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This week, newly appointed WPS CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan and Philadelphia Independence owner David Halstead phoned in to discuss a range of issues.

They shed light on expansion, circumstances surrounding Dan Borislow and magicJack, and refining WPS’s business model.

Jennifer, can you talk about the process behind your appointment? When and how were you first approached?

Jennifer O’Sullivan: [I was first approached] sometime during the summer when the owners had reached out to me to discuss the potential opportunity and I’d say over the course of the summer I had several conversations with them and in-person meetings and interviews with them. Then it all materialized. Finally it was three weeks into September that we finalized the process.

What has the last month been like for you?

J.O.: It’s been extremely busy, quite a whirlwind. There’s been so much to get up to speed on. The offseason is full of exciting stuff going on for the league. For me to get up to speed on all those issues and really get to know the league staff and the owners and everything that everybody’s been working on. It’s been challenging, but quite exciting at the same time.

David, what kind of qualities did you see in Jennifer that appealed her to the Board of Governors?

David Halstead: What Jennifer probably doesn’t even know is that we started following her and we had a little bit of interest in her last year when Tonya Antonucci stepped away. We were going back and forth about reaching out to somebody who was not in the league or staying with [former WPS CEO] Anne-Marie [Eileraas]. Due to time constraints and our complete confidence in Anne-Marie, we went the Anne-Marie route. At that time Jennifer’s name had been floated to us as a fantastic candidate so we held on to that. Jennifer was one of the first ones we spoke to this time around when Anne-Marie made the decision to step away.

We knew of Jennifer’s leadership qualities and knowledge and understanding of the sports industries especially like a small start-up sports industry like we have with WPS and a pragmatic approach to the problems that any sports league is going to face. We knew that she had a legal background and for us that’s very important because as we get our sea legs and try to mature, we have to ground many things in compliance and away standards. We don’t have a lot of precedence and when you don’t have precedence you know that you have to write things down and that it’s going to be changed in short order, but you have a lot of compliance issues that you’re dealing with. Jennifer’s background gave us confidence in that area. Her knowledge in dealing with labor issues and the labor union was very important to us. Her ability to stand up in front of folks and convince them that WPS has got very fantastic things going on is important to us for sponsorship and relationship purposes. It really looked to us like it was going to be a perfect marriage and she had all these skills and characteristics that were important to us to move forward.

Jennifer, given your time with the Arena Football League, you have experience with righting the ship in a struggling sports league. What are some key similarities and differences between the AFL and WPS?

J.O.: One of the big differences with the AFL is that it was very much an established league; it had been around for 20-plus years so it had a pretty significant fan base in a lot of its markets and it had many more teams. We were dealing with 17, 18 teams so that’s a difference from WPS in that it’s very much in its infancy here and has a much smaller ownership group. Some of the similarities are that when you’re dealing with a diverse ownership group you’re going to have very different opinions and ideas. Keeping your owners on the same page is always a challenge but at the same time, what works in one market isn’t necessarily going to work in another. There’s always that balance of trying to maintain what works best for each individual market and what works best for the league. There’s also the similarity that the AFL were always looking for ways to tweak the financial model to make things work, and I think that’s what our owners are still looking to do here. In the AFL, there was a group of owners that were really convinced that they wanted to move toward a single-entity model and there was a group that bought the league’s assets out of bankruptcy and they firmly believed that was the way to go. While our ownership group is willing to explore a lot of options, that’s a very different model that I don’t know that we’ll pursue, but it’s one that’s being looked at as are other ideas and ways that we can continue to strengthen the teams and the league.

As recently as a few days ago, reports surfaced that WPS expansion in Connecticut was “very likely”. What’s the current status of that?

J.O.: We’re continuing to talk with several markets. We’re not announcing the entrance of any other market currently. We’re still in talks with the Hartford market and if we can get them in for 2012 then we’d love to welcome them. But we’re not at a point where we’d be committed to do that yet.

Is a certain timeline in place?

J.O.: I don’t think that we have a specific, hard deadline for that but I definitely think everyone would agree that it would need to be soon so that everybody can ramp up for 2012.

There was word that heading into the 2012 season guidelines had been relaxed in order to make it easier for new franchises to join the league. Is that accurate?

J.O.: We’re always looking at ways to bring in new potential investors and there’s definitely a willingness and an openness from the league to do that, but as it currently stands, if anyone were to join the league it would probably be under the current model.

Has the vetting process for new owners changed as a result of what’s transpired with Dan Borislow and magicJack?

