the predictions are that with the emergence of another USA Pro womens league that the best players over here will be lured away to the US....will they?

Most of them are settled with jobs/families etc... Unless one of the clubs asks for a specific player the league here will be fine. I can't see any on the Arsenal girls going over if what Emma B said during the world cup is anything to go by.

Some may wait to see how good this league is going to be and if it's here to stay.

a recent report I read, indicates that our womens league is heading for a shake up to make it more competitive ( 8 teams only in the PL ) and a limit of internationals a club can have....Arsenal have 15 at the moment!! ish....

If they limit the Internationals than Arsenal are in big trouble. The only problem with the league in my book is when it is played. Going up against the men is costing them , if they put to the summer , say April til August/September it would be better.

is one of the options but its not for me..its a winter sport and there should be an opportunity for the women to play in winter.....my mission is to get the average home gates up to at least 400...maybe , they can build their own stadium, now that would be great eh..

If some of them do go the USA for a while , there will always be new young talent coming up to fill their places and play at the highest domestic level. England is full of great young players who could become the stars of an English Premier League. The U-19 and U-17 teams are full of quality and the National Acdemy at Loughboro is a facility which will help produce more and more of these players. I think the Premier League will continue to grow in this country.

me.....

I don't see the EPL crumbling due to the new US league. We have to remember that football in America is not a big sport (granted it's growing currently, but how long will that last for and how big will it get?). The previous women's professional league failed once before after 3 years which isn't anything to be proud of. That league was also riding the coattails of the massive success in the 1999 Women's World Cup. This time around they will be riding the coattails of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. A big difference this time around though, is that the US Women's are not as strong as they were in 1999. If they win the Gold, I could see the popularity increasing (for the time being); however, if they fail to win the Gold, I don't see much change in form from the current fan base.

Who's to say that this league will not fold in a similar fashion to the previous after a couple years? Of course now they have the backing of Major League Soccer (MLS), but MLS isn't doing too well in their own right either (when it comes to profits). Profits and fan base will be the key to keeping this league operational. It's a long ways away before this league will be able to compete with the EPL and/or other leagues in Europe.

To further put the US league below the EPL is that it's not as organized as it is in Europe. There isn't a 'UEFA cup among leagues in different countries', there isn't the support from the fans like there is over in Europe and so forth. There probably won't be any cup tournaments either like the League Cup or FA Cup (maybe one, to include the lower league).

If I was an established player in an established league, I wouldn't jump ship to a league that has just arisen from ashes. There's no guarantee that the new US league will last 3 or 5 or even more years. It's folded once due to loss in profits and a fan base that dwindled through the years. Unfortunately, it can happen again.

money might talk.....remember the shed loads of British players that came towards the end of their careers over here and cashed in...along with Pele, Cruyff....Becks.............some of our 'older' players who have done it all, eaten all the pies, seen the movies, got all the t-shirts...might be tempted to make a fast buck and an extra large cheeseburger...with fries..have a nice day , ma'am........no?

I doubt the money will be there like it is for the men's. Even the men's don't really have the money. The days of Pele in the North American Soccer League (NASL) brought death to the league. Owners were getting carried away with their spending to bring these big name players into the league, and the fan base dwindled after a couple years and the league folded due to financial debt.

With the current MLS, there is a salary cap where the wages of the players can not exceed (it's currently at around $2.2m. However, they brought in a designator player slot (aka Beckham rule) in order to bring players of larger salaries into the fold. (Each club starts with 1 slot, but they can trade for additional slots), $400,000 of their salary goes towards the salary cap, the rest of it is exempt.

I could maybe see some of the older women players coming over to the new league, but in no way, will that cause the EPL to crumble.

sounds very re-assuring to me......i do think they will learn from the mistakes made the last time though.....

Here is some more info that will re-assure you.

The original league, Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was initially given a $40 million budget to last for 5 years. That budget was blown after the first year. Players took salary cuts of up to 30% for the final season, with the founding players (who also held an equity stake in the league) taking the largest cuts, that was not enough to bring expenses under control.

That being said, I doubt they'll make the same mistake this time around. They will most likely follow in the footsteps of the MLS when it comes to financial terms and building the league. (The MLS is also in debt of around $350 million since it's first season in 1996.) But the main cause of the financial debt they got into was due to lack of a strong fan base. The mens struggle to keep a fan base, the women will have an even harder time to keep a fan base.