Things are changing with the Atlanta Beat.

And it's not just with the coaching staff.

Team owner Fitz Johnson said Wednesday that there are people looking at how to make things run better at all levels - starting with the players on the field, to how the front office runs and even the way the main offices of Women's Professional Soccer are operating.

Of course, the main concern right now is local, local, local, and that started Tuesday with the dismissal of coach Gareth O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan was hired in July of 2009. One of the main reasons he was brought on was his experience to build a team from scratch as he did earlier in the decade at the University of West Georgia, where he turned a fledgling program into a winner in just two seasons.

O'Sullivan did go on to coach professionally in Iceland, but this year, he quickly found out that coaching Division II and the lower divisions of professional soccer in Europe are a long way from managing some of the best players in the world, in the world's best women's league.

With the influx of talent - including Eniola Aluko, Tina Ellertson and U.S. national team regulars Lori Chalupny and Hope Solo - from the Saint Louis franchise that folded at midseason, the Beat finally started to show some life against some of the league's lesser squads. But after a scoreless draw with WPS leader FC Gold Pride, Atlanta returned to playing like a squad in disarray rather than a potential playoff team.

Much of that falls at the feet of O'Sullivan. Sure, he can't be blamed for all the shots that bounced off the posts, but he is the one who put the lineup on the field, and rarely - if ever - was it a consistent lineup.

In the end, he just wasn't organized enough.

Following the Beat's 3-2 loss at Philadelphia last weekend, after they squandered a 2-0 lead, Johnson did what he had to do. In order to maintain the team's focus, he had to make a change.

"We felt like we needed a new direction," Johnson said. "Gareth did a great job (getting the team started), and he is a great coach, but we needed a new voice and we need to get organized."

Johnson also wanted to send a message that he has always said before - he wants the Beat to be the best-run organization in the world and wanted to make it clear to his players.

"We could go 2-2-1 and miss the playoffs, or we could have loss them all," he said. "But then you have players asking themselves, 'Do I really want to come back and play here next year?'"

Johnson's not ready to give up on the 2010 season and believes interim coach James Galanis may be able to provide a spark the team needs to close the season strong.

"We're five (points) back with five games to play," Johnson said, "but we still have a great chance to make the playoffs, as bleak as it looks."

Making the playoffs isn't the only reason he wants the team to finish strong.

With three of the final games at the new KSU Soccer Stadium, the organization could use three good gates to help offset an ever-decreasing operating budget.

When buying into the league last year, it was common knowledge that teams would likely lose $1 million the first season. Unfortunately for most owners, the sum ballooned to nearly $2 million by the end of the season. Johnson took notice of that and by the end of this season, the Beat will have lost slightly more than the original $1 million forecasted.

With that in mind, the team is on a path that even the best penny-pinchers will not be able to maintain.

One of the main reasons is attendance. When building a budget, Johnson and his staff forecasted an average of 5,000 to 6,000 fans per game. To this point, the only game to reach that figure was the Beat's home opener that drew more than 7,000. The rest of the games have pulled just more than 3,000 fans per game.

"I'm very surprised we can't get 5,000 to come out and watch some of the best athletes in the world," Johnson said. "But it's the first year. Hopefully, that will change as people get used to coming out and watching the games.

"I have yet to hear anyone leave after watching one of our games and say, "Wow, that was boring.'"

But the Beat aren't the only one's tightening their belt. The league office is going through a restructuring, paring a 15-person staff down to seven or eight to reduce costs and alleviate any extra pressure it may put on the existing franchises.

Johnson says the league is on solid financial ground for the short term, and he doesn't expect any other franchises to go the route of Saint Louis - something he said came completely out of the blue after the Athletic franchise admitted it couldn't make payroll anymore.

The folding of Saint Louis hit the other owners hard and forced the restructuring project to make sure all the finances are accounted for, but in the end, if the stadium remains more than half empty all the restructuring won't matter.

"Our community will have to decide whether they want this team or not," Johnson said.