|
3 media giants invest in women's soccer
|
 |
February 15, 2000: 8:02 p.m. ET
Time Warner, Cox, Comcast join private investors, eye 2001 launch for WUSA
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Following the success of the 1999 Women's World Cup, a women's professional soccer league is set to be launched in Spring 2001 with media companies Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Comcast Corp. as major investors.
The media companies, along with individual investors, will put up a minimum of $40 million to finance eight teams and league and office operations for the new Women's United Soccer Association, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The league now faces the task of picking which eight cities to operate in, although the league could expand to 12 teams during its first five years, he added.
"At least 15 cities are under consideration," said spokesman Tom Consentino of O'Leary and Consentino Communications in New York. "No city has been definitely chosen or ruled out."
Investors will receive local team operating rights, which essentially means the will run the team, for a $5 million investment, officials said. The three media giants will each get two seats on the league's eight member board, they added.
Time Warner Cable, owned by Time Warner (TWX: Research, Estimates), the parent of CNNfn.com; Cox Communications (COX: Research, Estimates) and Comcast (CMCSA: Research, Estimates) could apparently operate more than one team. Company officials could not be reached for comment.
One of the key criteria for the WUSA in choosing a city for each team is the venue the team will play in.
""We would like not to see these events held in monstrous NFL stadiums. We'd like 15- to 20,000-seat venues that would be festive, jam-packed," said John Hendricks, an investor and chairman of the Board of Governors of the league.
According to Consentino, the league is looking at stadiums such as the one recently built for Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew. He added that if a city was chosen that already had an MLS team, the WUSA club would work as a "complement" to the existing soccer franchise.
The WUSA will be run under the single-entity system, which means the league owns all the teams and will have discretion over player allocation, movement and salary, similar to Major League Soccer.
Several stars from the 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup winning team, such as Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers and Julie Foudy, have already pledged their future to the league. 
-- from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
