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Related Articles College Cup returns to San Jose after NCAA abandons North Carolina

SAN JOSE — Miley Blough was so excited about the women’s College Cup at Avaya Stadium she awoke at 4 a.m. Friday to get ready for a trip from the Sacramento area to watch the semifinals on a cold, blustery afternoon.

But it’s going to take a lot more Mileys to prove what local boosters hope is true: that the Bay Area is ready for a women’s professional soccer team.

The girl, who turns 9 on Monday, brought the kind of enthusiasm to soccer’s final four that San Jose organizers had hoped. She joined her mom, Katie Blough, and club soccer friends Elhom and Elias Khursdan as the budding players skipped school for the event.

“This was worthwhile — their teachers agreed,” said Katie Blough, a former pro player and now coach of the San Juan Soccer Club in Rancho Cordova.

Alas, attendance was sparse by the time of the 2 p.m. kickoff as top-seeded West Virginia scored a 1-0 victory over North Carolina. The announced crowd was 4,293 fans — not the greatest optics in the San Jose Earthquakes’ 18,000-seat stadium.

While attendance isn’t the only factor, the College Cup this weekend presents the Earthquakes with a barometer to determine whether it is worth launching a National Women’s Soccer League pro team in San Jose.

“We want to make sure if we do it we do it right,” said Dave Kaval, president of the Major League Soccer team. “Not only is this team put together well but the league itself is solid.”

Earthquakes officials should have a better gauge Sunday for the 3 p.m. final featuring West Virginia against USC because the event relies on the support of soccer-playing schoolgirls who will be off on the weekend.

Team officials already have seen signs of interest as the U.S. women’s national team played in front of a sold-out crowd in its debut at Avaya Stadium ahead of the 2015 World Cup. The Americans also drew 16,425 fans last month in San Jose for an exhibition against lowly Romania held on a school night.

Those who attended Friday are women’s soccer’s core audience.

“While it is wonderful to come see men’s soccer, that only applies from an inspirational standpoint for half the population,” said Cupertino’s Mari Biondi, who daughter plays for the De Anza Force and joined teammates at Avaya on Friday. “Having a women’s pro team is an imperative.”

The Earthquakes are trying to build a seven-field community soccer facility at the Guadalupe Gardens that would serve as the team’s youth academy. Once the complex is completed, the team would have the infrastructure to house a women’s team or a lower-division men’s pro team, Kaval said.

NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush knows all about the popularity of Bay Area women’s youth and college soccer.

“I have a lot of confidence in the marketplace,” he said this week. “Think of players who came through that corridor. It’s a burgeoning part of the country for our sport.”

The U.S. women’s national team features Cal’s Alex Morgan, Santa Clara’s Julie Johnston and Stanford’s Kelley O’Hara, Christen Press and Andi Sullivan.

Local College Cup organizers had only 55 days to promote and plan this event after the NCAA moved the championship out of North Carolina this fall because of the state’s new law that limits LGBT protections. San Jose officials also had to work with game times (2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.) geared for televising what was originally an East Coast event.

They also lost a chance to draw more fans when top overall seed Stanford and Santa Clara lost earlier in the tournament.

Although the Bay Area has been a hotbed of women’s soccer, it also has suffered through the sport’s growing pains — and those pains may give skeptics reason to wonder about the future.

The San Jose CyberRays launched in 2001 as part of the Women’s United Soccer Association in the aftermath of the wildly successful 1999 World Cup. They averaged almost 7,700 fans at Spartan Stadium in their inaugural season when winning the league title.

But the CyberRays disbanded when the league folded after three years because of overspending.

League officials tried again in 2009 with the launching of Women’s Professional Soccer, which included the Bay Area’s FC Gold Pride. That team played its first season at Santa Clara University then moved to Cal State East Bay when it won the 2010 WPS title.

But owners folded the team shortly thereafter because of poor attendance and a huge loss of investment. The league lasted one more season.

The NWSL has found a modicum of stability heading into Year 5 with buy-in from the U.S. and Canadian national soccer federations, who pay national members’ salaries. It also has gotten a boost as the U.S. women’s national team’s popularity soared after winning the 2015 World Cup.

The league opened in 2013 with eight teams, and has expanded to 10. So far, no team has folded or moved to a different market. Plush hopes the league expands to 14 teams by 2020. The league has targeted California for growth.

Portland is one of three NWSL teams operated by MLS clubs. The others — Orlando and Houston — were second and third in attendance last season. MLS commissioner Don Garber has said he expects half the women’s teams will eventually share ownership with his league.

Los Angeles FC and the Sacramento Republic are mentioned as having the most interest in becoming the NWSL’s first California franchise. But the Earthquakes could easily step in if ownership’s interest is piqued this weekend.

Plush declined to say how much an initial investment would cost but wants to bring the league to the Golden State.

“We don’t need to be a 20-team league in our fifth year,” he added. “We need to do it with people ready to join us. We are patient. It’s the right approach, it’s not always the exciting approach.”