The Maryland Capitols FC, the newest Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) franchise, is aiming to carry on the legacy of the WPS Washington Freedom in the D.C. Metro and Maryland area in 2012. Maryland Capitols already roster six former Freedom players and top international and college players, but are still scouting for depth. Owner and CEO David Jones is confident that the talent level is as high as any WPS team and that the Capitols will feature in the 2012 WPSL Championship.
Jones, also Director and CEO of Global Soccer Network USA, is a former youth player at Manchester United with a professional playing career in England from 1976-1994 and who has coached at clubs till the present. Jones has already arranged for a local cable television station to broadcast two games a week and has a kit sponsor in GK1 Sports, owned by Tony Meola, a former teammate of Jones. The Maryland Capitols will play at Prince George Sports and Learning complex.
Although five-team Division 1 WPS is struggling in 2012, the 80-team WPSL is planning to launch a professional soccer league in 2013, as is the W-League.
Jones spoke with me about the Maryland Capitol's impressive roster and aspirations, the perilous future of WPS and the MLS clubs' increasing affiliation with women's teams.
Interview with David Jones
LE: Tell me where the Maryland Capitols are right now.
Jones: I’d say the 15 or 16 players we have committed are about the same level as WPS. I’ve got six Washington Freedom alumni and five or six internationals are going to join us and the 11 I'd start, I’d put up against anybody.
I’ve got the Israeli U-23 international goalkeeper Hanit Schwartz and Churchill O’Connell, the No. 2 keeper at the University of Virginia. For a WPSL season, it’s pointless taking three keepers because they’re not going to get enough games.
At the back I’ve got Emily Janss who played for Washington Freedom, Lauren Hallauer who played for Bay Area Breeze last year and Lisa Zanti at left back who also played for Freedom. And I’ve got Anabel Jimenez, who played for Washington Freedom, Dani Sofer who’s the Israeli U-23 captain, Ali Andrzejewski who played for Washington Freedom and the U.S. U-23 National Team, and Christie Ehrhardt, who played for the Freedom. We’re stacked and I’d put them up against anybody, but I’m looking for depth. What I’m looking for right now is a left-footed defender, three defenders actually, one who can play sweeper in place of Emily in case there’s an injury. I’ve got ten spots open on the roster and looking to fill them with quality.
[WPS coaches] Paul Riley, Lisa Cole and Jim Gabarra have talked about having exhibition games against us [Maryland Capitols] in their bye weeks.
LE: Will you scrimmage against D.C. United Women?
Jones: They play in the W-League and we were hoping to get a game, but the problem is that the W-League and the WPSL are not going to condone an official exhibition or any inter-League games between the two because they’re competitive leagues.
LE: How do you feel about that?
Jones: Hey, we’re in the same area – I’m all for competitive games, no matter who, that’s why I’m hoping to arrange two or three games against WPS teams.
LE: What was the issue about the exclusivity area of the D.C. United Women?
Jones: As far as I understand it, DC United Women are affiliated with the MLS D.C. United, but they play their games in Maryland at the Maryland SoccerPlex. I inquired about going into the W-League initially, but it doesn’t make any sense for us. The W-League is doing things differently than WPSL.
As far as I know, the W-League initiate a 50-mile radius between franchises. So the problem is that we are in Maryland seven to eight miles away from the center of DC. The WPSL doesn’t enforce a 50-mile radius, it’s a 30-mile radius from the closest team, so that’s Chesapeake Charge which is about 30 miles away, which is why that works out for us.
LE: What do you think about WPS going forward this year with only five teams?
Jones: I think they’ve got to be really careful. I don’t want to sound conflicting, but I think the way forward for WPS teams is a little bit like D.C. United. What they’ve done is affiliate with an MLS team and the MLS teams should take on a little bit more responsibility like teams have done in England. They might not completely finance a women’s team, but certainly back the teams. If MLS teams did that and had a women’s team in line with whatever they’re doing, the game would take on a bit more of a stronghold than what it’s doing right now.
WPS has got five teams and three years ago they had eight teams. They could come out of [the Dan Borislow lawsuit] unscathed or it could end up causing more and more problems financially and logistically, not just for WPS as a whole, but the teams, the players and everything else. It’s not a good situation for anybody.
For me, I don’t see how a national, professional league can survive on five teams alone, I don’t see how that’s possible. You start with eight teams and progress to ten. Maybe what they need to do is look at some of the better run WPSL and W-League teams and bring them on board and support the infrastructure a little bit better rather than going right to the top and have no infrastructure underneath it. I don’t know how a national, professional five-team league can establish a stronghold, but I’m all for a women’s professional league. I just think things can be implemented with MLS clubs and they could maybe take on the responsibility of having a women’s MLS team within their organization.
LE: If Borislow does force his way back into the League, do you think WPS will disband leaving all their players in the wind, or is that a too extreme scenario?
Jones: I think there’s been too much investment and too much going on for that to happen. You'd have to hope that there’s going to be a compromise. This isn’t about egos, this isn’t about owners, it’s about the players, it’s about establishing the best level of professional soccer for women in this country. Anything that happens to the detriment of that is going to cause irreparable damage to the women’s game for many years to come.
WPS has a sustainable market, but there has to be some infrastructure underneath to help support it. If you don’t have that and you rely solely on one-person investor clubs - you see that a lot with the clubs in England. You have one person who’s solely the investor for a club, they put loads of money into it, they get the best players around. Then all of a sudden they pick up the soccer ball and go home because they’re pissed off about something and the next minute you have no means of sustaining the club and they go out of business. You have to have the infrastructure in place and don’t solely rely only on one person.
Can WPS survive this? Absolutely. Can they get through it? Without a doubt. But I think that there has to be some lessons learned from all sides with all that’s gone on.
LE: Tell me about your TV broadcast strategy.
Jones: We have a TV contract with Prince George’s Community TV where we have our games screened twice a week. That’s just a local community cable TV station [100,000-175,000 households], so we build that local brand and establish locally and identify the players that have played with the Freedom and the top quality college players. Is it right for everybody? I don’t know. But everyone - the Maryland Capitols, the WPSL, the W-League and WPS - everyone can make improvements.
LE: What kind of support are you giving Maryland Capitol FC players?
Jones: We have the resources to provide housing and we have camps in the summer and sponsors to provide employment and jobs for them for expenses while they’re here playing and we have a reserve team that plays in Washington Area Women’s League. We’re trying to be as professional off the field as we can possibly be on the field without paying players or ruining their college eligibility.
But we're not just college players, we’re looking for free agent players who haven’t been drafted or retained and don’t want to go abroad and want to carry on playing at a high level in the U.S. We’ll hold tryouts in early March to see who else is out there. With our quality, by the end of the season we should be challenging for the WPSL Championship.
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