd of 2,164 at Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester, N.Y. Sunday's three games averaged less than 2,000 a game -- not a good sign of the league's three-year
prospects.
Christine Sinclair and Marta teamed up for the first two goals in the Flash win. No. 1 draft pick Alex
Morgan scored the third.
Sunday's other two games drew crowds of 2,789 at Harvard Stadium for the Boston Breakers' 1-0 win over winless Sky Blue FC, and mystery team magicJack beat
the Philadelphia Independence, 2-1, before an announced crowd of 1,008 fans at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla.
Results:
May 1
Western NY 3 Atlanta 0
WNY: Christine Sinclair 3 (unassisted) 23
WNY:
Christine Sinclair 4 (Marta) 59
WNY: Alex Morgan 1 (Kelly Parker) 73
Att.: 2,164.
magicJack 2 Philadelphia 1
PHI: Tina DiMartino 2
(unassisted) 8
MJ: Abby Wambach 1 (unassisted) 25
MJ: Lisa De Vanna 1 (Abby Wambach) 75
Att.: 1,008.
Boston 1 Sky Blue FC 0
BOS:
Rachel Buehler 1 (Kelly Smith) 53
Att.: 2,789.
Standings:
PTS TEAM W-L-T +/1
7 Western NY 2-0-1 7/5
6 Boston 2-2-0 6/4
6 magicJack 2-0-0 3/1
4 Atlanta 1-2-1 4/9
1 Sky Blue FC 0-2-1 2/4
1 Philadelphia 0-1-1 3/4
Who follows WPS these days?
WPS will die (again) unless female soccer get more interesting....... That will only happen if FIFA adopts the new Danish smaller soccer ball for women (sensational1) that allows women to play faster = more exciting game........ The German Soccer Federation is onto it, as is Adidas, FIFA is working on it.......
There are NO other solutions left!!!!!!
GET WITH IT WPS. Approve and import the ball before you die - again!!!
This tells you how much the people of the WPS understand business. With all due respect to Rochester, the best player of the world in the last 5 years is playing "somewhere beyond the Appalachian mountains". She should have been playing in a big market on the East Coast. Imagine if Henry or Beckham is playing with the Rochester Raging Rhinos. It will cause a rhino-ish rage.
Watch out for the English Women's Super League... I hope we don't lose some of our great internationals.
With all due respect to Gus, Rochester is not the problem. Attendance in Boston was only 2,789 and attendance in Boca was 1,008! Last time I checked, both of those markets were east of the Appalachians. The problem would seem to lie elsewhere.
Ya: I think that Boston and Philly and NY/NJ would boost their attendances, with player like Marta, to a much higher number than Rochester. It's not known but how many of those 2100 who attended in Rochester whould be there if Marta was not playing?
The 1,008 in Boca was papered heavily. True attendance was @ 500.
I'm all for women's competitive soccer, but I think that men's soccer has to take off first. I know it sounds sexist, but sports fans need to like soccer in general before they like any particular league.
My soccer hopes, even for women's soccer, are with the MLS. The play is better, albeit a little too physical, than it was last year.
After the magicJack games, come over to Wowies to celebrate. It's 7 minutes south west of FAU, on powerline and palmetto, across from the Publix. They get the MLS channel. It's the best place to watch MLS games in boca raton. Just ask one of the managers to put it on for you, if I'm not there.