Portland will host NWSL Championship Oct. 1st

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Fran
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Portland will host NWSL Championship Oct. 1st

Post by Fran » Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:00 pm

Even if Portland doesn't make it to the championship the attendance will be very good. Wise move by the NWSL.

http://www.timbers.com/post/2015/08/17/ ... ship-match

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced today that the 2015 NWSL Championship match will be played on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, at Providence Park in Portland, Ore. The championship match will kick off at 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT with a national television broadcast on FOX Sports 1.

“Everyone with the NWSL, from our clubs to our broadcast partner, is thrilled to bring our marquee event to Portland,” NWSL Commissioner Jeff Plush said. “Prior to the 2015 season, our owners made the decision to change the playoff format from the higher-seed hosting the final to a pre-determined location. We are very excited to start this next chapter of our League’s championship match. Providence Park gives us a great opportunity to put on a fantastic event in front of our fans and for those watching on FOX Sports 1.”

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Post by Pounder » Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:54 pm

It might be good. It might not. There's a core of fans who will choose to be at Merlo Field instead for the University of Portland conference opener that night, provided the Thorns aren't around. We'll probably be shamed into going otherwise.

There's that probable wildcard factor: Washington winning on Sunday made it that much harder for the Thorns to make the playoffs, while, um, Seattle is all but qualified, and probably best on form right now. Do Portlanders go because we hate Seattle (although, considering UP, nobody hates Megan Rapinoe), or do we NOT go because we hate Seattle?

The date is all about the broadcast partner factor. In reality, that might be the interesting part of the experiment. Some sports can name their Nielsen rating on a weekend day. Not the case with NWSL. So will more people tune in on a weeknight? THAT is what sucks for potential traveling fans, but with the right amount of hype in the right places, turning more than 250,000 viewers for this would be a win.
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Post by Fran » Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:53 pm

It's much better during the week going up against one NFL and college football game than on a Saturday or Sunday going up against a lot of NFL and college football games.

Pounder do you think the first NWSL game rating on Fox Sports 1 was decent -

The Chicago - Portland game did a 0.1 - 91,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 Sunday night.

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Post by Pounder » Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:01 am

Not good enough.

However, USSF really needs to stop acting like NWSL is a poor cousin competitor to USWNT when, going forward, one needs to thrive for the other to stay on top. The federation needs to promote their league. Mind you, there's an understandable urge to convene the WNT and take them to 10 cities right now and they'll sell more tickets. Right now. The future requires a league as Germany, France, Japan, and even England are starting to see their leagues prosper.
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Post by nksports » Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:16 am

[quote=""Pounder""]Not good enough.

However, USSF really needs to stop acting like NWSL is a poor cousin competitor to USWNT...[/quote]

The USWNT badly needs the NWSL. Yes the US did well this year and won the Cup, but most of those players are aging out and won't be around for the next Cup. A few of them won't even be there for next year's Olympics. This was not a plug-and-play group. There are a lot of international-worthy players out there, but it's going to take a little bit of development that the NWSL is in a position to give

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