On the Way to Being the Best in the World!

Time for a catchup with my new home town team - the Atlanta Beat!

As explained previously, the Beat are a new team in America's women's professional soccer league (aptly named Women's Pro Soccer or WPS). My last update, in early October, analyzed the recent 'International Draft.' As an expansion team, the Beat were allowed to chose any five non-WPS players in the world to have exclusive negotiating rights with. Setting their sights high, the Beat chose several key players from the Swedish women's football giants, Umeå IK. As they were only receiving rights to talk to these players, and had no guarantee of signing them, I will admit it all seemed a bit fanciful to me. The near total silence from the Beat head office for the following two months was also worrying.

The other WPS expansion club, the Philadelphia Independence, were far from quiet, though. Soon after the draft they announced several headline signings, including USA International (and Maxim model) Heather Mitts. The good news from Philadelphia was so frequent, and lack of news coming out of Atlanta so noticeable, that I began to wonder if my home town's new team was already struggling before a single ball had been kicked in anger. As I learned later, I was completely wrong.

On 1 December, Atlanta Beat owner, Fitz Johnson, announced a partnership with Kennesaw State University to build the world's first purpose-built women's soccer stadium. It will have a capacity of 8,300 and be built at a cost of $16.5 million. The pictures look stunning, and by the time this announcement was made construction was already well underway (with a planned completion of Spring 2010). Although the facility will be shared with the Kennesaw State women's soccer team (the Lady Owls), the Beat will certainly be the primary occupant. Considering that the Beat's previous incarnation (2001-2003 in the old WUSA) had two makeshift homes in American football stadiums, this is an impressive achievement.

Actually, it has taken me a while to get round to thinking it is an impressive achievement. To be honest, my first reaction was pretty negative. Kennesaw State? Kennesaw is not Atlanta. It is an outer suburb of Atlanta, and even saying that might be stretching things. As is probably common for an Atlanta native, my only experience with Kennesaw is from field trips in grade school to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. I have no doubt that Kennesaw is a nice place, but I'm just being polite really. I have no idea what Kennesaw is like at all.

It's not a minor point, either. Kennesaw is on the outskirts of a huge metropolitan area. Public transport is not great by European standards, and barely exists outside the Atlanta city limits. While it is perfectly possible for someone from Kennesaw to have a happy working life commuting to downtown Atlanta by car, it is considerably more awkward for soccer fans from other suburbs to get to Kennesaw. The drive from Snellville, another outer suburb, to Beat matches will be almost fifty miles. Another problem is that Georgia's highways are built to help people get into central Atlanta, but not to get from one suburb to another. Residents of nearby Alpharetta are only fifteen miles from Kennesaw as the crow flies, but the only realistic way of getting between the two places is a thirty mile dogleg towards Atlanta and back.

There is one other drawback to Kennesaw which is rooted in snobbery. Big professional sports teams in Atlanta have always played in the downtown area. Despite the fact that precious few people live downtown anymore, it is still seen as the place for proper 'major league' teams. It is possible that by basing itself in Kennesaw the Beat will fail to be taken seriously by the bulk of Atlanta sports fans. In fact, there has never been a successful professional sports franchise based in the suburbs. At first glance, it looks like the Beat have made a serious mistake.

That was my initial thought, but then I started thinking about my time with the old Atlanta Attack, a men's indoor soccer franchise. I worked there for a few weeks during Christmas holidays in 1989 (see here) and by most measures the club was doing well. The Attack had the highest attendance average in their league by a long way, sometimes drawing in excess of 10,000 spectators a match. In actual fact, the Attack's finances were in a parlous state. The main reason for this was their stadium lease. The only arena available for rent in downtown Atlanta was the 16,000-seater Omni Coliseum. Although the Attack sometimes drew big crowds, the average attendance was more like 6,000. It was enough to top the league stats, but not enough to break even on the rental agreement. Basically, every time the Attack played a match they lost money. As there was no media income to speak of, the only revenue the club would ever generate was from matches. In effect the Attack were killed off by playing their matches in the prestigious downtown Atlanta area. I was not there when the club closed its doors, but even in the first season everyone in the front office knew the Attack was living on borrowed time.

Like the Attack, match day revenue will make or break the Beat. There will be no lucrative national television contract. If the deal has been structured in a way to give the Beat a cut of the revenues from the non-soccer use of the stadium (like hosting conferences or corporate parties) then the Beat may end up in a much stronger position than any sports team outside the major American sports leagues. Having to draw people all the way to Kennesaw might be a disadvantage, but it would be easily outweighed by the financial independence this stadium might be bringing the club. There may be no precedent for a successful professional sports team operating in the suburbs, but there is a long history in Atlanta of failed soccer teams who rented the downtown stadiums built for Baseball and American football. If the Beat are going to succeed they won't do it by copying the strategies of their failed predecessors.

So, the Beat have a stadium to play in. Who is going to play in it? At the time of the stadium announcement only three player signings had been announced. And these included none of the Beat's expansion draft or international draft picks. Time to worry? No. Since then five more signings have been announced (including two expansion draft picks: Leigh Ann Robinson and Noelle Keselica). The big announcement (and I mean really big) came just about a week ago: the Beat have signed their first international draft pick. Her arrival could mark a change from expansion strugglers to league powerhouse.

Her name is Ramona Bachmann, and unless you follow international women's soccer closely, you probably don't know who she is. If you decide to follow women's soccer like I have, though, you will learn soon enough. Considered by some to be the second best player in the world after Brazil's Marta (who also played for Umeå IK before being drafted by the WPS's Los Angeles Sol), Bachmann's presence could turn the Beat into a sporting (and marketing) success. Although she is only nineteen she has played in a European Champions League final and been voted Swiss player of the year. The Beat have signed her to a two year deal (which by WPS standards is a long contract).

