Two views:

It’s an affirmation of the free market in multiple ways … your assertion that no one cares plus the idea that gross mismanagement can’t last
forever. If I give you enough money to last for five years and you lose it in one, there’s something wrong. If I then boost that total from $40M to $100M ( so now you have 12 years of money in the bank) and that’s all gone in three years, there’s been no changes in the waste. They can whine about the lack of corporate sponsorship but it’s the lack of prudent management coupled with the belief that the money spigot would never end because this was a politically correct idea. They were meeting the attendance targets they set when they started, they just couldn’t meet the revised ones necessitated by the wasted money and increased debt.
The MLS has only lost $150M in seven years. For WUSA, with half the attendance and non-existent TV revenue, losing $100M in three is shocking.
Hank

And…

No sport makes it on fans. That’s why stadia always have to be built with bond issues, even though privately owned entities, the teams, are the only ones to use them. Sports make it on collaterals, on licensing, on merchandise sales, on television licensing (of value because advertising may be sold for televised games), and the like. The fan base pays for the sports that way, by buying merchandise, not through ticket sales, which never amount to a small fraction of what it costs to pomp up these circuses. No team pays anything close to its keep from ticket sales.
The greatest income is from being able to deliver audience to advertisers. Women do not care for sports, generally; so female athletes are of comparatively little value in the marketplace for endorsements, licensing, etc., etc. But no sports organization can make it without corporate sponsorships of one kind and another. That’s where the money all comes from.
Having written, or consulted on the writing of, business plans for several sports-related businesses, I’d explain it as following the Martha-Stewart model. The magazine or the TV show itself may not make any money, but as a vehicle for advertising branded and licensed merchandise, it’s well worth the constant losses.
Sincerely yours,
[Name withheld]