The season runs from early April to late June, with each team playing around eight games (one per week with some bye weeks thrown in). There is a total of 11 weeks in the season with a total of 135 games.
I have yet to see some attendance figures for teams, but I'm still looking.
Independent Women's Football League
The IWFL was founded in 2000 and began play in 2001. They currently have 51 total teams, broken up into two tiers and three X teams. Tier I has 24 teams, Tier II has 24 and then there's three X teams. I have yet to figure out what the X teams are supposed to be.
Tier I is broken into the usual Eastern/Western conferences with three divisions (for each conference) of usually four teams (sometimes more or less). Tier II has no conferences or divisions; all the teams are just one long list. There is talk of expanding even further in the next year for both tiers.
There are ten weeks in the season with each team playing eight games. The season runs from early April to early June (sound kind of familiar?) with a late July Championship weekend. Each tier has their own championship and there is an All-Star Game. This league also states there is over 1,600 women playing in these 41 teams.
So, upon looking at the current leagues in women's football, it's clear there needs to be some restructuring and organization if you league owners want to succeed. Just look at the NFL; they had competition and you see how that turned out. It's hard to have two professional leagues in one country competing against each other.
First, it means the great talent is spread thin. Second, fans are divided up with all the teams and leagues. Lastly, sponsors are harder to get if there are four different leagues competing for them.
What's needed is a new system that works for all the leagues, owners, players, and fans. That's what I will discuss in my next letter.
Till then,
Dominica Stewart
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete