The National Women's Football League and the National Football League, which have been in a battle over the name NWFL, have agreed to terms - with the NWFL getting a new name.
The negotiations, which had gone on for almost six months, ended abruptly a month ago when the two sides could not reach an agreement. However, the
issues came back on the table several weeks ago when the NFL again approached the NWFL in the hopes of reaching a settlement, officials said.
NWFL Founder and President Catherine Masters, along with league attorney,
Stefani Godsey, worked with NFL legal counsel on a new offer which was
accepted on Friday.
"We did not wish to change our name but felt that a long drawn out legal
battle would not be very beneficial to the league and its expansion and
marketing plans. So, we accepted what we felt was a good offer from the NFL
to make the name change from the National Women's Football League to the National Women's Football Association. Our name has changed but the game's the same," states Masters.
The National Women's Football Association is the largest full contact football league in the world for women. The league, which started in 2000 with only one team, had 10 teams play in 2001 and 21 teams in the 2002 season.
The local team is called the Chattanooga Locomotion.
The 2003 season, which begins on April 12, will have 30 teams
competing. Officials said the interest in the league is so high that more than a half a dozen teams are requesting team licenses for the 2004 season.
In addition to the new name, the league also has a new website address:
www.womensfootballcentral.com
The website regularly receives more than 2 million hits per month, officials said.