The Los Angeles Sol of Women’s Professional Soccer are in the process of a major overhaul.

The team is being sold by Anschutz Entertainment Group, which also operates the Galaxy, to a group of local investors. Head coach Abner Rogers left the organization last month and Sol general manager Charlie Naimo has assumed coaching duties. The pending sale, which the league says could be done by the coming week, comes as no surprise. The team reportedly lost around $2 million last year and AEG had always said that their involvement with the Sol and WPS was temporary.

The pending sale might partly explain some of the team’s offseason moves, such as trading midfielder Camille Abily, the Sol and WPS’ second leading scorer with eight goals last season, to FC Gold Pride for another midfielder, Tina DiMartino, as well as the right to an international discovery player and draft picks as well as trading defender Allison Falk and reserve goalkeeper Val Henderson to the expansion Philadelphia Independence for the fifth pick in yesterday’s college draft.

Initially, all these moves might have Sol fans sounding the alarm, and understandably so. When a new ownership group comes in to assume control of any sports franchise, questions will always be raised about what their intentions are. Do they have the money? Will they continue to put a winning product on the field? Will the teams continue to play at the Home Depot Center? And there always the possibility the potential new owners could back out at the last moment, with one example being the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA.

For those of you that don’t follow women’s basketball. The Monarch’s owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, who also own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, announced back in November they would no longer run the Monarchs franchise, which they had done since 1998. Their announcement caught the league and Monarch fans off guard and the league was left scrambling to find a new home for the team, particularly in the Bay Area. The WNBA eventually decided to contract the Monarchs and efforts have been focused to get and expansion franchise for the Bay Area for the 2011 season.

Well, it looks like such a thing won’t happen with the Sol, as the league has apparently locked themselves into an ownership group that has in turn locked themselves into keeping the franchise in Los Angeles for the long haul, and while it is unsettling for the league, the Sol and its fans to be going through this sort of stuff right now, these changes could serve the Sol very well in the long run. While AEG is to be applauded for helping the franchise get off the ground, I believe the Sol will benefit even more down the road with an ownership group that will truly commit themselves to making the Sol a winner on the field and more visible in the community. Granted the new owners may not have as much money as AEG, but I think we can be assured they have enough to run the franchise and more importantly, keep its star player, Marta, the Sol and WPS’ most high profile player, in Los Angeles and in WPS for the long haul. I would advise the new ownership group to do whatever it takes to keep the Sol at the Home Depot Center for a long time.

While it is also sad to see a good coach like Abner Rogers leave the organization, I believe the Sol will not miss a beat with Charlie Naimo at the helm. Naimo has won titles with the W-League’s New Jersey Wildcats in 2005 and with the Pali Blues in 2008 and 2009. Losing Abily will hurt was well, but acquiring Tina DiMartino, a potential national team player, will soften the blow. The Sol also fared well in yesterday’s college draft, taking North Carolina forward Casey Nogueira, who scored a team-high 13 goals for the national champion Tar Heels, as well as Tar Heel midfielder Nikki Washington, Washington State forward Kiersten Dallstream and University of Portland forward Michelle Enyeart. The only downside is that Enyeart and Washington are currently rehabbing knee injuries and while there is a possibility that Washington might play on opening week, Enyeart might not be on the field for the Sol until June or July.

On the outset, there is all sorts of chaos going around the Los Angeles Sol right now, but once the dust settles, look for the Sol to come out bigger and better as a result of the changes.