Things are looking up for the Beat, but there are still challenges ahead. After a season opener in Philadelphia in April, the Beat will not play a home fixture until at least May. This is because they have to wait for the stadium to be completed. Large construction projects, of course, frequently suffer delays and go over budget. Having great players is helpful, but as Real Madrid and Manchester City have shown, it does not automatically make a great team. Besides, at least eight more players need to be signed in the next two months to have a decent sized squad. Oh, and the whole concept of a successful professional women's soccer league is still far from proven.

Still, I think the Beat might be Altanta's best ever chance to have a soccer team with long-term success. Ever since he was awarded the Atlanta WPS franchise, Beat owner Fitz Johnson has spoken of the Beat becoming the 'Best in the World.' This slogan has even been used, with disarming immodestly, as a marketing slogan for the club. It is a concept that seems silly at first, but Johnson is taking steps to come good on his promise. Women's soccer is still wide open - there are no established powerhouses. With the stadium deal and the arrival of marquee players, there is no reason why the Atlanta Beat can't soon be the best in the world. Watch out Barcelona!

Check out my previous articles on the Atlanta Beat: Atlanta Turns on the Cash Taps and Goes Soccer Crazy, The Beat is Back, and The Beat Goes On. The next article will appeal in roughly three weeks after the WPS regular draft in January.

The Beat is Back!

Although I am enjoying the breast beating and hair-shirt wearing that the Bath City community is engaged in at the moment, my status as a native Atlantan has given me some cheerier football news to report to you today.

Just over an hour ago Women's Pro Soccer (WPS) has announced the results of their first ever expansion draft, and as a result the first six members of the new Atlanta Beat roster have been revealed. They are: Leigh Ann Robinson (formerly FC Gold Pride - pictured right), Amanda Cinalli and Sara Larsson (from St Louis Athletica), Katie Larkin and Sharolta Nonen (now leaving Los Angeles Sol), and Noelle Keselica (who is packing her bags to leave Sky Blue FC). Prominent among these draft picks is Sharlota Nonen (pictured left), a Canadian international and a former member of the original Atlanta Beat that played in the old Women's United Soccer Association from 2001-04. The number one pick, Leigh Ann Robinson is a respected centre half and shows that the Beat are going to try to build their new club around a solid defence.

Okay, okay. I admit it. I don't really know what I'm talking about here. But I am going to try. I've never followed women's football before, either here or back home, so I will have to learn as I go. I am definitely going to try and be an active supporter, though. At least I will be as active as you can be on this side of the Atlantic, anyway. This is my home town club now, especially as Atlanta has no top flight men's team on the horizon.

I had better explain just what has happened to my British readers because that second paragraph probably makes no sense whatsoever. As I have discussed previously (at length), American sporting leagues do not employ relegation or promotion. New teams appear when the league decides to expand. Rather than just cobble together the best twenty women's clubs in the country, the WPS started life last season with seven brand new clubs funded by local businessmen. After a first (apparently successful) season, the league is now adding two teams to its ranks: the Atlanta Beat and the Philadelphia Independence. Rather than make these new clubs start from scratch, the league has set up an 'expansion draft' to try and ease their way into next season. Hold onto your hats now - this is going to seem a little strange!

Each club in the WPS has had to choose six players from their roster to put into the draft. Atlanta and Philadelphia then took turns choosing players from this pool of forty-two. Once an established club has lost one of its six players to one of the new teams it is allowed to remove two of its remaining five from the draft. No team could lose two players until every other team has lost at least one. Each of the expansion teams was going to be allowed to select nine players each, but in the end Philadelphia took seven and Atlanta only took six. Both teams will get to participate in special draft of international players as well as have early picks in the general WPS draft in January.

How weird is that? Can you imagine Alex Ferguson being told he has to name six players, of whom he could lose up to three to Burnley, Birmingham City or Wolves so that they could have an easier time in the Premiership this season? Exactly what shad of puce do you think he would turn? It boggles the imagination.

Despite the way we Americans like to champion the free market and talk about the survival of the fittest, we can be genuine pinko socialists when it comes to our professional sports leagues. Every sport has its ways of trying to keep 'parity' in its league: salary caps, income distribution and high draft picks for weaker teams. This is based on the belief that having the same old teams win every year is kind of boring (ahem). So really, the charge of 'socialism' isn't appropriate. The league as a whole has a commercial interest in competitive matches so that it can compete with other sports. The creation of the Premiership seventeen years ago was a partial step in this direction, but it is hard to believe that the English football giants will ever relinquish enough autonomy to create an American style league. Oh well, we might as well vive le difference, I suppose.

Back to the Beat: I don't really know if the draft was a success or not. The Beat's general manager, Shawn McGee, seems pretty happy with the results. Soon after the results were announced he tweeted, 'Had a great draft plan and it played well.' So far most of the excitement is centred on the number one pick, Leigh Ann Robinson. Head Coach Gareth O'Sullivan says, 'She works hard and has a positive attitude. We were very fortunate to come away with her.' Leigh Ann herself is putting a pretty brave face on things. The team website quotes her saying, 'I feel like I have so many emotions right now. I am excited to join the Atlanta Beat and anxious to be out there. This morning I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if I would get a call or not. Now that I am with the Beat, I am excited to help get this team started.' I hope she is still as excited when she experiences her first Atlanta summer!

Well everyone, I am excited! Look out for me in the Atlanta Beat tee shirt in the Bath City terraces (as soon as they print some)!