The two new professional Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) teams in Orange County and the Bay Area, originally slated to be nicknamed the “Sol,” have dropped the moniker. Instead, one team will be named the Bay Area Breeze and the other will be the Orange County Wave, the WPSL announced on Thursday.
The Sol, of course, plays upon the name of the 2009 Women’s Professional Soccer runners-up team that breezed through the inaugural season before stuttering at the end and losing to Sky Blue FC in the 2009 WPS Championship.
AEG owned the Sol for most of 2009 before WPS took over operations of the team on what was supposed to be a temporary basis. The process of finding a new investor for the team fell through in what then Commissioner Tonya Antonucci called “the eleventh hour.” The Sol effectively folded. However, the right to the identity remains with WPS, despite a report stating that AEG still owns the name. Here is the official league statement given to The Equalizer on Thursday:
“The league owns the Sol name and trademarks and was not involved in the WPSL teams’ name selection. WPS would support use of the Sol name and brand by a WPS expansion team in Southern California, should a team want to use it, and the league is reserving the name for such an opportunity.”
In other words, that potential team will get the name when they get a WPS expansion franchise. If and when that happens, the WPSL organization, with Abner Rogers as a main figure, can reignite the So’ls brand. The group continues to push for a WPS expansion team, as it made public in the previous months.
In W-league News: Jacob Tudela will coach the Pali Blues. Charlie Naimo is Pali’s Vice President.
“It is a true blessing,” Tudela said. “Many people wait their whole life to have this type of opportunity, and I can’t wait to put my stamp on the league.”
Tudela is the brother of Josh Tudela, a former Los Angeles Galaxy player who is now with the LA Blues.
