W.P.S. is the second attempt to sustain a D1 professional league for women. The Women’s United Soccer Association got its start after the successful 1999 Women’s World Cup in the United States and lasted for three seasons before folding in 2003. After several delays, W.P.S. was finally launched in the spring of 2009, less than a year after the United States women won the Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games.

“It’s partly because of the W.U.S.A. and now W.P.S. that we won gold in 2008 and silver at the World Cup,” said Jennifer Hitchon, the executive director of the union that represents the league’s players. She added, “The league is fragile and fraught with problems, but it’s ours and the federation will be hard-pressed to effectively shut down the last best chance for a women’s pro soccer league in this country.”

If its waiver extension is rejected and the federation strips it of D1 status, the league could continue, but national team players, from the United States and elsewhere would not jeopardize their international eligibility by playing in what would in essence be an outlaw league. It would probably be more realistic for W.P.S. to go with five teams in a Division 2 league, but that might be less attractive to the players in the United States Olympic pool and from overseas. W.P.S. could bide its time and try to regain its top-flight status for the 2013 season with additional teams and investors.

But, as O’Sullivan said, retaining top-flight status is the first option.

Hitchon is concerned that US Soccer would prevail upon national team players not to play in a Division 2 league and instead to be part of a residency camp leading up to the Olympics (should the American team qualify at a tournament in Vancouver, British Columbia, in January) that would probably be held at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., making it difficult for the players to shuttle back and forth to their East Coast teams.

If the league folds, Cummings believes it could be the death knell for top-flight women’s pro soccer in the United States, even as interest from a new batch of owners has increased after last summer’s World Cup.

He said that investors in Los Angeles are interested in relaunching the Sol and that several clubs that also field teams in Major League Soccer, the men’s league, are keen to launch W.P.S. teams in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, ESPN has plans to launch a sports channel aimed a women that could be a natural home for W.P.S. games, which have in the past been carried by Fox Soccer, on Sunday evenings last season.

“If we don’t get the waiver the damage will be irreparable,” Cummings said. “The ripples will be felt around the world and it will be a setback for women’s soccer worldwide.”