D.H.: I don’t think it’s changed. Listen, we know that we’re still a fairly immature league and we’re having conversations with new markets and as part of our due diligence process and the background checks and so on we need to do a good job of making sure we bring people into the league who have the same common goal as everybody else. That continues to be the top quality play on the field and the best women’s soccer league in the world and passion for those things and an understanding of flexibility to continue to refine the business model. I don’t think those things have changed at all. I think Jennifer mentioned that we’re all moving forward and we’re open-minded to those things and we’re pleased that those ownership groups feel the same way.

Staying on the magicJack question, last we heard, Borislow filed a lawsuit against WPS to prevent the league from terminating the franchise. What’s happened since?

D.H.: I’ll say it from an owner’s standpoint and a non-lawyer’s standpoint, we believe that we’re excited to move forward with six teams and Dan has that passion and common purpose that I talked about a couple of minutes ago. I think all of us, all of the owners say ‘We should change that, we should change that, this didn’t work’ and it’s just a process of maturing the league and the way we run our franchises. I do that in Philly, Thomas Hofstetter does it in New Jersey, and Fitz in Atlanta and Dan in Florida. What’s been going on since then? For whatever reason that lawsuit was dropped as far as I understand it and we’re all trying to make 2012 a great success as 2011 was and spending our time talking about the 2012 schedule and getting a Collective Bargaining Agreement in place and expansion and selling more tickets and getting more sponsors. There’s been a lot of go forward hard work to improve the league.

J.O.: I think David said it well. I think everybody is just looking forward to working together to make the next season the best one yet.

Jennifer, you mentioned that one of your priorities this offseason is to continue to work with the WPS Players Union. Where are the two sides at in terms of finalizing a CBA?

J.O.: We’re continuing to talk with the union. My understanding is that talks began well before my involvement in the league and since I’ve come aboard I’ve reached out to the union and established with a personal relationship with myself and the union representative and just continuing those talks and negotiations with them.

PUMA has ended its sponsorship deal with WPS. How has the search for new sponsors gone so far?

J.O.: First of all, PUMA’s been a tremendous partner of ours and a founding partner of the league and we’ve been extremely happy with their support. For a variety of reasons, they and the league have chosen to re-new the contract for next season. We’re just in agreement that we just didn’t fit for our marketing strategies going forward and for PUMA’s marketing strategies going forward. One of the positives of the World Cup year has that we have had a tremendous in the awareness and increase in the league. From a potential partnership standpoint, we’ve been talking about a number of possible sponsors going forward so it’s been quite good for us this year.

David, WPS clearly reaped many residual benefits from the World Cup this summer. Did the tournament meet or exceed your expectations?

D.H.: Well, I enjoyed it a lot. I thought the games were exciting. It probably brought more exposure and visibility to women’s soccer in this country than I maybe expected which was great. In our local markets I think it brought some awareness that the quality of play are all here in the U.S. and you can get that level of play at a week-to-week basis. So those certain aspects and components were pleasant fallout of the World Cup. I don’t know if I was surprised by it; I know how wonderful this league is and the quality of play and the potential which is why I’m in it. That doesn’t surprise me at all. I think the World Cup was an extension of that and I think the Olympics will be too. I think many people that hadn’t seen it probably were witnesses to what I know and see every day in WPS. I hope that the Olympics will continue thus buzz and continue the growth and awareness.

David, talk about some of the lessons you’ve learned from your past two years in WPS.

D.H.: I think for me and for some of the other owners, running a professional women’s franchise isn’t much different from running another business. You have a series of corporate construction tasks that have to be done, they have to be done right, very deliberately and pragmatically and you have to continue to refine them. You have an expense side and a revenue side. You have to make to make those two sides match and you eventually have to have the revenue side go up. Your components are a little different with players and coaches and an entertainment event in a stadium. But what you do in a discipline that you institutionalize in your infrastructure are the same in any other business, whether it’s consulting or dry cleaners or whatever.

I think that WPS or certainly the Philadelphia Independence must stay grounded in the fundamentals of what makes a good business successful and make decisions based on those fundamentals and not carried away with hype or assumptions of ‘Hey, you know what, we’re going to have 7,000 people come to our game. In most businesses, you don’t make decisions based on assumptions and I think that for Philly, we’re going to keep to good business sense and make very conservative decisions based on a long-term financial approach that provides a provide and permanent presence to Philly in women’s soccer. I know that’s kind of a boring, dry answers but that’s how businesses succeed; through boring, dry actions.

Jennifer, what are some of the short-term goals you’d like to cross off your list before next spring?

J.O.: We’d like to secure some additional sponsors for next year; we’d like to continue making progress on our expansion discussions with a variety of teams; we’d like to see some more progress with the Players Union. Just on a personal note, I just want to strengthen relationships with our current partners like the U.S. Soccer Federation and certainly get to know the owners and the teams and my own staff and try to continue to build relationships with them as well.

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This post is related to an ongoing story:

• WPS Suspends 2012 Season, WPSL and W-League Add Teams

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