They've come to Sacramento to win a championship, and hopefully a job.

This weekend at Natomas High School, the California Storm hosts the Final Four of the 51-team Women's Premier Soccer League with dozens of scouts and coaches in the bleachers.

On Labor Day weekend, the Storm also hosts a combine of nearly 100 prospective pros.

As the women's national team prepares for the Olympics in China, several soccer mainstays and supporters are working on the home front to assure their sport's stars have a place to play after the Beijing Games.

Women's Professional Soccer, the new league that kicks off in April 2009, has some unexpected heavyweight investors. Among them are Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash and former Yahoo president Jeff Mallett, who see a big future in women's soccer.

"As a father of twin girls, I'm especially pleased to help young women around the world realize that their dreams of being a pro soccer player can indeed come true," said Nash, an accomplished soccer player in his native Canada.

Nash, whose father and brother played pro soccer, and Mallett, also Canadian, invested in the league itself instead of an individual franchise. The two are longtime friends.

"We centralized our commitment," Mallett said. "We don't have to reinvent everything. Our job is to help build a local groundswell of support. It's been a very pragmatic buildup."

The league's first office is in San Francisco, but it has not established a Northern California franchise. The first eight teams will be based in Boston (Breakers), Chicago (Red Stars), Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. (Freedom). Only three so far have names.

Potential sponsors have warmly greeted WPS, which has teamed with the same marketing arm that supports men's Major League Soccer.

WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci, a former Storm player, said the fledgling league has drawn interest from "some pretty big brands," although she declined to name companies until contracts are signed. She said the WPS presents an alternative target audience for companies trying to draw from outside the age 18-to-34 male demographic.

"It could end up being a real smart move for corporate America," she said.

At a recent marketing conference, Coca-Cola executives cited women's soccer "as the biggest growth opportunity in sports," Mallett said. "We're not just soccer girls and soccer moms but soccer dads, too. We bring a whole family demographic."

Antonucci worked with Mallett at Yahoo. "We face the same challenges of any start-up," she said. "We've learned a lot, not from just the old league but the WNBA and lots of other sources. … We have time to get things right. With this relaunch, we've got to get it right this second time."

Heavily funded and laden with world-class players, the Women's United Soccer Association, born in 2001 out of the 1999 World Cup, lasted only three seasons.

"The old league failed because it had too much money," said Storm coach and owner Jerry Zanelli, who also serves as WPSL commissioner. "They had $57 million to start off, and they proceeded to blow most of it in the first year. … It was a disaster."

With central ownership, WUSA wanted to be perceived as "major league" immediately and spent huge amounts on large venues, television and marketing. WPS plans to start small and grow through grass roots. Teams will be individually owned and operated. League officials estimate teams could break even with 5,000-average attendance.

"It's about local investors in local clubs," Mallett said. "If you can win support on the local level, then you can win nationally."

Their talent will come from the United States national squad, including Elk Grove's Stephanie (Lopez) Cox, and the WPSL, the country's top amateur league that is headquartered in Sacramento.

When the WUSA was founded, the Sacramento-based Storm lost 17 players, including former Team USA stars Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy.

It could happen again, Zanelli said. His league is where the talent awaits.

Players are cautiously optimistic about the new league, said Storm defender Maureen "Mo" Whitney, assistant women's soccer coach at Sacramento State and a former WPSL MVP.

"There's definitely a little bit of excitement," said Whitney, who earned all-conference honors in WPSL again this season. "(The new league) fulfills a dream for most of us to play professionally."

Although hosting the Final Four, the three-time champion Storm lost in last weekend's regionals to Redondo Beach's America Ajax, which will represent the Pacific Conference. Also playing for a title at Natomas are the Arizona Rush, MYSC (Wisconsin) Lady Blues and New England Mutiny.

The two-day event will include a gigantic soccer jamboree, Zanelli said, adding: "We want to show Northern California can support a (WPS) team."

Having only one West Coast team – sharing the Home Depot Center in Carson with the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA – presents some immediate challenges. Travel to and from California makes the Los Angeles franchise a lone left-coast outpost with higher expenses than its sister clubs.

Soccer people and the league want a NorCal franchise, either in the South Bay or Sacramento, but no investors have come forward. The economic downturn hasn't helped.

"Sacramento is such an obvious hotbed for soccer," Antonucci said. "It would be a great place for a team."

Because so much hoopla preceded WUSA, the new league has kept a low profile. Even the players don't know much.

"Everybody's excited, but they've stayed pretty quiet about it," Whitney said. "They've been keeping it on the down-low, but we're feeling assured it's really coming now."

Call The Bee's Debbie Arrington, (916) 326-5514.