The Peninsula Co-op Highlanders of the W-League are navigating through a changed North American women's soccer landscape.
The Vancouver Whitecaps have announced they are withdrawing from the W-League and will not field a women's team for 2013.
"That's disappointing because it was always great to host the Whitecaps and we considered it one of our better attended games," said Mark deFrias, general manager for all Highlanders programs.
Many of the players from the 2012 London Summer Olympics gold-medallist U.S. team and bronze-medallist Canadian team are expected to gravitate toward a new eight-team women's North American professional league that will begin play in 2013.
The Canadian Soccer League will pay the salaries of 16 Canuck players in the new league and the U.S. and Mexican federations the salaries of 24 and 12 of their respective national team players.
The Whitecaps were not scheduled to be part of that new league, which will be
based solely in the U.S.
When Women's Professional Soccer folded in 2012, the W-League become the highest standard of women's club soccer in North America last season. But that perch will be short-lived.
DeFrias said the Highlanders have a contract to play in the W-League through the end of the 2013 season. He added the situation will become clearer following the United Soccer League meetings he will attend later this week in Clearwater, Florida.
The USL is the umbrella organization under which the W-League falls, as well as the Premier Development League in which the men's Highlanders play.
Highlanders men's and women's team owner Alex Campbell Jr. would not comment.
DeFrias, however, indicated the Peninsula Co-op Highlanders would not go the way of the Whitecaps.
"We will have a women's program next season," he confirmed.
"Our goal remains to develop players for the NCAA, CIS and the next level [new pro league]."
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