History
Plans for the Women's United Soccer Association were announced in 1999, shortly after 658,000 fans and a large television audience had watched the Women's World Cup tournament. However, the league didn't begin play until 2001, because of the 2000 Olympics.
A group of media companies and individual investors invested $40 million to fund an eight-team league for five years. Among the investors were Discovery Communications; Amos B. Hostetter Jr., former CEO of Continental Cablevision; James C. Kennedy, CEO of Cox Enterprises; James O. Robbins, CEO of Cox Communications; Brian L. Roberts, CEO of Comcast; Amy Banse, a vice president of Comcast; Joseph J. Collins, CEO of Time Warner Cable; and Fred M. Dressler, a vice president of Time Warner Cable.
The league owns all of the teams and pays the players. Salaries range from $24,000 to $85,000 per season, with a limit of $800,000 per team.
The eight charter members of the WUSA were the Atlanta Beat, Bay Area CyberRays (San Jose, CA), Boston Breakers, Carolina Courage, New York Power, Philadelphia Charge, San Diego Spirit and Washington Freedom.
The league assigned players from the U. S. national team to franchises. After the Olympics, a draft of international players was held.
Each team played 21 games in a season that runs from mid-April to late August. Four teams qualified for the playoffs, with the winners of the semi-final games playing in the champions for the Founders Cup.
In its inaugural 2001 season, the WUSA drew 726,677 fans, an average of 8,295 per game. TNT and CNN/SI televised 22 games nationally, attracting more than 5 million viewers. In addition, the WUSA developed a regional television schedule for individual teams and an international television package to broacast games into Canada, China, and New Zealand.
In 2002, however, average attendance dropped by 15 percent, to 6,917 per game. In September of 2003, shortly after the end of the league's third season, the WUSA announced that it was suspending operations because of a shortfall in sponsorship revenue.