World Soccer XXXI: Golden Generation?

Indian Hill in Cincy is famous.

I don't know about St. Louis. Claude says Ladue.

Rose Lavelle finished 27th in the Ballon d’Or rankings.

On one hand, there’s some obvious anti-American and NWSL bias.

On the other hand, the NWSL owners really need to get their shit together if they’re going to be one of the top leagues in the world. Not just when it comes to attracting top talent, but also marketing (especially outside of the US) and taking international competitions seriously. Sorry, but if you’re looking to be a top league your teams shouldn’t be losing to Mexican teams (like the NWSL teams in CONCACAF competition this year did) or South American teams (like Gotham did in the FIFA Club Cup).

Kepler said:

I don't know about St. Louis. Claude says Ladue.

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When I regularly flew into STL for work several years ago, Frontenac and Creve Coeur were where a lot of the McBoeing and Monsanto middle managers lived in mini-mansions, while the C-suiters had massive mansions in Ladue around the St. Louis Country Club and Log Cabin Club golf courses.

Monsanto's former HQ (now a major Bayer campus) is at the crossroads of two major freeways in Creve Coeur, and you could be at the McBoeing campus near the airport in 15-20 minutes, so it made perfect sense.

Jimjamesak said:

Rose Lavelle finished 27th in the Ballon d’Or rankings.

On one hand, there’s some obvious anti-American and NWSL bias.

On the other hand, the NWSL owners really need to get their shit together if they’re going to be one of the top leagues in the world. Not just when it comes to attracting top talent, but also marketing (especially outside of the US) and taking international competitions seriously. Sorry, but if you’re looking to be a top league your teams shouldn’t be losing to Mexican teams (like the NWSL teams in CONCACAF competition this year did) or South American teams (like Gotham did in the FIFA Club Cup).

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I am a layman and I know you strongly disagree but I cannot imagine it will ever be a real league until it's run as truly competitive entities, not by a centralized slush fund.

And insofar the same has become true of the other major US sports leagues, yes, I would say the same goes for them. The cartel of the overarching structure has always worked to skew competitiveness artificially. Sometimes for, sometimes against. It appears that becoming "one of the top leagues" equates to banishing 80% of the teams to never winning, and that sucks. We could simply accept our exceptionalism and the price of it.

FadeToBlack&Gold said:

When I regularly flew into STL for work several years ago, Frontenac and Creve Coeur were where a lot of the McBoeing and Monsanto middle managers lived in mini-mansions, while the C-suiters had massive mansions in Ladue around the St. Louis Country Club and Log Cabin Club golf courses.

Monsanto's former HQ (now a major Bayer campus) is at the crossroads of two major freeways in Creve Coeur, and you could be at the McBoeing campus near the airport in 15-20 minutes, so it made perfect sense.

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So it's like Highland Park Texas Asswipe Money? Set off a nuclear weapon and the world improves (i.e., Atherton)?

Here is a A Field Guide of Towns to Loot.

Birmingham used to have a better mix of old and new money, but nouveau riche have taken over in the last 20 years. Regardless, people who live and hang out there definitely think they're better than you, unless they can afford Bloomfield Hills, in which case Birmingham is the ghetto.

Kepler said:

I am a layman and I know you strongly disagree but I cannot imagine it will ever be a real league until it's run as truly competitive entities, not by a centralized slush fund.

And insofar the same has become true of the other major US sports leagues, yes, I would say the same goes for them. The cartel of the overarching structure has always worked to skew competitiveness artificially. Sometimes for, sometimes against. It appears that becoming "one of the top leagues" equates to banishing 80% of the teams to never winning, and that sucks. We could simply accept our exceptionalism and the price of it.

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The main problem is that the European system is unsustainable, most teams are in debt and are spending the vast majority of their revenue on transfers and salaries. The whole thing is being largely propped up by foreign billionaires, whether they’re American or Middle Eastern is the only distinction. It’s even worse on the Women’s side because it’s those same clubs propping up their women’s teams largely as a marketing expense. It’d be far worse to try to run a system like that in the highly competitive sports market that the US has, you’d likely struggle to even have enough teams to fill a league.

The NWSL could be a highly competitive player in the women’s sports world. The problem is trying to get the owners to spend the money to get there, especially the real cheapskates like North Carolina and Louisville. It’s a real sign of worry that they can’t even afford to hold onto top American players let alone sign top foreign talent. It didn’t help that their version of the Designated Player rule was so convoluted it made it impossible to sign players, though they have seemed to change it.

On a tangential note to that, the Man City ordeal to me seems less of a “let’s punish cheating” thing and more of a “let’s punish the ones who dared to upset the natural order” thing.

Nearly every top European team was, at some point in the near past, bankrolled either by a wealthy benefactor (Chelsea), a large company (Bayern Munich by Adidas and Telekom, nearly all the English teams by BSkyB), a government (Real Madrid), or even a combination of the three (AC Milan by Berlusconi and his Italian government, PSG by Qatar and the French government). Honestly, the list of successful teams that didn’t have some sort of cash infusion at some point is pretty small.

It’s hard for me to be upset at someone for doing something “illegal” when most of the clubs complaining were doing the the exact same things two or three decades ago when it was “legal”.

Is there really money to get any women's pro league to true sustainability, in any sport?

There are only so many lesbians, and girls are smarter than boys, they want to play, not watch. Also you can't lean on females with flop sweat FOMO desperation like you can with males, so the advertising stupidity doesn't land.

Kepler said:

Is there really money to get any women's pro league to true sustainability, in any sport?

There are only so many lesbians, and girls are smarter than boys, they want to play, not watch. Also you can't lean on females with flop sweat FOMO desperation like you can with males, so the advertising stupidity doesn't land.

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There’s money there IMO. My daughter is a pretty good example, she’s not much of an athlete but she loves to watch sports and she likes the women’s teams just as much as the men’s teams.

Visibility is the biggest thing but that’s also really the biggest expense. You kind of have to fake it before you make it.

I guess. I would hate to think women will ever fall into the derp of pro sports. It's too late for me, but they can be saved.

Kill your screens and run outside.

Kepler said:

I guess. I would hate to think women will ever fall into the derp of pro sports. It's too late for me, but they can be saved.

Kill your screens and run outside.

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To be fair, for us in the US professional women’s sports is largely about equal opportunity. In Europe it’s about cultural equality, women finally getting to share in something that defines their nations identity that they were aggressively kept out of for decades.

I just posted about it in the Basketball thread before seeing the discussion in here....

Look at what happened to Game 6 of the WNBA Finals, and you have a quick summary of where Women's sports stand in the USA... This is the Championship series of the biggest Women's league currently...

Just read about that. That's piss poor planning and management by the WNBA, and by extension the NBA as major owners. The Hawks aren't to blame, it's their arena and their schedule has been set for months.

Jimjamesak said:

To be fair, for us in the US professional women’s sports is largely about equal opportunity. In Europe it’s about cultural equality, women finally getting to share in something that defines their nations identity that they were aggressively kept out of for decades.

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Which is laudable. I support it. But does it have interest? Not to be Norm Macdonald but it seems like women's sports has been hyped relentlessly for 20 years now, and nobody's buying the product out of enjoyment; it's chest-beating.

That will get you pretty far particularly when subsidized, but it isn't entertainment, it's civic virtue.

cf. equal rights, democracy, the scientific method, etc. All things we agree are good but which fail on the market.