Atlanta
The nation’s only professional women’s soccer league shut down this week, unable to muster enough money to mount a fourth season. The Women’s United Soccer Association lost $19 million in the 2003 season, which ended last month. With attendance falling, the league’s owners had little luck luring corporate sponsors to shore up their finances. The eight teams of the WUSA attracted many of the best female soccer players in the world, including World Cup champions Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain. Shannon Boxx, a midfielder for the New York Power, said the loss of the WUSA would be “devastating” for women’s soccer. “After college,” she said, “there is no place to play.”
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