'SOMETHING SPECIAL' ORGANIZER RECALLS BIGGEST WOMEN'S SPORTS EVENT EVER.

Byline: Fred J. Robledo Staff Writer

BRENTWOOD - Many great accomplishments start with a pen and piece of paper.

Marla P. Messing, president of the 1999 Women's World Cup Organizing Committee, worked night and day coordinating what many consider the biggest women's sporting event in history.

In a recent Sports Illustrated article, the magazine estimated that one billion people worldwide watched the 1999 summer event, which turned 20 American soccer players into sports icons.

A year ago today, the United States beat China 5-4 on penalty kicks to win the Women's World Cup championship at the Rose Bowl. That drama unfolded after the two teams remained scoreless through 120 minutes of regulation and overtime. The game was played in front of 90,125 fans and a national television audience of more than 40 million.

Messing is now a full-time mom living in Brentwood with her husband Brett and daughters Natalie, 3 1/2, and Samantha Rose, 2. She recalls the day in 1997 when 1994 World Cup president Alan Rothenberg agreed to allow the little-known Messing to draw up the business plan for the WWC.

Messing said she locked herself in an office for three months. She was pregnant with Samantha Rose, doing Lamaze exercises one moment and figuring out budgets, licensing and venue locations the next. She was at her desk writing the evening before Samantha Rose was born. After giving birth, she was back in her office within two weeks.

``Looking back, it's extremely rewarding to write a business plan, put it on paper, spend three years hammering away and then see it come to fruition,'' Messing said. ``There are very few opportunities in life to create and build something this huge. To watch it unfold the way it unfolded, I don't know if I'll ever be a part of something that special again.''

Messing, a graduate of the University of Michigan, also holds a juris doctorate from the University of Chicago. She began her professional career at Lathan & Watkins, one of the preeminent law firms in the country. She specialized in corporate and security matters.

It was there Messing met Rothenberg, who convinced her to leave the firm to join the 1994 USA World Cup Organizing Committee in 1992. Messing was the executive vice president in charge of all World Cup business operations, including ticketing, entertainment and special events. Under her direction, the '94 World Cup sold 3.5 million tickets - the largest number of tickets ever sold for a World Cup.

Following the USA World Cup '94, Messing joined the initial management team which oversaw the launch of Major League Soccer in 1996. She used all that experience when she was named president of Women's World Cup `99, a much tougher task than running the tradition-rich men's World Cup.

The Women's World Cup was relatively new. It started in 1991 in China, averaging attendance of 19,615 for 26 matches. In 1995 in Sweden, attendance plummeted to an average of only 4,316.

At the FIFA draw in San Francisco, Messing came under criticism when she decided to use big venues such as Giants Stadium, Soldier Field and the Rose Bowl instead of more realistic smaller sites. After all, who would watch a match between Nigeria and North Korea or Brazil and Mexico? Most observers thought she was crazy, but Messing wasn't swayed.

``There was a lot of skepticism, but I always believed in the event,'' Messing said. ``We had two choices - either fill stadiums of 5,000 and 10,000 seats or go for it all. We went for it all and the sponsors backed us.''

The U.S. team averaged more than 68,000 a game. For all 34 matches, the WWC averaged 22,359 per game, shattering all expectations.

``I remember sitting at Giants Stadium for the opening game feeling really nervous,'' Messing said. ``Then the stadium started filling up, the electricity was in the air and before I knew it, there were 80,000 people around me. I was thinking, most of these people never heard of the Women's World Cup six months earlier. It was very fulfilling.''

That match grabbed the attention of the national media, which kept building up the event until it hit epic proportions. Suddenly, Messing was in the middle of the summer's biggest sports craze.

``I think you have to remember, it was the personality of the U.S. team that captured the imagination of the American public. We laid the groundwork, but they made it a huge event,'' Messing said. ``But what you realize and what we hoped was true . . . people always want to see the best of the best in any sport.

``You look at track and field. It doesn't get much attention, but every four years at the Olympic Games it has the attention of the world. That was kind of our vision for the Women's World Cup. We knew if we stayed true to the event and offered the best of women's soccer, people would support it, especially with the U.S. team a prohibitive favorite.''

When it was over, Messing basked in the glory and began to realize what she had pulled off.

``I don't know if I'll ever have that feeling again,'' Messing said. ``We had the President and First Lady in the quarterfinals, then Mr. Clinton came again to the final.''

``After the tournament, we're doing a conference on the South Lawn of the White House with the White House music playing. We come marching out and are greeted by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. I mean, it felt like an out-oody experience. It was surreal that this event that was so small months earlier grew to this magnitude.''

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Photo: (color) When the U.S. women celebrated their victory over China in June of last year, probably nobody was happier than organizer Marla P. Messing, now a Brentwood mom.

Beth A. Keiser/Associated Press