Women's National Team

WNT, the acronym for "Women's National Team," applies to all sports and is used by a number of English speaking countries (e.g.: Canada, England, New Zealand, USA). The term is used within a sport's community when there is only reference to that specific sport (e.g.: "We got tickets for the WNT's next home game!"). When clarifying which sport or which country's team, the reference might be, "the US Basketball WNT" or "the Soccer Germany WNT."

Not all WNTs are paid (professional) or have a women's national league from which to draw new players. When women professional athletes are able to dedicate themselves full-time to developing their skills, they raise the level of play in a sport and provide much higher caliber Women's National Team players. Most top women athletes must work full-time jobs, in addition to their training, practice and competition schedules.

In the United States, women's pro sports teams and leagues are still relatively new and athletes under-paid as of 2005. In America for instance, 51 years after inception of the men's NBA, the WNBA began its first season in 1997. Salaries are surprisingly low for such highly skilled athletes. The 2005 WNBA team salary cap was [http://womensbasketballonline.com/wnba/rosters/salary.html $0.673 million] . The men's NBA cap was over 60 times higher, at [http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/Salary_Cap_101-147720-41.html $43.87 million] . The
WUSA became the first American women's pro soccer league in 2001. Fans enjoyed women's pro soccer for three seasons before executives [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/wusa/2003-09-15-wusa-folds_x.htm announced] suspension of the league for lack of financial sponsorship and in spite of the fact that the US Soccer WNT was [http://www.womensworldfootball.com/ rated] one of the world's top teams. Absence of a women's pro soccer league in the United States makes it difficult for the Soccer WNT to find new players who are [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/wusa/2003-09-16-us-womens-future_x.htm ready for international competition] . A 2004 effort to [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=328319&root=wusa&cc=5739 revive the WUSA] was launched. But, no word about progress was available as of December 2005. The WNBA enjoys financial backing via the NBA and supplies a stream of professional players to the [http://www.fibaamericas.com/federacion_us.asp?f=USA8 US Basketball WNT] .

ee also

*Women's sports
*Women's professional sports
*Professional sports
*Women's football around the world (lists FIFA Women's National Teams and others)
*Women's professional football (soccer)
*Women's Soccer
*United States women's national soccer team
* (USA)
*WNBA
*
*Sports
*Sports culture
*Famous Women Athletes

References

* [http://www.womensworldfootball.com/ Women's World Soccer Team Ratings]
* [http://womensbasketballonline.com/wnba/rosters/salary.html WNBA Cap]
* [http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/Salary_Cap_101-147720-41.html NBA Cap]
* [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/wusa/2003-09-16-us-womens-future_x.htm Future of US Soccer WNT]
* [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/wusa/2003-09-15-wusa-folds_x.htm WUSA Announcement]
* [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=328319&root=wusa&cc=5739 Re-newed WUSA Effort]

External links

WNTs

*USA
** [http://www.ussoccer.com/home/teamhomepage.sps?iType=8201 Soccer US WNT]
** [http://www.fibaamericas.com/federacion_us.asp?f=USA8 US Basketball WNT]

*Germany
*England
*China
*Australia
*Ireland
*Sweden

Women's Pro Teams

*USA
** [http://www.wnba.com/news/ WNBA]
** [http://profastpitch.com/index.php Women's Fast Pitch]
*Germany
*Ireland
*England
*China
*Japan
*Australia