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An Ultimate Soccer League kicks off in Manhattan Beach
by John Tawa
A fledgling Manhattan Beach company hopes to score big when a new women's soccer league begins play in the summer of 2001.
The Ultimate Soccer League, as the new organization is called, has modified the game to make it faster-paced and high scoring. Its brand of soccer is played on a shorter 80-yard-by-50-yard field with no offsides, free substitutions and so far top secret goal posts (a patent is pending) that increase the scoring threat.
"Ultimate Soccer League will give fans the intense entertainment they want and ambitious female role models they need - right in their own backyard," said Hermosa Beach resident Tracy Gale, the league commissioner.
Right now, however, the league is more concept than reality. Although the Ultimate Soccer League is fully funded by an undisclosed private investment group through its first year, it has no players, no coaches, no venues and no sponsors.
It has just six hard-working employees tucked into a second-floor suite in the Friendly Hills Medical Plaza on Sepulveda Boulevard. They are dedicated full-time to making the concept come to life.
Hermosa Beach resident Josh Hodge is the league's president and visionary.
"What he saw was an opportunity to create something unique for young female athletes," said Director of Player Development Jeremy Gould. "Men have the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball. We really wanted to create something unique for young female fans and athletes and target them."
In its first season, which begins in June, the Ultimate Soccer League will field six to 10 top-level amateur teams from Ventura County to south Orange County. The target athlete will be a highly skilled amateur or college player 18 years or older willing to play a 35-game summer schedule for the Ultimate Cup. Gould said that the league will sign players and hire coaches beginning in January.
The league will begin play in 4,000-10,000 seat venues with admission charges of $3-5 per ticket, but the organizers' vision goes far beyond that start. If successful, the league hopes to become fully professional within five years, with a television contract, major sponsors and teams spread at least through the West and, they hope, across the country.
Ultimate Soccer League, however, has no plans to compete with the Women's United Soccer Association, an eight-team national, professional league also forming for play in 2001. Ultimate Soccer League's initial business plan is to look like baseball's minor leagues, where the activities that surround the game are as much a part of the fans' experience as the game itself.
"We're looking to make our games an event, so that girls who come there have a variety of things to do," said Sarah Lightfoot, the league's Director of Marketing. "Of course the game is important, but we also will have other things going on, other games for kids to play."
"It's going to be a Lilith Fair-type deal, just sports oriented," added Vice President of Broadcasting and Marketing Anna Rothman.
For more information about the league, call its headquarters at 372-0707. The league's website, at www.ultimatesoccerleague.com, should be operational within the next month. ER