Great Goals Need an Assist

Columnist discusses the need for more professional women’s athletics in Ohio.

BY ELISE KARAS ’26

Getting dropped off at soccer camp, holding a chocolate milk and crying, is the earliest memory I have of soccer. The fields teemed with my future friends and teammates. Many of the girls there made up the first real team I was on. This hasn’t always been the case. When my mom talks about her first childhood team she mentions how there were only three girls on a team of all boys. There were very few girls teams at the time. That was the 1980’s. Now in 2023 there are hundreds of girls soccer teams in each state. It took 40 years to get where we are today. But with soccer being the most popular women’s sport across the world, it feels like these advancements are happening by the week.

The beginning of this movement seems to have started back in 2020 with the creation of Angel City FC. Angel City FC is a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team that is owned by a group, with most of the group being high profile women like Serena Williams. This group is led by actress Natalie Portman, making it the first female-owned NWSL club. This is one of the only current examples of women leading women in sports. When I first heard about Angel City FC, I couldn’t believe it. It seemed impossible for a woman to own a team. On T.V. It’s always a man cheering from the owner’s box, and a man making the calls. It’s relieving to know women are finally filling that role.

News of the Women’s World Cup is all over social media. In preparation for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Nike has announced they have designed the first women’s exclusive kits for six of the 32 participating countries. The women finally have an opportunity to make a name for themselves. Other news regarding the Women’s World Cup came as a surprise to me. After years of protests and negotiations, the prize money was increased by 300%, making the winning prize $150 million, as opposed to $300 million in 2019. This is still nowhere close to the men’s prize of $600 million, but this is a substantial win nonetheless. Watching the Women’s World Cup has inspired me since I was little. Seeing so many strong women competing made me feel as if there was no reason I couldn’t be on someone’s TV one day motivating a new generation.

Prior to the shocking increase in interest in women’s soccer, I had never noticed the lack of women’s profession- al sports in Ohio. There isn’t just a lack of them, either; there are zero mainstream women’s professional sports in our state. Yet, there are two Major League Soccer (MLS) teams, two National Football League teams, two Major League Baseball teams and one National Basketball Association team. With so many men’s teams, it doesn’t seem far fetched that one of them could cultivate a women’s team. The best opportunity I’ve seen to create a women’s professional team in Ohio is to start an NWSL team. This is due to the sheer amount of girls playing soccer in America at the moment, and there are two MLS teams that could help support a newly founded team.

The Columbus Crew has had success recently by winning the MLS Cup in 2020 and relocating to a new stadium. Now is the time for the Crew to begin the creation of a NWSL team. In Europe, many clubs have a men’s and a women’s side. MLS teams in Amer- ica have contemplated following Europe’s example and creating a women’s side to their clubs, but no clubs have gone through with the idea. The Crew currently has the resources to fund a team until the women can gener ate their own income. The team will eventually become self-sustaining, re lieving the Columbus Crew Men’s team of some responsibility. Creating a wom en’s expansion is a smart future invest ment as well, seeing as the NWSL has been growing.

Historically, men have been dominant over the world of sports. Many of the teams and leagues for women that we see today could never have been possible without the support of the men who already had money and power. The Columbus Crew has a defi nite presence in the MLS. They made histo ry by being one of the founding MLS teams. They were pioneers for soccer in America once. Why not do it again?