Women's Professional Football Enters Its Third Frame
The Women's American Football League (WAFL) Rolls Out Its 2001-2002 Season With Attendance Numbers That Rival the af2.

Kathy Johnson
MinorLeagueNews.com

10.29.01 - It's smash-mouth, NFL-rules, full-contact, tackle football, and it's played by women. You've never heard of the Women's American Football League? Then here's a primer:

The WAFL, founded in 1998, kicked off a pre-season game between  the Tacoma Majestics and the Seattle Warbirds October 27, 2001. The regular season begins November 3rd.

A long way from half-time entertainment, in an era where the WNBA has made great inroads into the box office, women's tackle football is an idea whose time has come.

Consisting of  two conferences and five divisions, the WAFL has 16 teams signed and ready to go.

The teams play within their conferences and divisions before advancing to the playoffs and the World Women's Football Championship Game to be held on February 9, 2002.

The WAFL is a merger of many teams, leagues, and administrators with years of experience in women's tackle football, flag football, pro sports, semi-pro football, college, and high school athletics.

All are committed to adhering to the WAFL mission of creating a women's football league with a national scope.

Men who believe that women can't play contact football will be surprised by the WAFL. The women's version of this game is played by the same rules as men's: It's full-contact, tackle football.

"The same terminology is used for women's football as for men's. They are told to "Go get your MAN!"," says Carter Turner, Media Relations Director for the WAFL.

"The only difference there may be between men's and women's football is to cut a couple of tenths of a second off their speed, but you still have the same game," Turner observes.

At this point, the teams only have local support, while the Nikes and Reeboks sit back and watch to see how well the WAFL sells with the fans. The teams take care of their own publicity, ticket sales, and marketing.

Where on earth do these women play ball? High school stadiums, memorial stadiums, any venue that holds about 10,000 people.

The turnstiles ring in about 2,000 to 6,000 fans per game, according to the WAFL. That puts them in the same ballpark as men's leagues like arenafootball2 and the IPFL.

The Age-Old Debate

Can women really play football as well as men?  "The beauty of this sport is that there is a position out there for every body type," Turner tells MLN. "These women come from other sports such as rugby, flag football, basketball, as well as others. So in answer to the question posed, I'd say why not?"

More and more young women on America's college and university campuses are pushing for the opportunity to play football. The comment critique of football femmes on the field has been that they are depriving some earnest young male the opportunity for a shot at the NFL, and that there is no professional track for women.

The third season of the WAFL seeks to debunk that myth. The league is bigger and stronger than before, having absorbed the Women's Professional Football League (WPFL). Women's Professional Football boasts a growing national audience of fans, and spans the country from shore to shore.

Still, the WAFL has a long way to go to earn respect. There is no feeder of NCAA Division I schools and a dedicated college program. The league itself is more of a loose coalition of teams than a solid, single-entity. The media relations of several teams borders on the amateur, with dead contacts or highly amateur media relations people answering press inquiries.

Until the league spends more on improving its image, many sponsors and naysaying, predominantly male, media members in WAFL markets may still not consider the league "prime time" for many years to come.

It will be up to the fans of women's professional sports to drive the attendance forward to a point where it comes into its own.

It should be noted that MLN supports these early stages of this exciting brand of women's sports, and will be covering the WAFL regularly throughout the season.