Question

Research the case of the Women’s United Soccer Association. Compare and contrast the ideas of flexibility, agility, tunnel vision, and trial-and-error methods of strategic thinking with this case.

Answer 1

PLEASE LIKE THIS ANSWER, IT HELPS ME A LOT. THANK YOU!!!

Research the case of the Women’s United Soccer Association. Compare and contrast the ideas of flexibility, agility, tunnel vision, and trial-and-error methods of strategic thinking with this case.

The International Hockey League and the Women's United Soccer Association have struggled with their organizations, but the results have been identical since the two ligas were disbanded. "After the World Cup 1999, there were 8 teams in WUSA across the United States," the Women's United Soccer Association was born. "At the time, there was no professional female football league in the United States , meaning the American women only had the ability to play in the national team. The "winter" was between April and August and every team played 22 matches, followed by a series of playoff and the Founders Cup league championship. Unfortunately, the league had to be disbanded after just three seasons because of rising attendance, TV and lack of funding.

The International Hockey League on the other hand, ran from 1945 to 2001. The IHL began as a four-team semi-professional league with teams located in Windsor and Detroit.Unlike the WUSA, the IHL experienced a lot of flexibility especially in the number of teams in any given season could be different than the previous season. Since the number of teams changed so frequently, the IHL had to be very agile to keep up with all the changes while still bringing in a profit. One thing that the IHL did that the WUSA could not was expanding into the major markets that they were not already in.

In fact, “Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing into the mid-90s, the IHL expanded into major markets such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Francisco,” Not only did the IHL expand, but the quality of play increased so much that, “Many IHL teams became the top farm teams of NHL teams,”.

The IHL did end in a similar way to the WUSA because they began to lag money particularly in markets with already an NHL team. However, the IHL had smaller business teams until the big expansions eventually decided to leave the HIL and move on to the lower level leages. Some teams on the NHL markets have clearly put a significant "strain on ties," After the lockout in the 1994-1995 NHL season, many teams decided to shift, “their affiliations to the AHL, and by 1997–98, only four of 18 IHL teams had NHL affiliations,”.Since many teams lost their subsidized salaries after the NHL teams left them, the league started hemorrhaging money quickly and eventually ended up disbanding after the 2000-2001 season concluded.

Sustainability had become quite challenging for both leagues. The IHL lasted even longer than the WUSA, but for both leagues the outcome was the same. The IHL was more versatile than the WUSA, since both the expansions and the teams leaving the league were controlled. In three seasons, since they were not productive enough to afford it, the WUSA has never been trying to extend their ligue. The WUSA was also not agile, as they were unable to deal with any kind of slump or TV ratings.

The IHL was very versatile as it grew rapidly and became a top agricultural team for NHL teams at the same stage as the AHL. WUSA never seemed to be out of the hole, since they were in one place and could not find ways of popularizing their liga with the public. It was all but a forgone conclusion that WUSA was made for after they lost their TV contracts. The IHL had never had to face a challenge for WUSA.

The World Cup 1999, which was the first season, was a success for WUSA, but with the lack of visibility in national television it wasn't viable. WUSA sought to popularize women's soccer. The IHL focused so much on expanding the league as rapidly and as far as it could, that the league ended eventually. The vision of the tunnel that the IHL had in its brief existence was no longer something the WUSA witnessed. Since the IHL grew so rapidly, however, it allowed them to perform some tests and errors.

You could relocate several teams to market areas more desirable for the IHL team from markets that did not perform well. They have not only experimented with the various markets for their teams, they have also had to deal with changes in the number of teams and lose some NHL players for periods. Ultimately, this caused IHL to compete directly with NHL which led to its destruction.