A COVID19 Report Card: Grading the Leagues' Response to the Pandemic
With the UWS finally cancelling their season, we’ve finally reached the conclusion of leagues we cover. With that in mind, I’m going to recap how and when each club decided how to handle their season in the time of pandemic and I’ll give them a rating A-F. I used to be a middle school teacher, so I should be able to handle this.
How it Happened: The spring season kicked off, sparking a ton of excitement, with newcomers Detroit City FC, Chattanooga FC, and Michigan Stars bringing a surge of talent to the league. Two weeks into the season, the pandemic was finally ramping up to the point it couldn’t be ignored. On March 12th, the league office announced it would be putting the spring season on hold for 30 days to allow the situation to unfold. After a month and a half, the league officially pulled the plug on April 27th.
The Aftermath: When the league announced the spring cancellation, they immediately announced plans for a summer challenge cup that would involve multiple amateur clubs along with NISA sides. As of now, that is still in the works. NISA also set up an eLeague and began play. The league has also made an announcement about the format and schedule of the fall season, giving fans a lot to look forward to. NISA finances are less clear than many leagues, so how they handled the obvious losses, it’s hard to tell from the outside. We do know some clubs are definitely continuing to honor player contracts and there are some that have not.
Got it almost perfect - regular communication, few leaks, future plans in place to hold fan attention. Only miss, player salaries.
How it Happened: Rumblings of the cancelled season began leaking very soon after talks began. I received multiple contacts from within the league that this was coming, but had to hold until we had concrete information. Unlike the UPSL, which has a fall season to regroup in, the NPSL, mostly due to the collegiate players, has to play in the early summer. On March 25th, Michael Lewis of Front Row Soccer put out a story claiming the league was cancelling the 2020 season. Soon after, we received confirmation from sources in the league and ran the story as well. The plan had been for the league to announce the cancellation the next day. Leaks happen.
An internal email revealed the league was relying on the decision from USASA, which recommended cancelling any group through April 30th. The league decided it was best to cancel the season.
The Aftermath: While the decision to cancel the season was probably the right one, the league was prepared an eLeague rollout soon after. That helped take a tiny bit of the heat off the league in the social media sector, but there were some issues that emerged, regardless.
In a move that at least one other league would mirror, the NPSL decided to keep the entirety of the league fee, while only supplying a partial credit for 2021. The fee of $5,500 was reduced to a $2,000 credit. I can tell you, clubs are NOT happy about this move. Maybe it’s a reality is grassroots soccer, but it felt really unfair to clubs operating on a shoestring budget.
And aside from that decision, everything the league did leaked before it was officially announced. This is good from a media perspective, but not good if you’re a league trying to crisis manage.
Not Good, Bob - kept their league fees, leaked like a sieve, pissed off their fans and clubs.
WPSL
How it Happened: On March 20th, the WPSL announced they would be postponing the start of the league by a month, moving the season kickoff from May 9th to May 29th. The press release contained a word of caution from Sean Jones, “If the situation doesn’t seem to be improving by the end of April and our top medical experts are recommending avoiding outdoor activities, then the WPSL will comply and not compete in 2020. We have informed our teams that we will provide them 30 days advanced notice if the cancelation does take place.” That would prove to be the case, so on April 30th, the league announced the cancellation of the season.
The Aftermath: Contained in the press release cancelling the season was a precursor announcement of a potential, one-off, fall season. This would be challenging, with the large amount of college players that participate in the league, but it certainly kept up hopes that amatuer women’s soccer would be seen in 2020. However, much like the NPSL, the league decided to keep the now cancelled 2020 season fees, $3,500 per club, but offering only $1,000 credit for 2021 (or the potential fall league). Unlike the NPSL, Sean Jones got ahead of this story and gave the logic and reasoning behind the decision, which staunched the bleeding a bit.
Better, but not perfect - kept in front of the story, prepped a fan pleaser, did damage control. All in all, a mixed bag.
How it Happened: The UWS was great at keeping their clubs updated on the situation. Kudos on that. The league ran the clock out on this one, hoping to find a way to fit in a season. On March 12th, the league continued to plan on a season. On the 20th, the announced that the schedule would be adjusted. On April 4th, the league announced they still intended to play a 2020 season. However, on June 9th, the season was called and the league announced the regular 2020 season wasn’t going to happen. They just announced (June 12th) the UWS National Cup. As of today, seven teams are participating and the tournament will be hosted in Texas by FC Austin Elite.
The Aftermath: The big benefit of waiting until the last possible moment to cancel the season was that the UWS had learned from the missteps made by the other national amateur leagues. Every league that had given severely limited credit had been raked over the coals on social media. UWS, in a move their own press release called “bucking the trend,” the league announced they would be giving their clubs “approximately 80% credit towards next season’s fees.” And don’t think that last line of the press release isn’t an invite to other amatuer woso clubs “United Women’s Soccer looks forward to returning even stronger in 2021 with a full season of high level competition.”
I have two major complaints. One is that the league could have shown more leadership in cancelling the season earlier. Felt like it dragged out about two weeks longer than it should have. The other complaint is the inherent risks that come with playing soccer without the payroll to establish strong safety protocols with rigorous testing.
Close, very close - good communication, learned from other leagues’ mistakes, took care of clubs. Should have called it earlier.
How it Happened: The UPSL has, at times, struggled in moving with agility in public relations. I say this as a guy who emails the league looking for information on the regular. They are polite, but I’m almost always told, “we’re working on that.”
The league announced they would postpone the season on March 25th, using similar logic to the NPSL. The date the UPSL gave was May 2nd, which many scoffed at for being way too early for resuming play. Then an announcement came out on May 15th that league play would resume, in limited scope, on June 20th. Some states won’t allow play at this point, so those clubs won’t be participating. However, league powerhouse states like Florida and Texas, with governors set on reopening the economy, would be up and running. The league did stipulate that “The intention is to run a 10-game regular season ending the weekend of August 22-23 followed by two weekends of play-off competition, the second of those being Regional Finals on the weekend of September 5-7. Once participating divisions and teams are known, the play-off structure and season schedule will be released. This will occur no later than Thursday, June 11.”
The Aftermath: And this is the big gamble that I’ve discussed on at least 4 podcasts at this point. What happens if there’s a team infection scenario? Or if a player potentially dies from this? Or a fan gets sick from attending a match? Unlike the big professional leagues, the UPSL can’t have the same level of safety protocols. It’s a gamble, but will it pay off. That remains to be seen.
We just don’t know yet. Good communication, but with play about to resume, we shall see if the gamble pays off.