U.S. Soccer is honoring the members of the 1999 World Cup-winning national team before the current WNT’s first Olympic sendoff game at Red Bull Arena.
The players congregated in New York City before the match, eliciting cheers throughout the halls of Red Bull Arena as they mingled with current players before greeting the media and then going out to open practice.
Seeing the heroes of the past alongside the stars of the future of course invoked the history of everything the 99ers went through to lay the foundation for every player who wore the crest after them. It has been well-documented how they fought together to improve their pay and working conditions.
Nine players, including Julie Foudy, Carla Overbeck and Kristine Lilly, were locked out of the roster before the 1996 Olympics for attempting to contest certain clauses in their contracts, such as a bonus for medalling like the men instead of only if they won gold. Eventually, the federation agreed on bonuses as well as paid pregnancy leave, severance pay, nannies and other performance bonuses.
The team also entered collective bargaining with U.S. Soccer after the 1999 World Cup and fought for better salaries and training facilities. They had seen the power and popularity of the team through the World Cup and wanted more equitable treatment alongside the MNT, spurred along by conversations with tennis great Billie Jean King.
That legacy of labor action continued through the modern era, culminating in the USWNT fighting alongside the USMNT for equal pay — a battle they won.
The two teams now receive equal pay for games played, equal bonuses, equal compensation for being called into camp, and equal splits of commercial revenue and tickets sold. It is a far cry from the days of players sitting in the cheapest middle seat in an airplane in a row all the way back through economy and wearing men’s hand-me-down jerseys.
But labor struggle isn’t called such because it’s easy, and several members of the 1999 team acknowledged that, while much has been made of their bravery in taking on their employer, bravery cannot happen without fear.
“Every day we showed up it was like, ‘This is gonna be hard’,” said Brandi Chastain. “If it’s not hard for me today, it could be hard for the person next to me.”
🇺🇸 It’s Brandi Chastain Day 🇺🇸
Relive one of the most iconic moments in sports history#FridayFeeling | @brandichastain | @USWNT pic.twitter.com/gbYvNyle4z
— FIFA Women’s World Cup (@FIFAWWC) July 10, 2020
For the 1999 World Cup, FIFA had proposed playing in smaller, 10,000-seat stadiums. U.S. Soccer and the players campaigned for big NFL stadiums like the Rose Bowl, and went on grassroots popularity tours drumming up local support to show that the women’s game was worth investing in, and that the players deserved to get the spotlight treatment just like in the men’s World Cup.
“We were out in the public like, ‘Yeeeaaahhh!’, and then we’d be like, ‘Holy s***, are we going to actually do this?’. We didn’t know,” said Chastain.
Shannon MacMillan credited King for asking the team what their plan was and inspiring them to take collective action.
“I don’t know what would have happened for us (without that),” MacMillan said. It wasn’t easy. There could be days of feeling beaten down, like it was a losing battle. But MacMillan, with team-mate Tiffeny Milbrett standing next to her and nodding along, emphasized the importance of having a shared dream and keeping everyone on the same page.
“We’ve got each other. Say it’s worth it. Let’s keep going,” MacMillan said.
MacMillan in action against North Korea in 1999 (Al Tielemans /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
“We had to work so hard to create the momentum around our team and around women’s soccer,” said Milbrett. “I don’t want to go back and do it with anybody else but this group of people because everybody scrapped and fought. And it was really selfless in that aspect.”
Mia Hamm credited strong leadership for helping the team get through the tougher or more uncertain moments. “When you’re all over the country, there is some nervousness about making sure we’re all in, but I will tell you, we had tremendous leadership,” she said, naming team captains Julie Foudy and Carla Overbeck, alongside team-mate Joy Fawcett and lawyer John Langel.
“That’s where we had the luxury of a strong core unit,” said MacMillan. “To be able to say, ‘We’ve got these strong personalities that can advocate and everyone else stands behind them’.”
Women’s national teams globally are still fighting for better treatment from their federations, from Argentina to Nigeria, Spain to South Korea. For all the teams fighting the good fight, who might be enduring their moments of doubt and fear, the 99ers send their support.
The victors in 1999 (David Madison/Getty Images)
“The power is in the group,” said MacMillan. “Leadership is really important, but also communication between the members of the group,” said Hamm. “No question is too silly to ask and no expression of whether you’re nervous or scared is too embarrassing to express.”
Chastain acknowledged that every struggle is different, and that she could only speak from her own experience. But, she added, “I would also say that what’s the alternative? You give up? You go away? You don’t follow your dreams or your passion? Even if you went down this long journey and it didn’t turn out maybe exactly the way you thought, would it have been worth it?
“And the answer is going to be ‘yes’. Because you grow and you learn and you meet people. (My team-mates) have become the rocks of my life. It’s worth the effort.”
GO DEEPER
USWNT’s 1999 World Cup jerseys reissued but Briana Scurry’s goalkeeper top omitted
(Top photo: Lorrie Fair Tiffany Roberts, Hamm, Scurry and MacMillan after the 1999 World Cup final – David Madison/Getty Images)
