Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - A new women's professional soccer league, with help from Major League Soccer, will be launched in 2008 with teams in Los Angeles, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
It would replace the Women's United Soccer Association, which folded in 2003 after three years and attendance that averaged 4,500. Tonya Antonucci, chief executive officer of the Women's Soccer Initiative Inc., made the announcement Tuesday.
The new league will begin play in April 2008, hoping to capitalize on interest generated in the 2007 Women's World Cup, to be held in China in September.
Teams will play a 20-game schedule from April to August, including an All-Star game. Postseason play would extend the season into early fall.
The Los Angeles team will be owned by AEG, which operates the Los Angeles Galaxy men's MLS team, and will play at Home Depot Center in Carson.
The Women's Soccer Initiative is a nonprofit organization founded to build a business plan to relaunch a pro league.