It is a great national embarrassment that Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) suspended operations for the upcoming season. The lawsuit from former WPS owner Dan Borislow (who also owns MagicJack) was the two-ton truck that "broke the camel's back."

It is disappointing to read comments on message boards trying to excuse the completely unprofessional conduct of Borislow.

His conduct would not have been accepted in the English Premier League or any other serious sports league. It seems his ego was stroked to see this league fold right before the Olympics.

It is a travesty of errors that the judge in the lawsuit sided with Borislow, which prolonged this sad saga over supposed "due process" claims. But it shows the wisdom of Major League Baseball having the "best interests" clause in their Commissioner's contract.

Of course, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has rarely had to use that clause. He just uses the threat of it from time to time to basically get what he wants. The real point of the clause is to take emergency action when a situation comes up that is outside his other powers but requires his involvement.

With such a clause, the WPS could have had the power to do what was in the best interest of the league and not have any challenge stand up in court.

WPS made a series of wrong moves; allowing Borislow in the league was the worst and last of them. Given their current Commissioner, Jennifer O'Sullivan, was once Vice-president of Legal and Labor Affairs for the Arena Football League (AFL) makes this even more unacceptable.

AFL had to go dormant for a year, and in the arena/indoor football world, there are a plethora of unsavory characters in the sport, albeit mostly in leagues outside AFL.

Certainly O'Sullivan should have observed the "red flags" in that sport and put in better protocol to protect WPS legally in case a "tarzan owner" snuck through the cracks.

But the biggest blame for all of this should fall on the shoulders of the United States Soccer Federation. Their steadfast refusal to make requirements of promotion and relegation in soccer has a lot to do with why the league folded.

There should have been a stated requirement for "pro-rel" as a condition of the league being allowed to start to begin with.

Without the organic grassroots support that promotion and relegation brings, leagues will invariably have to "roll the dice" on owners they may not necessarily approve of otherwise.

And why should anyone who does not live in a WPS city support a WPS team? (This question can apply to Major League Soccer as well.)

As I noted in my column last November, "USSF needs its own Title IX to save WPS," Japan's L-League is a semi-professional women's league, but yet has promotion and relegation, with 10 teams in the top tier and 12 teams in the second tier. And who won the last Women's World Cup again?

Now that two leagues have failed under the "closed" system, the USSF needs to finally accept reality and state that any new women's league must implement a plan for an eventual path to promotion and relegation. It cannot be optional.

WPS should wither on a vine. If they try to come back next year, Borislow will have them bankrupted by continuing this mad lawsuit that will only hurt women's soccer, so he can feel good about himself. It is better to come up with a totally new league with totally new management.

To this end I once again propose a name: American Premier League. (I own the domain www.americanpremierleague.com and I'm willing to give it up if this happens.) It would take at least two years to properly set the APL up, and frankly, it may only start on one side of the country at first.

But by deliberate planning, it would be easier to work with local sports commissions and local governments to bring in the proper infrastructure to make the new APL successful.

For starters, a new team in a city needs to have plans to develop their own academies, and frankly propose taking over the youth and adult soccer programs from the local governments. In other countries, the governments do not run youth soccer, academies from teams do.

Philadelphia has over 550 girls soccer teams with over 9,200 girls in the largest league, so the attendance for their WPS team should have been far better. But there was no official relationship between the team and the youth programs, maybe marketing ones only.  

(The story also noted over 3.8 million youth players, and possibly more girls playing soccer in America than all other countries combined.)

There needs to be a far more direct relationship to be able to guide the players to support the pro team when they are playing, even if it means local soccer interests giving up power for the good of the sport.

It may turn out some private groups running youth soccer programs may have to be given a small stake in the new team.

Second, by networking with local sports commissions, and giving at least two years lead-time, the proposed American Premier League can offer a "carrot" by saying the first eight cities who "play ball" and help get owners and venues set up will start in the first tier, and the other teams will start in the second tier.

The second tier can be 8-12 teams, the number doesn't matter as much as the idea. Down the road, expansion teams will have to start in the second tier and work to earn promotion.

This will get local soccer communities across the east coast far more motivated to organize to help get a team started. No matter what tier the teams start in, there is emotional ownership of the teams and perhaps offers for community ownership in a minority stake in each team as well.

Offering shares of stock for a part of the team can raise initial funds and pretty much guarantee the team will never move to another city.

Third, many football stadiums are unused in the spring and summer months, yet taxpayers pay for these venues year-round. The APL can exploit this by asking the local sports commissions for a break in rent starting out.

There's no need for "soccer-specific stadiums" in most cities, which would be paid by resentful taxpayers. No corporate welfare like with the NFL owners demanding taxpayers pay for their palaces. Just help get the team's "foot in the door."

The only other thing an APL team might need is an artificial turf system installed based on other tenants.

Newer technologies offer quick interchange systems from a turf system like at Dallas Cowboys Stadium (where one field can be lined for football and one for soccer, and can be switched inside a day), and cooler-field technologies (one company doesn't even use rubber infill which can get hot, they use an organic infill of crushed coconut shells and cork, and it works).

Such forward-thinking will benefit multiple sports and make it far more palatable for taxpayers than a new stadium.

Of course, not every city has that issue. For example, Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, S.C., is one of a few stadiums that could easily host a professional women's team. Major League Soccer teams have venues built by taxpayers that could easily host a women's team.

Although, I think it would be a huge mistake to suggest "double-headers" for both teams. They have to be treated as separate entities with frankly separate ownership.

Yes, it can be done. It is just that the right approach has not been put in, the approach that works in other countries, especially Japan.

Imagine what would happen if the APL approach was tried and it worked. It would be revolutionary for American team sports. (By the way, promotion and relegation is used in American greyhound racing every day, a billion dollar a year business.)

Which leads me to think this is the last thing MLS wants. They want "McSoccer" and will not change until USSF or FIFA forces them to.

FIFA does share some of the blame for not being more forceful in demanding that the USSF (and MLS) join the rest of the adult football world. Maybe they should suggest no more World Cups to be hosted in America again, men or women, until we change course?

There are no more excuses. Our top lady players will be forced to play in England, Japan or elsewhere this year, not to be seen by millions of American girls playing soccer, or American soccer fans in general. It is time to pull the plug on WPS officially.

There is no reason to make the same mistakes a third time. Why not go ahead and really see if the system that works in every other serious soccer nation will work here?  Our lady soccer players deserve the chance to dream big.

The American Premier League can be what we should have done all along. 

(I am asking readers to please forward this article to friends and @ussoccer and @seppblatter. Thank you.)