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Kelley O’Hara arrived at the 2031 World Cup launch event to find out Jamaica and Costa Rica had been added to the joint bid that has long been a collaboration between U.S. Soccer and The Federation of Mexican Football.
“My mind is blown. And I’m so excited for the impact it could have,” O’Hara told a small media scrum following Monday’s announcement. “To know that there could be little girls, little boys in Jamaica (and Costa Rica) going to the stadiums watching these teams play on this grand scale, at this level, it will change people’s lives.”
O’Hara should know. She is a child of the ’99ers. Growing up in the Atlanta area, O’Hara played many different sports as a kid but was never particularly bullish on soccer. And then came the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1999 World Cup.
“The first time I saw female athletes on television was the ’96 Olympics,” the two-time World Cup champion said during a panel at the launch event. “I watched gymnastics and soccer.”
Four World Cups later, in 2015, O’Hara’s semifinal goal against Germany helped the United States win for the first time since 1999. Now she is looking four World Cups ahead of that, to 2031, where she hopes a similar impact will be felt in Costa Rica and Jamaica.
“It literally changed my life,” O’Hara said of the 1999 World Cup. On 2031, a bid that is expected to go unopposed at the vote next year, O’Hara said: “It’s going to change the future of women’s soccer and women’s sports not only in the countries that are going to be hosting but around the globe.”
Abby Wambach, who essentially closed her international career at the 2015 World Cup, was coming off a national championship in her freshman year at Florida when 1999 happened. On Monday’s panel she spoke of how that team literally did its own grassroots marketing, sometimes even exiting busses en masse to engage youth players, tell them about the team and the impending World Cup.
“I’m so excited to go to these countries, not me but the players, and have those same conversations.”
Wambach quoted another story, about Billie Jean King imploring a young Julie Foudy not to sign another paltry contract with U.S. Soccer and instead rally the team to unify and push for more. It took nearly three decades from that moment for the team to finally settle an equal play lawsuit with the federation.
“A reason why I watch our women’s national team, or a reason why I feel extraordinarily proud when I watch them play, is that still to this day when I watch them play, it is because it is more than just a game. These are women who have fought the good fight and won.
“So when you watch these women run around (the) field and sweat, and yell at each other, and compete, and win, you are seeing possibility. This is not just about women’s soccer. This is happening to women in every city, in every state, in every country, in every industry. That we have to fight for what we deserve. Our women’s national team is a symbol of that. So that is why watching women’s soccer is political in its nature. It’s not just rewiring the little girls’ brains, it’s rewiring the little boys’ brains to see people as people and to honor the things that we have fought for and earned.”
As for the bid, details were scarce, but there is time. The men’s World Cup next summer in the United States and Mexico (plus Canada, which is not involved in the ’31 women’s bid.) will offer context about what to do in 2031. And maybe a bit of what not to do. Queries about how many games will be held in each country or whether the quarterfinals and beyond will be held in the United States, were met with deference by U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone and U.S. Soccer CEO and Secretary General, JT Batson..
Parlow Cone joked on multiple occasions that they are confident their unposed bid will prevail. But she and Baton did say that finances and resources that would have been geared toward whipping votes and spicing up the bid can now go toward making the event spectacular.
“Female athletes are inspiring, and they will always be inspiring. So that will happen,” O’Hara said. “But the fact that they will be present in those countries, and then the countries will be putting that investment behind it…
“The World Cup truly changes culture, it changes lives.”
