Just some quick takes today, we will be back in full tomorrow. The inaugural WPS season ended this weekend with an upset victory for Sky Blue, FC. From an attendance perspective, the game drew well, with over 7k in attendance at the Home Depot Center. The game featured the League’s brightest star in Marta and was a home game for the best team (Los Angeles). The first season is over, and we will take a business look back at WPS in the next few days.
There are multiple sources reporting that disgruntled Chicago defender Bakare Soumare has been sold to Ligue 1 team Boulgne. These same reports are placing the transfer fee to be in excess of $2 million dollars. Under MLS rules, the Fire will now have a substantial amount of money to spend to purchase and sign players. Previous writings suggest that the Fire will get 2/3 of the fee to spend with $500k going to new players and the rest to club development. In a League with a salary cap under $2.5 million, 500k is a big number and should enable the fire to re-arm next season.
Finally, Mun2 hit a ratings high with its broadcast of the USA/Mexico match. The mid-day game averaged almost 400k viewers (including DVR). These ratings exclude public viewings like bars. The Telemundo broadcast averaged 4.3 million viewers.
