All eyes Sunday will be on Toyota Park where the Chicago Red Stars will host the Washington Freedom as well as KSU Soccer Stadium, where the Atlanta Beat host Sky Blue FC.  Both games have critical playoff implications as a Freedom win combined with a Sky Blue FC loss or tie would clinch the fourth and final playoff spot for the Freedom.  A Washington tie combined with a Sky Blue FC loss will also clinch a Washington playoff spot and Chicago and Atlanta - already eliminated from playoff contention - will look to play the roles of spoilers.

As important as those two matches are, it is important not to overlook Sunday's match-up between FC Gold Pride and the Boston Breakers at 9 p.m. Eastern at Cal State East Bay.  It very well could be championship game preview.

With a win Sunday, Boston clinches second place and the right to host the WPS Super Semifinal.  That would set the Breakers up for a potential rematch with FC Gold Pride in the WPS Championship Sept. 26.  Sunday's match could serve as a telling preview to that potential final showdown.  The Breakers will be traveling across the country after defeating Atlanta 3-1 Wednesday in Kennesaw, Ga.  If Boston hosts the WPS Super Semifinal (Thursday, Sept. 23) it will have to immediately get on a plane and fly to California for the final, the same situation the Breakers currently face but with one less recovery day.

Sunday's showdown pits the league's two hottest teams against each other with Boston 7-2-1 in its last 10 games and FC Gold Pride unbeaten in its last 11 games (7-0-4).  The Washington-Chicago and Atlanta-Sky Blue FC matches may receive more attention in the battle for fourth place, but the Breakers-Pride match in Northern California realistically tells more about how the playoffs will unfold as either Washington or Sky Blue FC would be long shots to make the title game.  Sky Blue FC made the miracle run last year, but there were not two teams standing in the way as hot as FC Gold Pride and Boston are now.

FC Gold Pride will host the WPS Championship regardless of any result and Boston has already clinched at least third place, so neither team will be pressured into needing three points.  What Sunday's match really serves as is a medium for FC Gold Pride and Boston to test out different tactics against each other in preparation of a potential championship showdown.

Talks continue to progress between the Buffalo Flash and Women's Professional Soccer for a Buffalo, N.Y. area expansion team to enter the league in time for the 2011 season.

The two parties are currently at the stage of discussing operations and have yet to encounter problems that would prevent entry into the league in time for 2011, said Philadelphia Independence COO/Owner David Halstead, who is also co-chair of the expansion committee.

“Talks between the leadership of the Buffalo Flash and WPS continue to progress," Halstead said.  "We are still making our way through the diligence process but have not discovered any issues that will prevent entry of a Rochester-Buffalo franchise in the WPS in time for the 2011 season, which means fairly quick turnaround for team branding, infrastructure build-up, and an expansion draft.  Additionally, the momentum from the upcoming playoffs and ongoing structural changes within the WPS is being felt in the area of expansion as the WPS is opening dialogue with more markets for league entry in 2012 and beyond.”

Flash owner Joe Sahlen said the organization is tentatively planning on playing half its games at Rochester's Marina Auto Stadium (home of USSF Division 2 Rochester Rhinos) and half the time in Buffalo or Niagara.  Those two options come down to playing at a soccer-specific field on the campus of Niagara University - where seating capacity of just 1,200 would need to be greatly increased - or a downtown Buffalo location at Coyer Field on the campus of Buffalo State College, not to be confused with the University of Buffalo.

Niagara would allow the Flash to play on an actual soccer field and to tap into the Canadian market more but also lacks sufficient permanent seating.  Coyer Field is well located in downtown Buffalo and seats approximately 3,000 fans, but it is a turf football stadium and the Flash are looking into whether or not the American football lines could be painted over for matches.

"Our goal was to enter WPS in 2011 and I'm very encouraged that we are working toward that," Sahlen said.

A decision on Buffalo's future is expected in the coming weeks on a deadline that is not set in stone, but continues to approach.  The Flash has more flexibility than other teams with this bid because there is already an established product and organization, making it less of an expansion bid and more of a team being promoted to WPS.

Niagara Field (above) is soccer-specific but seats just 1,200 and looks out toward some unappealing power lines.           Facility details here.

Coyer Field on the campus of Buffalo State College (above) offers an ideal seating capacity and downtown location, but the football lines are hard on the eyes. Facility information here.

Marina Auto Stadium in Rochester, N.Y. (above) is the home of USSF Division 2 squad Rochester Rhinos and would serve as the Rochester home of the Buffalo area WPS franchise.  Facility details here.

