WUSA Scores A Deal

Cable World, April 17, 2000 by Mike Reynolds

The Women's United Soccer Association scored a hat trick last week, announcing the conditional selection of its first eight markets, a national TV deal with Turner Sports and letters of intent from more than 100 top players around the globe.

WUSA, a single-entity structure led by Discovery Communications Inc. founder, John Hendricks, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and former Continental Cablevision Inc. chairman Amos Hostetter, plans to kick off its inaugural season next April.

Major League Soccer has sent a letter of intent for a women's pro league of its own to the U. S. Soccer Federation, the sport's governing body in the U.S. A formal MLS proposal must be submitted to USSF by May 1.

Hendricks said during a conference call that it would benefit soccer in the U.S. if WUSA and MLS could find ways to "cooperate," but emphasized his group is not interested in conceding operating control.

WUSA investors will earmark $40 million for players' salaries and administrative costs for the circuit's first five years. Hendricks said the salary cap would total $800,000 annually per team.

WUSA's conditional roster calls for investor/operators to allocate $5 million in the following markets: Time Warner -- New York and Tampa-Orlando; Cox Enterprises -- Atlanta; Cox Communications -- San Diego; Comcast -- Philadelphia; Comcast and Hendricks -- Washington, D.C.; Hostetter -- Boston; Hendricks and Hostetter -- San Francisco. WUSA indicated it had received additional investment letters from its current group and from others amounting to $20 million.

The four-year, national cable-exclusive deal with Turner calls for TNT to air 15 games and CNNSI seven matches each season.

"This is family programming that has value to us and has family values," said Turner Sports president Mark Lazarus, who estimated WUSA would generate a 2 rating during weekend windows, starting in mid-morning and extending through mid-afternoon. Sources estimate that Turner will spend $3 million annually in rights fees.

Lee Burke, an advisor to WUSA, said the circuit would work collaboratively with Turner in "a national sales effort encompassing TV and other marketing aspects for the league."

He noted that the games would not be interrupted by commercials and that WUSA was evaluating logo and dock identification, crawls and other "innovative ways to integrate sponsors into the telecasts."

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