fans do not know that the best women's football athletes in the United States live a "two-sided life" that makes people feel awkward.
When they play on behalf of the U.S. national team, they have to show their skills in front of tens of thousands of fans in every game. Such performances are simultaneously transmitted to millions of viewers through TV signals. The 2015 Women's World Cup final is the highest-rated football game in American history. Yes, both men and women's football teams are counted.
But in the professional league, most of these female stars have to play on the playground of high school and wash their own jerseys after the game.
▲ American Women's Football Team Professional League hopes to set standards for the treatment of professional women's football team with practical actions
The American Women's Football League, composed of 9 teams, is working hard to change this embarrassing situation. Now they are in the middle of their sixth season since their establishment, and the time span of the American Women's Football League has reached twice the size of its predecessor. Players' salaries are rising slowly little by little, while the increase in fan support is significantly higher. But the most noteworthy thing is that more and more funders have begun to decide to invest in the construction of women's football competition facilities and start spending money to operate more professionally.
Merritt Paulson, the owner of the Portland Thorns of the American Women's Football League, said bluntly: "This is a high-level professional football, not a niche hobby for some people. When you express your righteous attitude towards gender equality, you also have to understand that this is not a charity job. Professional women's football matches have market demand."
But problems and troubles are endless. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is the big boss of the New Jersey women's football team. Recently, he was bombarded for his athletes' treatment not meeting standards. The attendance rate of the entire women's football league is increasing, but compared with the MLB of the Major League Baseball, the number of visitors is only closer to that of the minor leagues in the United States. It is true that players' salaries are also rising, but the magnitude of salary is always considered by some people to be at the level of fast food clerks.
As the leader of the US Women's Football League, Portland Thorns has an attendance rate of more than 16,000 people in a game and is appreciated by more and more fans. Portland Thorns share the stadium with the 2015 MLS champion Portland Lumberjack and enjoys the same rights. After winning the Women's Football League last season, the girls also have a dizzying "star halo".
▲As the champion of last season, the Portland Thorns are also at the forefront of the treatment of women's footballers
0 Paulson said Thorns have achieved profitability, and league officials revealed that some teams in the U.S. Women's Football League are close to breaking even. The latest player to enter the league is real estate developer Dell Loy Hansen, who took over Kansas City late last year. He renamed the club "Utah Royals FC" and moved it to Rio Tinto Stadium, located in the suburbs of Salt Lake, where his other team, Real Salt Lake, played football.
Today, Hansen has become an absolute "evangelist" of the women's football team. Not only has he hired former Arsenal women's football coach Laura Harvey, but he also spent $1.2 million to create a locker room for the team.
Hansen has 7 daughters, and he said proudly: "They will not fall like Neymar, nor will they roll around the ground like Neymar. Men are particularly fond of complaining, but women can turn around and leave after a fierce collision."
Although there was almost no time to make any decent publicity before the season, Real Utah can still attract more than 9,000 fans per game, and also helped the average attendance rate of the US Women's Football League in the first half of the season to an all-time high of 5,792 people.
▲Real Utah team leader Dale Roy Hansen (pictured left) can be called the "conscience boss"
Orlando Pride veteran defender Ali Krieger praised the boss for treating them equally with the MLS team in the same city: "No matter what they treat, we have them too." Including the meals carefully prepared in the training center and the physiotherapist who accompanied the team.
"With more and more new owners joining, our club's stability and long-term viability have improved." Amanda Duffy, director of operations at the U.S. Women's Football League, admitted. The U.S. Women's Football League, headquartered in , Chicago, is only a few blocks away from the U.S. Football Association, which also provides relevant staff and liaison agencies for the league, is essentially different from the earlier Women's League, which is more independent, or, in other words, ignored.
Most athletes in the US Women's Football League can receive prizes ranging from $15,750 to $44,000 according to relevant standards for professional athletes. The situation continues to improve, with the league signed a three-year media broadcast agreement with A+E Media in 2017 to broadcast Saturday games on Lifetime channel, which also helped more than double the girls’ minimum wage.
The US Football Association will also pay salaries for at least 22 internationals selected for the national team in a single season, each of them receiving more than $200,000 a year. But despite this, some players still make a lot of money less than they did when they played in the European League, and they made such a decision to support the fledgling American Women's Football League. These include Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Sam Kerr from Australia and Mata from Brazil and other international brands.
Most U.S. women's football teams are thriving and even share relevant staff and equipment with professional men's football teams. These initiatives help lower the cost of team operations. The North Carolina Courage moved from Western New York in 2017 and began to use the stadium in the suburbs of Reilly as its home court with the United Soccer League (USL).
The two clubs are also "sharing" by their boss Steve Malik, who, according to him, 98% of the season ticket buyers of the Courage team have renewed the new season. As of the mid-offseason of this season, the team led the league with a record of 14 wins and 1 loss and 4 draws.
Malik is full of confidence: "I have a strong belief that in the women's football field, our league will definitely be comparable to the women's football Premier League, and I am willing to invest in helping everyone achieve this goal as soon as possible. Of course, we still have a long way to go."
However, the problem still exists. The New Jersey Sky Blue team's home stadium is located in the Rutgers University Football Stadium in Piscataway in northeastern state. Recently, the team's management has been severely criticized by public opinion for its poor hardware conditions. The players took the initiative to disclose scandals of poor quality of the house, lack of shower facilities and irresponsible management to the two football media.
A report also shows that the Sky Blue team's number one star, who scored a hat trick in the 2015 Women's World Cup final and became the biggest contributor to the US Gold Cup, could only perform a restorative ice bath in the trash can after completing training. But Lloyd himself declined to comment.
▲Even the treatment of a big-name international player like Carly Lloyd cannot guarantee it, which indirectly reflects the embarrassing status quo of the professional women's football team
The big boss of the Sky Blue team and the Governor of New Jersey Murphy will certainly not sit idly by. He admitted to the media that this situation is "completely unacceptable." Mary Smoot, the club's chief financial officer, immediately issued a statement saying that management "has always been committed to providing our players with all the support and resources they need on and off the court.""
international star Rapinoe, who plays for the Seattle Reign FC in the US Women's Football League, said bluntly: "To be honest, some teams should still be kicked out of the league so that others can join as soon as possible. I think that's what we're going to do. A considerable number of teams have achieved excellent and professional status in all aspects, and of course they should become the backbone of the league's development. "
In the view of Hanson of the Royal Utah, the upward trajectory of the US Women's Football League is very similar to that of the American Major League. According to him, in 2005, he paid $7 million to obtain the MLS admission license for Royal Salt Lake City; and for Cincinnati and Nashville who are about to join, the price of an MLS license is $150 million.
"Our girls are setting a benchmark for the professional women's football world, and the eyes of the world are staring at us. "Hanson's tone was firm, "If we stop here and be content with the status quo, we are irresponsible at this critical moment of American sports. ”
Lazy Bear Sports Translator: Zhang Daxuan
Statement: This article was compiled by Lazy Bear Sports from The Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal), and the original author Rachel Bachman