Buffalo Flash News Timeline:

Original report - "Buffalo Flash could seek 2011 WPS expansion team"

August 9 - Regional idea revealed; Rochester, Syracuse part of the Buffalo bid

August 13 Update

Former USL W-League Director of Operations Melanie Fitzgerald has joined Women's Professional Soccer as manager of league operations, replacing former Chief Operating Officer Mary Harvey.

The league will formally announce the news Tuesday.  Harvey left WPS last week and Fitzgerald will now serve in a similar role just below WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci.

“Mary Harvey’s experience, hard-work and deep knowledge of soccer and its international community have been such a huge asset to developing WPS’s operational infrastructure over the past two years,” Antonucci said. “She put in place many of the structures which enabled the birth of this league such as player transactions, drafts, scheduling, game-day operations and officiating, while also assisting me and the board on more strategic league issues. Her passion for building and growing the game will be missed within WPS. At the same time, we have brought in an experienced operations manager. Melanie Fitzgerald has overseen tremendous growth within USL’s W-League as Sr. Director of Operations and we are confident that Melanie will continue the excellent game-day product, atmosphere and operational standards that we have established at WPS.”

Adding Fitzgerald to its arsenal gives WPS a formal link to the W-League, the second division semi-professional tier of North American women's soccer.  Creating a synergy between the leagues will surely be on the agenda in the future and doing so is necessary to help develop the women's game in North America.

I have argued previously for a women's open cup featuring WPS, W-League and WPSL teams, although I realize the cost constraints associated with that.  I think there are ways to work around those, such as regionalized cups, but the relationships between the three leagues must go beyond that.  There needs to be more formal relationships between WPS and W-League and WPSL teams, both of which serve as direct feeders to the professional ranks.  Over 60 percent of current WPS players have W-League experience and the influx of talent will continue following new discoveries at the 2010 W-League Combine.

Some clubs like the Chicago Red Eleven (W-League) have a direct and obvious relationship with a WPS team (in that case, the Chicago Red Stars).  An organized pyramid is exactly what women's soccer in North America needs more of, especially as W-League and WPSL teams look to make the jump from semi-professional to professional as the Buffalo Flash is looking to do for 2011.  There is no better way to do that than bringing the W-League's director of operations to WPS .

Replacing Fitzgerald at the top of the W-League will be Amanda Duffy, who previously served as the director of pro operations for USL.  Duffy has previously assisted Fitzgerald with W-League operations and is very familiar with the ins and outs of the league.

Check out the Sport's Business Journal's report on WPS league office restructuring here.

With the 2010 WPS Championship just one month away, teams are already assessing different business decisions from this season and stadium issues are near the top of the list for some clubs.

Saturday, the Boston Breakers played a home game at Veterans Stadium in New Britain, Conn. since Harvard Stadium was unavailable.  Boston was looking to play a game in Connecticut anyway, but the timing of the special home game was centered on Harvard’s unavailability due to the school’s football team taking over Harvard Stadium.

Now, the Breakers are in the process of sorting out where to play what seems like an inevitable home playoff game.  One option is a soccer-specific stadium at Harvard that was just completed next to the football stadium, although limited seating presents logistical problems.

The stadium will feature bleacher seating for about 1,000 fans and grass berm seating for up to about 2,000 more fans, according to Breakers General Manager Andy Crossly.  That would seat well below Boston’s league-leading 4,528 average attendance.  

The Breakers are expected to announce their decision on a potential home playoff venue in the next week and Harvard’s new soccer stadium is one publicly identified option.

While the prospect of a soccer-specific stadium at Harvard sounds promising for the Breakers' future, it is not a long-term option for them, Crossley said.

“It doesn’t have concessions, facilities or anything more than portable bathrooms, so to really bring it up to a professional – it’s really nice, but to bring it up to a pro sports standard would require a pretty significant capital investment and that would require quite a lot of due diligence on the part of our team to see if that was ever something we were going to look at,” Crossley said.  “That has not been part of our viewpoint of where we were going with this over the past couple years.”

The stadium “sort of just appeared,” Crossley said, so the Breakers had little opportunity to help shape the stadium into something they could use long-term.  The football lines and size of Harvard Stadium may not be ideal, but its ease to work with for the Breakers as well as its location near public transit makes it a suitable venue.

Philly exploring options

As of early August, Philadelphia Independence management was at least tossing around the idea of playing a potential home playoff game somewhere other than its usual home at West Chester University.  The playoff game could serve as a perfect opportunity to test out PPL Park, the new home of MLS’ Philadelphia Union.

