Soccer's Women Pro League is Still Kicking

Eleven-year-old Jacqueline Tierney last week told U.S. women's soccer captain Julie Foudy that she planned to hold a bake-sale to help save the cash-starved Women's United Soccer Association. Turns out, though, that Jacquline may be able to save her cookie dough. Her offer had come in response to the announcement, just days before Saturday's start of the Women's World Cup, that the women's pro soccer league planned to fold, for want of eight investors at $2.5 million each required to keep the WUSA afloat. But Time has learned that four companies, including Bank of America, Ethan Allen and Reebok, have already called the Association to express unsolicited interest. "Now the ball's in their court," says Dockery Clark, sponsorship director at Bank of America.

To score, the WUSA, founded in 1999 after the U.S. team's dramatic World Cup victory, must prove it can cut spending and find new owners in New York and Philadelphia, where Time Warner and Comcast, respectively, have backed out. "This isn't that much money for these companies," says Lisa Delpy Neirotti, a George Washington University sports management professor. "They'll be saviors in the eyes of thousands of little kids and their parents. It's a no-brainer."

A hastily arranged "Save the WUSA" committee, headlined by Billy Jean King, will meet in King's Manhattan office for the first time on Tuesday. The committee has given itself a 45-day deadline to secure the necessary funds. "We've been kicked out of office," says Joe Cummings, general manager of the Boston Breakers and a committee member. "Now we've got a month-and-a-half to get re-elected."