Dear US Soccer and USWNT, My name is Bunchanpireon Ros, but you can call me Bunch. I am sixteen years old and currently attending Wheaton North High School in Wheaton Illinois. I am an aspiring journalist who loves to analyze situations and ideas, and I am just someone who likes to ponder. Some other interesting fact about me is that I am a big USWNT fan (also USMNT, but that's for another letter). Now you might be asking “why is that interesting?” or “There are millions of fans out there .” That is true; there are lots of fans out there. What makes me different is that I am a guy who has twenty-three idols who belong to this team we call the 15er’s. As US Soccer knows, at least 90% of fans are female. According to my math that makes me the minority of the whole fan base in the 10 percent or fewer. Which all revolves around the fact that I am proud to be a fan and I am willing to take a stand to speak my mind for the USWNT. It’s shown by the fact that I am willing to argue to friends, family and complete strangers that the women’s game should be treated and respected equally as compared to the men’s. Here I am watching the USWNT Victory Game Tour, three days before the legendary Abby Wambach will be retiring, when during the same time I am also typing this letter to you, wanting to express my mind about some issues and concerns I have with the future of the USWNT and US Soccer. My first issue is with President of U.S. Soccer Sunil Gulati and the U.S. Soccer Federation. Currently there has been an eruption of complaints involving the USWNT and US Soccer. I am only wanting to address my biggest concerns. First, the grass fields that the USWNT should only be playing on, and second is to address the future of the women’s game which is thriving here in the US. Regarding my grass pitch concerns, I just want to know why do the women keep playing most of their games on turf? Why don’t they play on grass? The USWNT had to play all seven games in the Women's World Cup on turf and now in the Victory Tour they have to play eight out of ten games on turf. That's 17 games on turf since the beginning of the World Cup which began in June. Compare these stats to the amount of games played on turf for the USMNT, where none at all were played on turf in 2015 ALL year long for them. Why would you even want your teams to be playing on turf? You should know that turf changes the beautiful game of soccer tremendously. Here are just a few quotes stated by your fellow members/players of the USWNT. Here is one stated from US Soccer great Abby Wambach about turf to espnW ; "The ball as it comes off my head against Sweden hits a dry turf and bounces higher," she said. "If it hits grass, it's harder for a goalkeeper to react, so if the ball bounces higher the goalkeeper has more time to react off the turf." Here is a comment Carli Lloyd made concerning the turf issues to Fox Soccer Pre-World Cup, “The turf is obviously a lot different. It’s very fast. You have to be very delicate in your passing, more playing to feet then putting it in the air. It just bounces differently. Definitely over time some players are going to feel it in their joints and hopefully -- knock on wood -- there won’t be too many injuries but we'll probably be seeing some turf-related injuries.” There also have been studies helping the case, according to philly.com, “A study published in 2011 looking at football, rugby, and soccer injuries showed that there was a higher incidence of ankle injuries on artificial turf. In 2012, another study looking at NCAA football injuries showed an increased risk of ACL injuries on artificial turf. Lastly, a 2013 study looking at amateur soccer players in Portugal showed a greater rate of lower extremity injuries on turf during matches vs. training.”. Now is that really want we want? Does US Soccer want to see more of their valuable players on the USWNT injured? I definitely don’t. This helps support the fact that there should be no reason at all for both USWNT and USMNT to play on turf. Also why is it that only the women play on turf, when turf obviously changes the game for both men and women? Things like this don’t add up. Hasn’t the USWNT gained enough respect and dignity to the point where members should start playing on grass only? Would you ever put the men’s game on turf? I didn’t think so. Why then put the women’s game on turf? Also if you are going to put them on turf, why aren’t the fields inspected months before an event is about to happen, just like what is done for the men’s, instead of putting them on a turf field that was a hazard for them to play on (referring to the Hawaii Game that was cancelled due to turf field conditions). Please change something about this to not only satisfy your players but also to appease the loyal fans of US Soccer. Also I want to go on to my next point concerning US Soccer, the salary and money that the USWNT earn. It is astonishingly disparaging compared to the men’s. I understand that as of right now the men’s game is more popular than the women’s. You see the women’s game is growing at a dramatic pace, especially after the World Cup of 2015. The finals that were broadcasted with USA vs Japan broke the record for most watched soccer event of all time in the US, beating the record that the Men’s Team placed last year in their game against Portugal. According to FOX, the match had just under 23 millions viewers, which again according to FOX is a 77% increase compared to the last final of the Women’s World Cup between the same teams. Not only is the game increasing in the international side, but also in the domestic league that has begun in the U.S.: The league had a spike of ratings and attendance at all of the games where at some games they were sold out. For example, according to oregonlive.com, the Portland Thorns of the NWSL broke the NWSL record of 19,123 with their an attendance of 21,144. The F.C. Kansas City/Reign National Women’s Soccer League final drew 167,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 Thursday night, up 7% from the same matchup on ESPN2 last year (156K) and up nearly 2,000% from Flash/Thorns on Fox Sports 2 in 2013 (8K) according to sportstvratings.com. With these stats, should the pay for the women really still be so low in both the international level and the club level? So if FIFA and US Soccer do run their financial ways like how they say they do, the women’s game and their players should be getting more money in the future. But lastly, attached to this sheet is a paper signed by numerous people who approve and support my concerns and ideas for you. I hope Jill Ellis and USWNT management and President of US Soccer Sunil Gulati take my concerns, thoughts, and ideas into play and consideration. If you ever want to contact me you can send me an email @ [email protected] , or contact my social media….. My instagram @bunchfeed, my Twitter @bunchros. Thank you for your time and consideration; thank you for taking the time to read. From, Bunchanpireon Ros
Check out the petition concerning the issues of inequality of WOSO in U.S. Soccer!
