Can the WPS be saved?

I hope I'm wrong, but things do not look good for the women's professional game in this county.

Fourteen months ago, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), announced that the Western New York franchise would give it eight teams in 2011 - this after it had lost L.A. Sol and St. Louis Athletica. But in October 2010 the league champion FC Gold Pride, a West Coast team, announced it was shutting down and a month later the Chicago Red Stars folded.

U.S. Soccer by-laws require professional leagues to have six teams but it granted WPS a waiver in 2011. Then a month ago, in a terse two-sentence press release, the league announced the termination of the MagicJack franchise, leaving five teams, all on the East Coast. (The owner of that team has sued WPS.)

Now, as reported by Jack Bell in today's New York Times, , U.S. Soccer gave WPS 15 days to secure a sixth team for 2012 before deciding whether to extend the waiver. If another franchise is not found, it seems certain the league will lose its certification as a D-1 level professional league. Jack Cummings, one of the league's founders, said the damage caused by decertification would be "irreparable.