A Moment in Time for Soccer in U.S.

By HELENE ELLIOTT

July 8, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Of all the wonders they have seen during their trips from sea to shining sea, one vision of America remains fixed in the minds of players on China’s Women’s World Cup team.

“We’ve been in several cities here and we have seen lots of girls playing soccer on fields,” said Wang Junsheng, head of the Chinese delegation. “That is incomparable with other countries.”

Those girls may play in the next Women’s World Cup tournament, or the one after that. Or they may play professional basketball. No matter. The success of the World Cup is likely to benefit girls on every soccer field in the U.S.--and on fields of every kind around the world.

This World Cup has been triumphant by many measures: in the performance of the home team, which will play China in Saturday’s final at the Rose Bowl; in record-smashing attendance at U.S. games, and in the flood of favorable publicity the U.S. women have received as athletes and a cultural phenomenon.

Virtually ignored by NBC when they won the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the photogenic and media-savvy U.S. women have become so cool they’ve made soccer hot, a feat their male counterparts have yet to pull off.

“I hoped for it, like the Americans did, when I was told which arenas they picked, and I’m happy their strategy has been successful,” Karen Espelund, general secretary of the Norwegian Football Assn. said of the crowds. “You broadcast to the world full stands, cheering people, you see the interest.

“I used to point to the difference between Norway and Europe and the U.S. concerning soccer is that we have 90 or 100 years’ tradition for men’s soccer, and women entered soccer in the mid-’70s. You don’t have that same tradition for men’s soccer [in the U.S.]. It’s not in the same position here, which means women’s soccer is not in the same position.”

The way the Women’s World Cup has been marketed also may change the way sports are sold. Organizers were astonished to see tickets sold in groups of 10 or more, to parents taking their kids and their kids’ friends. The unusual number of parents accompanying children has created a festive atmosphere unlike those at most events, where high ticket prices and late starts keep kids away.

“The lines are bigger at ice cream stands than at beer stands,” said Sandy Briggs, executive director of the Soccer Industry Council of America. “Parents want to have an opportunity to bond with their kids, and this is it. Everybody’s an expert on basketball, football and baseball, but with soccer, everybody’s starting out at the same level. So few of us have been with this game more than five years. There’s a sense of, ‘Join the party,’ not an exclusionary sense.”

That same everybody’s-welcome philosophy underlies soccer’s appeal at the youth level, and it has opened new vistas for sports in general.

“It’s a new type of audience going to the matches,” Espelund said. “In Europe, we have discussed tendencies for violence in the stands. We have not had that problem in Norway, but in other countries this has happened. And one thing that will reduce those incidents is inviting more families, women and children. It will reduce the aggressiveness, and then you have to discuss the prices for families and make family ticket [packages].”

Espelund said avid interest back home in the Norwegian team, which lost to China in the semifinals and will play Brazil in the third-place game Saturday, has raised attendance at men’s games. The women have drawn excellent TV ratings: The first match had an audience of 750,000 people out of 4.5 million and Norway’s quarterfinal victory over Sweden, shown on tape the next day at 10 a.m., drew an audience of 500,000.

According to Espelund, the World Cup’s success will be felt in Norway in many ways.

“In making the game more popular and recruiting the youngsters--that part will go up,” she said. “You get the good media coverage at home and they have good role models, which is important. There is an increase in interest of local teams and in women’s soccer in general, and the top league we have at home, because they will see these players playing again in their clubs.”

The Chinese team is also being closely monitored here and back home.

“So far, 15 journalists have come here from China to cover the tournament,” Junsheng said. “Our biggest TV station, China’s central TV station, has come to broadcast the games, so it means the most influential media have come here for this tournament. The number of journalists that have come here shows the influence of women’s soccer in China.

“Not only the government, but also the [soccer] federation has given its full support to this event, so this is a very good influence for China, especially with the Chinese team being in the top four of the tournament.”

Brazilian forward Pretinha also expects increased interest in the women’s game in her homeland, which has no women’s professional league.

“The tendency is for Brazilian women’s soccer to grow in popularity because we’ve reached our objective, and that was to qualify for the [2000] Olympics,” she said.

Women’s sports in the U.S. would undoubtedly get a boost if the Americans won, but Briggs believes the battle for credibility has already been won.

