ABSTRACT
On 25 February 2009, representatives from the newest incarnation of U.S.
women’s professional soccer explicitly marked their affiliation with the volatile
stock exchange by ringing the closing bell of the NASDAQ stock market. The
new league’s movement toward an altar of capitalism demonstrates its funda-
mental reliance upon capital investment. This relationship is notable for two
reasons. First, Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), which began play in March
2009, emerged following the 2003 failure of the Women’s United Soccer Associ-
ation (WUSA) league, whose collapse was linked to financial mismanagement,
including a reduction in media visibility that ensured a loss of advertising support.
According to sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, ‘The suspension of the WUSA
