U.S. Soccer launches new women’s professional league

U.S. Soccer announced on Nov. 21 that another professional women’s soccer league will be starting up in the New Year. The organization said the league will consist of eight teams and will kick off in the spring of 2013. There will be franchises in Washington D.C., Western New York, Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, Seattle, New Jersey, and Portland, but so far there isn’t a name for the league.

While women’s soccer is extremely popular in America at the Olympic and World Cup levels, it has failed to catch on with fans at the league level. There have been two previous attempts at women’s pro leagues, but they both folded. The WUSA ran for three years and ended operations in 2003, while Women's Professional Soccer also ran for three seasons and folded earlier this year.

The league is being launched so American national team members have a place to play before the next World Cup gets underway in 2015. It was reported that the franchises will be privately owned and the U.S. soccer federation will be paying the wages of the 24 American national team members as well funding the offices of the new league.