Unless each team in Women's Professional Soccer is able to show they have over $2 million in an escrow fund by November 15 to be able to operate their franchise, the two-year-old league could wind up folding.
In a statement on the league's website (http://www.womensprosoccer.com/), the league announced it was cancelling Wednesday's planned expansion draft to stock players for their expected expansion team in Western New York and said the free agent period would start on the aforementioned date.
WPS said as part of a restructuring plan implemented late last year, all teams must have reserve funds available to operate for the 2011 season and some teams are now scrambling to find new sponsors or new owners to inject the money into their franchises.
In the 2010 seaso, the league lost their 2009 champion Los Angeles Sol due to the inability of finding new ownership, and financial issues caused the St. Louis Athletica to fold during the season, forcing players to be drafted onto other teams for the remainder of the season.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Tuesday the current defending champion, FC Gold Pride, who put together an incredible worst-to-first season in 2010, could be on the verge of folding as are the Washington Freedom.
The league says they could operate successfully with both franchises out and the Western New York franchise in, giving it six teams for the 2011 season.
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