11 years later, Redmond kicks off pro career in WPS

When American defender Brandi Chastain blasted what would become an iconic penalty kick past Chinese goalkeeper Gao Hong to clinch the 1999 Women’s World Cup, Elisabeth Redmond was an 11-year-old girl dreaming of one day playing soccer on the big stage. Redmond never could have predicted that Chastain’s finish would give her just that opportunity, 11 years later.

Starting in March, Duke’s star midfielder will take to the professional pitch in preseason training camp with the Saint Louis Athletica, a founding member of the newly created Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league.

2010 marks the second year of the fledgling league, which has already overcome its fair share of adversity. Just last month, WPS’s showcase franchise, the Los Angeles Sol, folded after team owners declined to continue their investments in the club. Financial difficulties have become a calling card for professional women’s leagues, particularly for a sport like soccer that doesn’t currently have major drawing power in this country.

WPS, however, is not the first women’s soccer league to launch in the United States. Following the 1999 World Cup win, Americans’ interest in women’s soccer was at a high, and for the first time, investors were willing to oversee the development of a national professional league.

The Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) was born in 2000, with eight teams across the country featuring many of the best players in the world. Though the league had widespread initial support, multiple corporate sponsors and even a national television contract, high operating costs would soon doom the league. Even though many players, including Duke assistant coach and national team hero Carla Overbeck, agreed to substantial salary cuts, the writing was on the wall before the third and final season ever began.

“Leagues struggle, and they struggle early on especially,” Overbeck said. “It seemed every few months the league was asking investors for a few more million dollars, and after a while it was obvious that that wasn’t going to happen anymore.”

WUSA discontinued operations in the fall of 2003, and professional women’s soccer went on an indefinite hiatus. Though league officials attempted to line up new investors and resurrect the league the following year, it proved a hard sell, particularly since MLS, the men’s equivalent, had not yet proven that professional soccer could be successful in the United States.

MLS has since developed into a financially stable and growing league, and with Americans showing more affection toward the game, the skeleton organization left over from WUSA convinced new investors to revive the defunct women’s league. New organizers promised a less financially risky business model, with WPS League commissioner Tonya Antonucci seeking to avoid the failures of the WUSA by employing a “local, grass-roots approach.” She asked team investors to shoulder operating budgets of around $3 million per season, a far cry from the extravagance of the WUSA, whose team owners collectively lost an estimated $100 million over three years.

“I feel like I have another job with training,” Redmond said. “I’ve been practicing every day, running, lifting…. I spend about four hours a day just preparing.”

As a WUSA veteran herself after a stint playing for the Carolina Courage, Overbeck knows Redmond possesses the talent to play professionally and is confident that the Blue Devil can successfully transition to the high-speed, high-skill professional game.

“From the second she stepped onto the soccer field at Duke, you could tell she was on a different level,” Overbeck said. “I know how hard she’s worked, and she’s absolutely got all it takes to play with the professionals.”