League sponsorships, ticket sales are up from last season
Abby Wambach credits Mia Hamm for helping pound into her head how to be a professional soccer player.
“I’m thick-skinned enough that I didn’t take anything she would say to me personally,” said Wambach.
Nearly a decade later, as Women’s Pro Soccer gets ready for its second year, Wambach is the veteran forward who has assumed her former mentor’s role.
“You’re getting a sense now that the next generation has a bit more of an ego, and their feelings get hurt more because they’ve been kind of told one thing their whole life,” said Wambach. “You come to this team, and now you’re maybe not the best player. Actually, I can assure you you’re not the best player.”
While Wambach is ready to dish out tough love, both WPS and the Freedom are in a far better position than they were a year ago, on and off the field. Ticket sales and sponsorships up, and the league has added teams in Philadelphia and Atlanta while dropping the Los Angeles Sol due to an ownership group meltdown, not an underperforming franchise.
The Freedom roster is virtually unchanged with Wambach, defender Cat Whitehill, goalkeeper Erin McLeod and winger Sonia Bompastor. SoccerPlex has a new video screen, and the Freedom hope to have a shirt sponsor soon that will complement the Citi logo that will adorn the back of all WPS jerseys.
“It really pays off in the second and third seasons where they are more comfortable,” said Freedom head coach Jim Gabarra of keeping the team’s continuity. It took him three years to build Washington from also-ran into a champion in the WUSA. “They have a better understanding of what’s required of them and how difficult the league is to play in.”
