A year of financial hardship ended optimistically for Women's Professional Soccer, a league trying to survive a marketplace often unkind to female athletes.
The fledging enterprise received a boost last weekend with a near-sellout crowd of 5,228 for its title match won by FC Gold Pride at Hayward's Pioneer Stadium.
Now comes the heavy lifting.
Launched in 2009 during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, WPS saw attendance plummet by 18 percent this year, teams in Los Angeles and St. Louis fold and the departure of league founder Tonya Antonucci as commissioner.
"The second year is traditionally the sophomore slump for all sports leagues -- we've experienced ours," said Antonucci, who attributed the attendance decline to the World Cup in South Africa and midseason schedule changes because of St. Louis folding.
WPS limps into its third season with cost-cutting initiatives and a new chief executive determined to outlast a terrible economy and build stability.
It's a confounding undertaking 38 years after the passage of Title IX, the landmark legislation that opened the door for women's participation in sports. In an era when thousands of girls across the country are playing sports, the question of equity has given way to market forces.