Women's Premier Soccer League News

Acrobat Format

MONTHLY CONFERENCE CALL

February 11, 2004
6:00 PM PST/7:00 PM MST/8:00 PM CST/9:00 PM EST

 

TEAMS REPRESENTED

  1. Ajax Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) - Jeff Thomas
  2. California Storm (Sacramento, CA) - Jerry Zanelli
  3. Central California Gold (Escalon, CA) ö Luciano Silviera
  4. Denver Diamonds (Denver, CO) - Scott Dedycker
  5. Elk Grove Pride (Elk Grove, CA) - Frank Vellutini
  6. Houston Stars (Houston, TX) ö Luis Labastida
  7. Houston Tornados (Houston, TX) ö Rose Leverton
  8. Las Vegas Tabagators (Las Vegas, NV) ö Guy Hobbs
  9. Maryland Pepsi Pride (Millersville, MD) ö Jack Wetherson
  10. New England Mutiny (Springfield, MA) ö Joe Ferrara
  11. Northern California Blues (San Jose-Santa Cruz, CA) ö Tom Wilson
  12. Rhode Island Rays (Wakefield, RI) ö James Kelly
  13. San Diego WFC (San Diego, CA) - Lu Snyder
  14. San Francisco Nighthawks (San Francisco, CA) ö Dick Cross
  15. Utah Spiders (Salt Lake City, UT) ö Jamie Schock

TEAMS NOT REPRESENTED 

  1. East Bay Power (Orinda, CA) - Ernesto Silva

  2. Steel City Sparks (Pittsburgh, PA) ö John Kowalski

GUESTS

  1. Dave Simmons ö League Referee Assignor

  1. Richard Cross motions and Jack Wetherson seconds that the league pay for Colette Hanlon to attend the USSF AGM in New York, NY March 3-6, 2004, and that the league pay for Joe Ferarraâs hotel costs as well. The motion carries.
  2. James Kelly motions and Frank Vellutini seconds that the league use cafepress.com services for league merchandise.
  3. Championship tournament bids are due by February 15th, 2004. The California Storm is placing a bid to have the tournament in Folsom, CA at Folsom High School. It is a new stadium with an all weather field (120x70).
  4. The league will release a statement and request for an apology from FIFAâs president Sepp Blatter regarding his comments about womenâs soccer.
  5. The deadline for new teams to commit to the league will be extended to March 8th. After then, teams will only be allowed to enter provisionally.
  6. The league will be stressing publicity this season. We strongly ask that all teams submit any and all press releases to the league. News to submit includes: important player transactions, sponsors acquired, high profile games (Japanese National Team playing Storm and Nighthawks for example), and anything else that you feel would boost the leagueâs image.
  7. The Annual Commitment Forms still need to be signed by several teams. We ask that these be sent to the league by the end of this week.
  8. It is proposed that we challenge the W-League to a Championship game in order to squash their public declarations about being the ãbetterä league. It is proposed that this challenge be announced at the USSF AGM in March.
  9. Several teams have not yet met the deadlines for submitting league fee payments. These balances must be paid by the end of the week.
  10. The San Francisco Nighthawks and California Storm will be playing the Japanese National Team March 17th and 20th respectively.
  11. Jeff Thomas, of the legislative committee, has requested that the wording for Law B3 be changed. It was decided that it shall now read ãAs a courtesy, the visiting team shall submit a proposed roster to the home team by noon Fridayä instead of ãThe game day roster must be submitted to the home team by noon Friday.ä This will give visiting teams more flexibility.
  12. The schedule will be created this weekend while at the Silver Mug Tournament. Jerry proposes that their be 2 divisions in the West/Central:
    1. Denver Diamonds, Denver Kickers, Las Vegas Tabagators, Ajax of Southern California, San Diego WFC, Houston Tornados, SWC Houston Stars.
    2. San Francisco Nighthawks, East Bay Power, Central California Gold, Elk Grove Pride, California Storm, Northern California Blues, Utah Spiders

Tom Wilson asked if the divisions as proposed are set. Jerry Zanelli said yes.

Jeff Thomas proposed that we use a round robin based schedule where everyone plays everyone else once. Both proposals will be considered when the schedule is created.

The Board discussed the options of a 16 game versus a 19 game schedule.  The group developing the schedule will attempt both options and then submit the resulting preliminary schedule to the Board for approval.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 7:16 PM PST.

The next monthly conference call is scheduled for March 10, 2004.

Colette Hanlon
Secretary

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