Women’s Professional Soccer just wrapped up their second season of action last weekend and they also recently announced the potential expansion of the league with a new eighth team to add to the league. The WPS lent out conditional approval to a new club that will be located in western New York as long as everything works out.
The team name, logo, and uniform have yet to be unveiled, but the budding potential franchise does have an owner. The franchise was awarded to Joe Sahlen who already owns the most successful franchise in the United Soccer League. Sahlen is the owner of the Buffalo Flash and the club went undefeated this season and won the league’s title in the process. Shalen hopes to produce similar results with his young women’s franchise.
The good news for the unnamed New York franchise is that they have two legitimate places to play their home matches. Sahlen wants dual hosting cities of Rochester and Niagara University to support the team. The idea is to spread the fan base across a large portion of the state rather than over relying on any one single town. And this new franchise will replace the St. Louis Athletica who were forced to fold this May due to financial reasons.
Currently the seven teams in the league are located in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, New Jersey, Washington, Atlanta and Philadelphia. And last weekend the San Francisco Bay Area’s FC Gold Pride beat the Philadelphia Independence in the championship game of the second full season of the league.
http://www.prettytough.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/wps_logo.jpg