L.A. Sol folds after one season
The Los Angeles Sol of Women’s Professional Soccer announced Thursday that it is ceasing operations after one season.
The Sol was one of the league’s seven teams in the inaugural WPS season in 2009 but was underfunded and did not attract the crowds it expected to the Home Depot Center in Carson.
One of the team’s co-owners, AEG, has been trying for several months to sell its share of the team without success.
The league hoped it had found another ownership group to take on the Sol, but that plan fell apart at the last minute.
The team featured the world’s top women’s player, Brazilian forward Marta, and reached the WPS final in its only season, losing to New Jersey’s Sky Blue FC in the championship match.
The Sol parted ways with coach Abner Rogers during the off-season, and Charlie Naimo, the team’s general manager, had been serving as interim coach.
The Sol was not included when WPS released part of its 2010 schedule this month, with the league saying Sol games would be revealed later after stadium issues had been settled.
WPS officials said that Sol players will be sent to other WPS teams in a dispersal draft on Feb. 4.
The league also said that Marta, the league’s highest-paid player with a reported $500,000 salary, is expected to return to the WPS.
