Mary Lavelle was visiting her family home in Kenwood when three Girl Scouts knocked on the door.
Lavelle peeped through the window, nervous the girls would be disappointed when she answered, and not her sister Rose.
Instead, Mary was greeted with just the opposite.
“How cool is it to be Rose Lavelle’s sister?” the girls asked.
“It’s loads of fun,” she replied, smiling.
Mary, 24, knows what her sister means to those girls, to Cincinnati, to women's soccer and, especially, to female athletes.
Lavelle's pivotal role in the current Team USA women's Olympic soccer battle in Tokyo and in the United State's Women's National Teams' 2019 World Cup title has made her a household name to soccer fans around the country.
And a larger-than-life hometown hero here in Cincinnati.
More: Tokyo Olympics: Rose Lavelle spotlight for USWNT soccer
More: Tokyo Olympics: 5 things to know about USWNT midfielder Rose Lavelle
But when not on the international stage, Lavelle plays year-round for Tacoma's OL Reign in the National Women's Soccer League, the continuously growing top-tier women's soccer league in the United States.
That league had its most successful year in 2020, increasing viewership by 493% and boosting its media coverage by 55.
So how come, if Cincinnati has a professional men’s team, a big new stadium, a thirst for great soccer and a claim to Rose Lavelle, the city doesn't have a professional women’s soccer club in the wings?
Good question.
The history
For starters, professional women's sports in Ohio have a checkered past.
Since Gordon Gund, previous owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, gave up ownership of the organization's WNBA counterpart in 2003, professional women's sports can’t seem to find a home in the Buckeye State. The Cleveland Comets represent the region in the National Pro Fastpitch league, but the state is not represented in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBA), National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) or National Women's Hockey League (NWHL.)
Meanwhile, of course, the state's three major cities are home to men’s teams in the NFL, MLB and MLS.
In Cincinnati, professional female athletes show up at once-a-year events like the Western & Southern Open and USWNT qualifiers or friendlies, but a team that remains in the city year-round, garnering support and serving as an inspiration to the young athletes of the area has yet to materialize.
So why not?
In October 2019, FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding sat down for a live interview with The Enquirer's Beyond the Net show, where he spoke to the potential of an NWSL team in Cincinnati.
"Are we interested? Yes. Have I had some conversations? Yes. Is there anything imminent to announce? No. Is there going to be (an expansion) chase? No. When it's ready to happen, I would share with you, I think it'll just happen,” Berding said.
But will it?
“We have some work to do so I want to make it clear: I'm not promising the fans 'take it to the bank, we're going to have NWSL.' That's not what I'm saying," he emphasized. "Is the interest there from our ownership group and organization? One-hundred percent."
At the time of the interview, Berding said the club's West End, now TQL, Stadium and Mercy Health Training Center were being built with a future NWSL team in mind.
Now, almost two years later, FC Cincinnati declineda fresh interview on a prospective NWSL franchise landing here.
Instead, Berding issued the following statement to The Enquirer:
“Soccer is a global and truly inclusive sport. As ambassadors for the sport of soccer, we believe that providing access and participating in the sport at all levels is incredibly important. We are interested in women’s soccer and plan to conduct due diligence on what it takes to offer programming at a youth and professional level."
Berding's inspecific response leans into the caution of NWSL expansion.
Jeff Kassouf founded Equalizer Soccer in 2009 to fill the void in coverage of the women's game. Kassouf reports closely on any expansion of the NWSL and is familiar with the Cincinnati suggestion.
“I know Cincinnati has been talked about, fans have been vocal about it," Kassouf told The Enquirer. "I’m always a little bit skeptical of clubs saying they’re going to do it soon because I’ve heard that a lot from a lot of clubs but I know they’ve been teasing things I guess is the best way to put it.”
Kassouf said expansion of the NWSL should proceed carefully because maintaining a league in the country has not been easy. So far, there have been two failed attempts at establishing pro women's soccer nationally -- the Women's United Soccer Association (2000 to 2003, $100 million in debt) and Women's Professional Soccer league (2007 to 2012, owner lawsuit and lack of investment).
