GOOD

Hope Solo Believes The High Cost Of Youth Soccer Is Hurting The State Of The Game

Club soccer can cost families $17,000 a year, according to a recent report.

 Tod Perry
06.29.18

As the 2018 World Cup captures most of the globe’s attention, the U.S. is sitting on the sidelines because its men’s team failed to qualify for the tournament. Former U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo says a major reason the U.S. men’s team failed to qualify is because soccer has become a “rich, white kid sport.”

Photo by Global Sports Forum/Flickr.

At the Hashtag Sports conference in New York on June 26, Solo argued that the high cost of youth soccer is hurting the state of the game. “That obviously alienates so many communities, including Hispanic communities, the black communities, the rural communities, and under-represented communities,” she said. “My family would not have been able to afford to put me in soccer if I was a young kid today.”

\n

During the conference, Solo claimed the average cost for a child to play soccer in the U.S. was $15,000. While that figure may seem like an exaggeration, a September 2015 Money report on youth soccer highlighted a family that spent roughly $17,000 a year on club soccer expenses.

Solo spoke about the issue of underrepresented youth in soccer to GOOD earlier this year. “After running for the president of U.S. Soccer, I was heartbroken to see all of the kids that we are neglecting,” she said. “We’re alienating entire populations throughout America. We’re not welcoming them to the global game of soccer.”

Solo believes the issue can be solved, but the help should come from all levels of the sport. “It’s not enough to change the dynamics of soccer in America unless somebody from the top helps us,” she told GOOD, “which means U.S. Soccer and the $100 million in surplus funds needs to be distributed throughout amateur soccer.”

Sports

Central Park is finally getting a statue of women and it's about time

Photo by Josh Couch on Unsplash

Christopher Columbus, Alexander Hamilton, William Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Scott are getting company. Statues of the famous men are scattered across Central Park in New York City, along with 19 others. But they'll finally be joined by a few women.

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth are the subjects of a new statue that will be on display along The Mall, a walkway that runs through the park from 66th to 72nd street. It will be dedicated in August of next year, which is fittingly the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote.

Currently, just 3% of statues in New York City are dedicated to women. Out of 150 statues of historical figures across the city, only five statues are of historical women, including Joan of Arc, Golda Meir, Gertrude Stein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harriet Tubman.

Keep Reading Show less
women representation new york city
promo-homepage

If you think all hope is lost for wildlife, you're wrong

It's easy to become calloused to everyday headlines with messages like, "the world is ending" and "everything is going extinct." They're so prevalent, in fact, that the severity of these statements has completely diminished to the point that no one pays them any attention. This environmental negativity (coined "eco-phobia") has led us to believe that all hope is lost for wildlife. But luckily, that isn't the case.

Historically, we have waited until something is near the complete point of collapse, then fought and clawed to bring the species numbers back up. But oftentimes we wait so long that it's too late. Creatures vanish from the Earth altogether. They go extinct. And even though I don't think for a single second that we should downplay the severity of extinction, if we can flip this on its head and show that every once in a while a species we have given up on is actually still out there, hanging on by a thread against all odds, that is a story that deserves to be told. A tragic story of loss becomes one about an animal that deserves a shot at preservation and a message of hope the world deserves to hear.

As a wildlife biologist and tracker who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of animals I believe have been wrongfully deemed extinct, I spend most of my time in super remote corners of the Earth, hoping to find some shred of evidence that these incredible creatures are still out there. And to be frank, I'm pretty damn good at it!

Keep Reading Show less
conservation wildlife forrest galante animal planet extinct or alive
The Planet

A 'rude' encounter between Susan Collins and one voter might just end the Republican's career

For more than 20 years. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has served the citizens of Maine in the U.S. Senate. For most of that time, she has enjoyed a hard-fought reputation as a moderate Republican who methodically builds bridges and consensus in an era of political polarization. To millions of political observers, she exemplified the best of post-partisan leadership, finding a "third way" through the static of ideological tribalism.

However, all of that has changed since the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Voters in Maine, particularly those who lean left, have run out of patience with Collins and her seeming refusal to stand up to Trump. That frustration peaked with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Keep Reading Show less
susan collins erik mercer maine donald trump 2020 brett kavanaugh
Politics

Human inequality goes all the way back to the Bronze Age, study finds

NHM Vienna/Hans Reschreiter

Wealth inequality has been a hot topic of discussion as of late, but it's something that's occurred all throughout history. Class structure is a complicated issue, especially when you consider that haves and have nots have been in existence for over 4,000 years.

A study published in Science took a look at over 100 late Neolithic and early Bronze Age skeletons found in a burial site in southern Germany. The study "shed light on the complexity of social status, inheritance rules, and mobility during the Bronze Age." Partly by looking at their teeth and the artifacts they were buried with, researchers were able to discover that wealth inequality existed almost 4,000 years ago. "Our results reveal that individual households lasting several generations consisted of a high-status core family and unrelated low-status individuals, a social organization accompanied by patrilocality and female exogamy, and the stability of this system over 700 years," the study said.

Keep Reading Show less
bronze age social class history
Culture

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jusst endorsed Bernie Sanders for president

via Truthout.org / Flickr and Dimitri Rodriguez / Flickr

Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign looks to be getting a huge big shot in the arm after it's faced some difficulties over the past few weeks.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading voice in the Democratic parties progressive, Democratic Socialist wing, is expected to endorse Sanders' campaign at the "Bernie's Back" rally in Queens, New York this Saturday.

Fellow member of "the Squad," Ilhan Omar, endorsed him on Wednesday.

Keep Reading Show less
aoc bernie sanders ilian omar sanders 2020 democratic rce democratic socialists CNN MSNBC Now This alexandria ocasio-cortex endorse bernie sanders
Politics