In today’s edition of 5v5, we tackle the subject of Women’s Professional Soccer following the league’s announcement that it has folded.

Four soccer writers welcome a special guest to the panel: Notre Dame legend turned professional, Melissa Henderson. Henderson was the second overall pick in the 2012 WPS Draft, and she now plays for the Boston Breakers of the WPSL.

Remember, you can tweet comments or questions to any of our panel members by clicking on their name. With that said, let’s get to the debate.

Which best describes your reaction to the WPS folding: surprised, discouraged or unmoved? (Why?)

Beau Dure, espnW: Unmoved. It’s really more important that several teams continue to exist as pro squads than it is to see the league as an entity survive. Sure, a healthy WPS would be terrific for the women’s game, but it wasn’t healthy.

Melissa Henderson, Boston Breakers: Shocked. I was leaving training when I received a phone call from (Notre Dame Coach Randy Waldrum) informing me of the news. It was hardest to take because I was just starting to take in that I had accomplished my dream of being drafted and playing professional soccer.

Lucy Hallowell, Afterellen.com: Discouraged. The league seemed to be teetering on the brink when it suspended its season this winter. The Women’s World Cup last summer should have provided a huge boost to the league. Add that to the Olympics this summer when more people, even non-soccer fans, tune in to watch the events, and you realize that the WPS missed a golden opportunity to raise interest in the sport. It’s discouraging that the league had to suspend operation this season when interest would have been high. It’s also discouraging that this is the second league that has tried and failed to bring professional women’s soccer to the United States. Hopefully, it won’t be the last.

Jahmal Corner, The 91^st Minute: Unmoved. Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall from the beginning and the suspension earlier this year was foreshadowing.

Jeff Kassouf, Equalizersoccer.com: I wasn’t surprised. It was pretty clear that it was imminent for several weeks leading up to the announcement and I was a firm believer that from the first day WPS announced a suspension of operations that it was not coming back. I was very put off by the announcement just being posted to Facebook and not emailed out as a press release. I realize there is no longer a league office to speak of, but I think that would have been courteous to the handful of media who covered the league for three years.

Does the WPS folding say more about the league, or us as an audience?

Dure: Honestly, neither. At this point, you have to have people who are willing to lose money on women’s soccer for whatever reason – exposing their own brand (the Borislow/Sahlen/Red Bull way), investing in a long-term payoff (the AEG way) or just saying this is important to us as a society. Any number of businesses or business leaders could’ve kept the Washington Freedom in town with what amounted to pocket change for them. They didn’t. That’s not an indictment of them, it’s just a fact. Spending money on a women’s soccer team isn’t as important to them as being a patron of the Kennedy Center or some other arts program. That’s their choice.

Henderson: Women’s soccer in the U.S. just isn’t a top priority. That’s hard to say, but true. I definitely think it is continuously growing, but in comparison to the rest of the world I feel we are centuries behind. Soccer is more than a sport to us, but a life. I just wish everyone in the U.S. could understand the difficulty and admire the excitement that comes along with soccer.

Hallowell: I think it says a little about both. The league was obviously on shaky ground if it needed to suspend a season because it could not fight a court battle and put a product on the field. It also says that the league did not find a way, last year, to capitalize on the insane popularity of Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, and the rest of the US Team. In terms of the audience, it is important that they remember that if they want to be able to watch the best soccer players in the world compete in the U.S. they need to get out to games and support the teams. Of course, you’re competing with the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and even the MLS. I think there is an audience that wants to be able to watch soccer; parents who have kids who love to watch the USWNT play and want to see the players up close. The challenge is getting those people out to games.

Corner: Says more about us. Did the league have flaws? Absolutely. Should it have launched on the shoulders of an established male infrastructure? Possibly. But the WPS isn’t the first women’s league to fail, or struggle. Until women’s athletics reaches more of a demand on the professional level it will always be an uphill battle.

Kassouf: It is clear that women’s soccer still is not something the public will support consistently in mass. The U.S. women have soared to new heights and select players are legitimately mainstream celebrities. But these sellout crowds we are seeing for U.S. games have not translated to club soccer beyond the immediate window following major tournaments. It is easy to be critical of how WPS operated, but things were not handled as poorly as some fans would like to think. I’ve seen a lot of nonsensical comments about how bad WPS leadership was. Does anybody remember Tonya Antonucci? The league certainly tried just about everything. There is no getting away with saying the folks involved did not adapt.

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