The Women's United Soccer Association, the cable-centric soccer league that
will begin its rookie season next month, has kicked off its inaugural
advertising campaign.
TV and print ads for the eight-team WUSA, which debuts April 14, began
rolling in metro Washington, D.C., earlier this week, WUSA chief of television
and marketing Lee Berke said.
A quartet of 30-second spots -- spotlighting Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie
Foudy, Tiffeny Milbrett and Kristine Lilly, among others -- are now airing on
networks carried by Cox Communications Inc. in northern Virginia and by Comcast
Corp. in the District of Columbia and suburban Maryland.
The avails can be found on such channels as A&E Network, Animal Planet,
Black Entertainment Television, Cartoon Network, ESPN, Lifetime Television, MTV:
Music Television, Nickelodeon, USA Network and TNN: The National Network.
The commercials are also scheduled to run on systems in other markets owned
by Cox, Comcast and Time Warner Cable before breaking nationally in April on
Discovery Channel, Turner Network Television and CNN/SI. The two Turner Networks
division channels are the national cable carriers for the fledgling circuit.
Print advertising for the WUSA also broke this week in the Washington area
with full-page insertions in The Washington Post, The Washington
Times and The Baltimore Sun. National ads are slated for USA
Today and Sports Illustrated.
In addition to the aforementioned notables and other U.S. National Team
members, the WUSA will feature the crème de la crème of teams from Norway,
China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Sweden and Canada that competed in the 1999 World
Cup and 2000 Olympics.
WUSA investors include Discovery Communications Inc. chairman and CEO John
Hendricks, former Continental Cablevision Inc. chairman and CEO Amos Hostetter,
Comcast, Cox Enterprises Inc., Cox Communications and Time Warner
Cable.