“I think this already is a watershed,” he said. “This is really changing the landscape for sports in this country, that a women’s sports event can capture the imagination of so many people.”

Like most observers, Briggs traced the success of the U.S. team--and by extension, of the World Cup--to Title IX, the federal law passed in 1972 that bars sex discrimination in schools and colleges receiving federal funds. As colleges and universities developed women’s sports programs, women began to see athletics as a means to get an education and to develop the networks men formed and carried into their professions. Sports became an accepted and laudable pastime for girls and women, although acceptance was slower for soccer than for basketball or softball.

“This is the first generation of Title IX soccer players. Soccer came late to the game,” said Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a national, nonprofit organization that promotes sports and fitness for girls and women.

“It wasn’t added by a lot of schools until two decades after Title IX because most male athletic directors said, ‘What is soccer?’ They held it back because they didn’t understand it. . . .

“The reason why we’re seeing such an increase in soccer is because, unlike basketball, where every school pretty much had a basketball team, there was room for growth in soccer. It’s the perfect neighborhood sport. There’s very little equipment needed and everyone can play. It’s not as hard to kick a soccer ball as to hit a round ball with a round bat.”

A study by American Sports Data for the Soccer Industry Council of America found the number of girls playing high school sports had increased 30.7% between 1990-91 and 1996-97, whereas the number of boys playing increased 8.8%. The number of varsity women’s soccer programs at NCAA Division I, II and III schools increased from 77 of 752 in 1981-82 to 617 of 999 in 1995-96.

Women’s participation in soccer at all levels reached a record 7.5 million in 1998, eclipsing the previous record of 7.3 million, set in 1995. Studies have determined that one of 27 girls was active in organized sports in 1972, but one in three is active in organized sports now.

“All credit needs to go to Title IX and the wake-up call it gave athletic directors,” Briggs said. “Athletic opportunities weren’t just for men. That’s what created our team, basically. Girls that wanted to excel at soccer had the opportunity to do so.”

Lopiano sees the World Cup generating a ripple effect that will extend to society as a whole, an interesting notion in a year in which a woman--Elizabeth Dole--is pursuing the Republican presidential nomination.

“It’s one of the sports-related pieces that started with the 1996 Olympics,” Lopiano said. “It’s one more example of the idea women can do anything. It’s not just, ‘You’re pretty, so you’ve got to be a figure skater,’ or, ‘You’re flexible, you’ve got to be a gymnast.’ It’s a real sport with lots of body shapes and sizes and that just adds to the interest.”

Interest is high and still growing at the grass-roots level. The American Youth Soccer Organization, a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization that emphasizes sportsmanship and participation, has 630,000 registered members, of which 40% (246,000) are girls. That’s up 10% in 10 years and nearly double the percentage since the mid-1980s. U.S. stars Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain and Joy Fawcett came up through AYSO programs.

“For the first time, little girls have role models in team sports,” said Lolly Keys, the AYSO’s public affairs manager. “They had Mary Lou Retton, Olga Korbut and Chris Evert, but they didn’t have team sports. The fervor you’re seeing now is from the [1996] gold medal, from media paying attention and sponsors.”

But will anyone care six months from now, without professional leagues for these female players to keep their skills sharp and their names before the public? China has a Division I league and a high-level women’s tournament; a pro league in Norway “is many years ahead,” Espelund said, citing the lack of a college feeder system.

Said Keys, “That’s what I’m worried about. I don’t know where the national team is going to go from here. Will there be a viable women’s professional league, when MLS is having problems?”

A feasibility study on a women’s league was commissioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation, but no action is likely until after the 2000 Olympics. In the meantime, the World Cup will inspire countless children to dream and play.

“The key is the cultural groundswell, the Beatles-type hysteria. It’s not going to go away,” said Jim Moorhouse, director of communications for the USSF. “No, we won’t be having 70,000 people and no, we won’t be having pictures of our players on the cover of magazines. No one’s talking about being the NFL. We’re talking about stability and creating our own niche. Even if we go back to normal crowds of 15,000, the seeds are there. The experience is there.”

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Changing Game

Soccer participation by gender and the changes between 1997 and 1998, and between 1987 and 1998:

MEN

1987: 9,333,000

1990: 10,216,000

1993: 9,711,000

1997: 11,081,000

1998: 10,679,000

1-yr +/-: -3.6%

11-yr +/-: +14.4%

WOMEN