The NWSL, established shortly thereafter, has survived longer than both of its predecessors. One key is the league's partnership with U.S. Soccer. The United States Soccer Federation invested approximately $20 million in the NWSL since its inception. This sets the NWSL apart from other women's leagues that instead rely on funding from their male counterparts.
In 2019, the NHL donated a paltry $100,000 to the NWHL in an attempt to throw a life vest to a league just limping along after its Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Women's Hockey League, folded due to a financial collapse.
As for the WNBA, that league stays afloat by being subsidized by the NBA as its $60 million annual revenueis dwarfed by the NBA's $7.4 billion.
In January, NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird announced the U.S. Soccer Federation would no longer manage the NWSL, but aspects of the partnership such as investment would remain.
“USA Soccer was instrumental in launching this league, whereas with WPS they were very much removed," Kassouf said. "That support was really what, I would argue, got the league through those first few years."
The NWSL also stayed extremely conservative in spending early on. The league's minimum salary in its first season was $6,000, a figure that increased to $22,000 in 2021.
To put that payday in perspective, the minimum salary for MLS senior roster spots is $81,375, over three times that of the NWSL's. Players on the MLS's reserve minimum salary make $63,547.
Both MLS figures are higher than the 2021 NWSL league maximum $52,500 salary and are just a fraction of what athletes make in the NBA, MLB and NFL, leagues which rank highest in terms of salary among all top-tier professional organizations.
As for expansion, the NWSL has gone from eight to 10 teams since its founding in 2012, with teams in Los Angeles and San Diego on the way for 2022.
The latter ranks just nine spots ahead of Cincinnati in Sports Media Watch's Nielsen TV market size rankings. Unlike San Diego, Cincinnati already has an established MLS franchise in the city.
Good foundation
Becky Dean remembers when Rose Lavelle came back to a soccer practice at Mount Notre Dame High School right before the 2019 World Cup. Lavelle played goalie on the field, and role model off of it.
“Seeing people in a position of power, having a role to look up to and seeing someone that looks like me play the sport I play now at the highest level possible (is huge,)" Dean said. "Having that role model but on a team based in Cincinnati would be so cool."
Now Dean plays soccer at Butler University and represents her home city on Cincinnati Sirens FC.
The Sirens compete in the Women's Premier Soccer League, an amateur league second tier to the NWSL.
Sirens owner John Vogt obtained the WPSL franchise in 2014. Athletes on the Cincinnati Sirens are not paid, and salary would be one of the main differences in a potential NWSL team.
Still given that, Sirens head coach Bridgit Reder said the goal is for the club to function as professionally as possible.
“If and when the day comes where Cincinnati brings on a women’s team in the NWSL we can say ‘Hey just take what we’ve already built,’” Reder said. "Moving forward, we want to be in Jeff Berding’s back pocket to where when FCC decides they are going to bring on a women’s team, we want to be the first call to say 'It’s already ready for you.'”
Vogt and Reder both coach girls soccer at Lakota West High School, making them well known to the rising talent in the area. They have witnessed first-handthe thirst for a professional-level team to set the example.
Heather Mitts, who earned three gold medals with U.S. women's soccer and hails from Cincinnati, said she sees an NWSL team being successful in the city.
“You’ve already seen the success of FC Cincinnati and just how much the fans have supported them," Mitts said. "It really does make the most sense for them to finally get a women’s team and I think it’s going to happen."
When Mary Lavelle thinks about a potential women's soccer team in Cincinnati, she reflects back to the USWNT's friendly at Nippert Stadium in 2017 and how much it meant to her sister to play in front of a hometown crowd.
“She (Rose) absolutely loves Cincinnati so I think she would love nothing more than to be able to play in front of the city and, honestly, just live here," Mary said. "Obviously she’ll take any opportunities that come her way but I know that would be really important to her."
Sirens' player Christy Zwolski thinks the city may just be ready for a fresh new team.
“I think the city’s ready for a women’s team of any kind, really and one that wins," Zwolski said.
And maybe the team is already here, it's just waiting to flourish on the national stage.
Source link
