Wambach wants new league to be part of her legacy

"I took it as a responsibility and a failure on my part that the last previous leagues didn't succeed," she said during a telephone conference call Monday.

Wambach played for the Washington Freedom in the previous leagues. Even though the 32-year-old forward bought a house last June in Portland, Ore., she decided moving back near home was important. She will be based in Buffalo, N.Y., about 70 miles from her hometown of Rochester.

"It was the right choice for me and for the league," she said. "Of course I would love to have been in Portland, but I really do think it was and is the best decision for the game, for this league, so that it can strive and not just survive."

Having a little distance from Rochester was important to her.

"Over the last couple years it's gotten a little out of control and insane during the holidays when I came home," she said. "My family, all they think — it's just so weird, they're like, this is so strange, you're just you. But people — fans will be fans — they'll interrupt you in the middle of dinner. For the most part, it's so sweet."

After winning her second straight Olympic gold medal — the third in a row for the U.S. — Wambach was voted the top women's soccer player in the world, becoming the first American to win since Mia Hamm in 2001 and '02.

She'll be joined in the new league by all her American teammates and by Canada captain Christine Sinclair. But not all the players will be able to support themselves just from their soccer income.

"Where I think we went wrong in the past, and probably in both scenarios, is that we started off too big, where our salaries were too high," she said. "I think that we have to take what we can get, and some of the players are probably unfortunately going to have to have other jobs, which in my opinion isn't hopefully the long vision, the long-sighted vision of where we want to go."