Ultimately, the Independence want to be in the soccer-specific PPL Park, but there are issues to be worked out there as well.

“PPL Park is just a fantastic venue,” Independence Owner/CEO David Halstead said.  “But it’s all about economics.  We’re not where we should be with attendance, so if I go to Tom (Veit, Philadelphia Union president) and say and I am bringing in this many people and you have to close off these sections of PPL Park, there is still a minimum cost.  Tom’s not going to gain any money on us but he doesn’t want to lose any either.  Until we can get that matrix to work right – and maybe it will be 2011 and it might have to be 2012 – it’s really driven by how good of a job I do in improving our attendance.  Because the Union and the organization is wide open to helping us any way they can.  We just have to do our job to get in there.”

Other options being looked at are Villanova University and Widener University.  Both are still turf football facilities but are farther east than West Chester University.  Moving east is ultimately the plan for the Independence, which is currently over 30 minutes west of Philadelphia proper.

Villanova, home of the WUSA’s Philadelphia Charge, was not available in 2010 due to stadium construction but Halstead said there have been discussions with the school in the event the Independence cannot get into PPL Park in 2011.

Philadelphia is currently last in WPS in attendance with an average of 2,872 fans per game and the organization recognizes it needs to do something to improve attendance.  However, switching stadiums would have to be a move that makes sense.

“It’s got to be economical,” Halstead said.  “When you are only putting 2,500 to 3,500 butts in seats per game you can’t go out and pay a lot of rent and I think that if people looked at LA and Anheuser-Busch down in Saint Louis and looked at what is going on in Chicago, I think the resounding lesson that we have learned is until you have attendance, do not get yourself in a lease that loses money.  In Philly, I’m just not going to do that.  I want to be around a long time.  I want a permanent presence that the fans are proud to be a part of.”

Halstead’s point is a great one.  Soccer-specific does not necessarily mean the stadium is the best option for a WPS team.  Even a well attended WPS game in a MLS stadium can feel like MLS games in NFL stadia: cavernous.

As mentioned above, the Chicago Red Stars are also a team that will need to look into other stadium options.  Reportedly, the team’s lease agreement with Toyota Park is very expensive and is a major cost of operation for the Red Stars.

Team officials would not comment on the current stadium issues until after the season.  As nice as Toyota Park may be, it may be smart for the Red Stars to find a smaller, cheaper venue such as Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville, Ill. where the Chicago Fire played from 2002-2003.  That stadium seats 5,500 fans.

Overall, it seems best for WPS teams to be playing in smaller venues like KSU Soccer Stadium (Atlanta Beat) or Anheuser-Busch Stadium where Saint Louis played.  There are exceptions to the rule like Harvard, but backing a 4,000 seat stadium creates a much better environment than a few thousand in a 20,000 seat stadium.
 

By Dan Lauletta

Sometimes it’s not the nature of the timing of it that can make all the difference.  If Sky Blue FC looked like a refreshed unit during their rain-interrupted victory over Philadelphia Independence last weekend, it may have been in part due to an impromptu trip to the beach.

“Even though it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to be in the sun two days before a game, but I think we as a team needed it,” captain Christie Rampone said.  “We just needed that little bit of a bond and a little (time) to stop thinking about soccer again.”

Rampone said some of the players had approached the coaching staff about the idea, but said none of them knew it was coming until a Thursday night email went out calling for a team meeting followed by a day at a local beach.

Rampone drew some attention during the week with some uncharacteristically terse remarks posted on her Twitter account.  Sunday night she acknowledged some frustration, but said a good week of practice plus a good match result helped ease any tension.

“Just exhausted.  Tired,” she said.  “The drive was getting to me.  Everything was getting to me.  I took (most of) my frustrations out on the field in practice.  That helped me at least in this game to play free.  I played some forward in practice and just moved around a lot.  I was getting too locked on to trying to do everything perfect.  And you can’t in the game of soccer.  Soccer is a game of mistakes and you try to make the least amount of mistakes and recover from them.  Our team tries to think it all out and plan it all out, and at the end of the day you just have to play.”

On team morale near the end of a season that has featured another coaching change (the club’s fourth in a little more than a year), several lopsided losses, and another fight to the finish to secure a playoff berth, Rampone said:  “It was low there for a little bit.  When you’re getting three and four goals scored against you, it is low.  That’s an honest assessment of it.  Friday really helped.”