(July 13, 2002)

WUSA Doing Whatever It Has To Sell Itself

PHILADELPHIA PA (July 13, 2002) Outfitted in a low-cut black mini-dress, Heather Mitts was doing her part to promote the Women's United Soccer Association. She posed for the cover of Philadelphia magazine's most-eligible singles edition.

Mitts, a starter for the Philadelphia Charge, has only two appearances for the U.S. national team. Still, she is one of the team's most requested players for media interviews and personal appearances.

``I would like people to recognize me being a good soccer player, but if my looks increase awareness, we should use it as well,'' the 24-year-old Mitts said. ``I'm comfortable with it.''

It's a strategy that some marketing experts say would work to help the 2-year-old league get established. The WUSA says it doesn't encourage using players' attractiveness in marketing, but won't discourage it either. It cooperated with Playboy magazine's online poll to find the most attractive player in the league.

``We haven't featured the John Elway's and Joe Montana's in commercials because they were ugly,'' said Nova Lanktree, president of Lanktree Sports Celebrity Network Inc., a unit of sports agency CSMG. ``There are lots of gifted athletes, and you don't want to undermine talent, but if you're talking about marketing, it's a fact.''

It's been almost three years since Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm became the best-known female soccer players in the U.S. for winning the women's World Cup. Chastain is 33, and Hamm is 29, and WUSA realizes it eventually will need to find other players to get attention.

The WUSA is drawing 6,829 fans per game this season, down 16 percent from last year's final average, but still ahead of last year's expectation of 6,500. It's in the first year of a two-year television contract with Paxson Communications Corp., with about 100,000 households tuning in on PAX TV, down from the 400,000 it averaged last year on AOL Time Warner Inc.'s TNT cable channel.

WUSA Commissioner Lynn Morgan says the league doesn't market its players based solely on their appearance, it also realizes by pushing its more attractive players in front of cameras generates interest that it otherwise may not get.

Hamm, who plays for the Washington Freedom; Chastain, who plays for the defending league champion San Jose CyberRays; and last year's league Most Valuable Player Tiffeny Milbrett of the New York Power are still the most requested players for media interviews, said league spokesman Dan Courtemanche.

Included in this year's package of media guides and player photos, the WUSA also put in a photo collage of players in casual attire. The photos, provided by New York-based player agent Dave Bober, featured his clients such as Mitts, Hamm, Charge defender Lorrie Fair and Boston Breakers defender Kate Sobrero.

``I have four pages of story ideas I pitched,'' Courtemanche said. ``Those photos created the biggest buzz of anything we did. We'll probably use it again.''

Bober, who also represents players in the Women's National Basketball Association and female skiers and beach volleyball players, said he had the photos taken to send to casting directors, sponsors and advertisers. The idea was to land his clients in roles portraying athletes.

``The only reason we created them was to send a message to the consumer, advertiser, sponsor, etc., that it's OK to be feminine and a great athlete at the same time,'' Bober said.

The WUSA is not the only women's sports organization using the tactic. This year, golf's LPGA Tour Commissioner Ty Votaw gathered his players for a summit in Phoenix to highlight his five points of celebrity. Appearance was among them.

Meanwhile, Playboy.com readers used appearance as the only criteria in their voting in a similar survey to the one it took with WNBA players the past three years.

Playboy.com Sports Editor Blair Fischer said the WUSA was more cooperative than the WNBA, providing headshots and biography material. Mitts was the winner.

WNBA spokeswoman Maureen Coyle said their league treats Playboy.com like any other media outlet. Not everybody involved with the WUSA is comfortable with the approach.

Milbrett, 29, an 11-year veteran of the U.S. national team including the 1996 Olympic champions and 1999 World Cup champions, decries what she called a double standard.

``That says nothing about our soccer on the field,'' Milbrett said. ``Female athletes in general are still looked at first for sex appeal. My complaint is more so with society in general.''

With next year's Women's World Cup in China, WUSA officials said recreating the same level of excitement as in 1999 will be impossible. Other means to get attention will be necessary.

``It's about getting butts in seats,'' Fair said. ``I would hope those that are critical would keep in mind the bigger picture.''

[Source: Bloomberg News, Brian Trusdell]