WOMEN’S SOCCER LEAGUE SEARCHES OUT SUGAR DADDYS: ESPNSoccernet.com reports that plans are in place for the WUSA women’s pro soccer league to relaunch with as many as eight teams next year.

Only three investors will likely own all the teams, and Tonya Antonucci, who is the CEO of something called the Women’s Soccer Inititative, is “optimistic that she’ll soon get enough additional signatures to relaunch the league in Spring 2008 with a minimum of eight teams.”

AEG, which owns five MLS teams, is likely to be one of the investors, and Antonucci said that 11 markets in which the league will likely eventually field clubs are Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, DC, New York, Rochester, Atlanta, San Diego and Cary, North Carolina.

United Soccer League Atlanta Silverbacks Owner Boris Jerkunica, along with every other breathing human in the hemisphere, thinks the relaunch will be doomed: “Our worry is that (the attendance) is not going to be as high, due to the women’s national team not being as popular.

“There is also a lack of household stars. The average person knows Mia Hamm. I don’t think the average person knows anyone on the national team now.”

I guess Jerkunica has never been on a major college campus, where one can observe the fraudulent wonderment that is Title IX.

I know you know that the only hope for the league is to find benefactors willing to subsidize the same politically-correct model as Title IX (and David Stern’s rapidly-cratering WNBA). In other words, find enough saps who are willing to throwing millions down a rathole with no hope for any return (financial or otherwise) on their investment.

Those finances sound a lot like the Canadian healthcare system, or more specifically, the way business is transacted at various gentlemen’s clubs throughout this great land. I’m guessing that for a mere (hands-free) lapdance, Heather could get the WUSA restarted in a jiff.

In related news, the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER reports that WNBA Charlotte Sting folded this week and the HOUSTON CHRONCILE notes that the once model WNBA franchise in Houston has been put up for sale.