USWNT’s Megan Rapinoe calls 2023 World Cup a “massive cultural moment”

With World Cup preparations well underway, it fell to Megan Rapinoe to give her thoughts on how she views the upcoming tournament, which many judge to be the biggest ever. Her USWNT teammate, Alex Morgan, had already said back in April that it was going to be “the best ever” and that is a view that is shared by many within the world of women’s football.

The 2019 World Cup player of the tournament spoke to the press during the USWNT training camp ahead of flying out to Australia where they will play Portugal, The Netherlands and Vietnam in Group E. Rapinoe reflected those views put out by Morgan earlier in the year, saying that the competition “feels like real opportunity to blow the lid off in terms of fanfare, media, sponsorships and the larger business around the sport.”

The 37-year-old eulogised the fans, saying that people “are hip to the game” (yes, I Googled it, it means knowledgeable) and that they are not “just cheering for the Women’s World Cup because it is the right thing to do.” Given that the tickets have already surpassed those sold at France 2019, calling it a “terrible business move if you’re not investing” certainly has some weight behind it.

Women’s sport is no longer a ‘dogged fight’

For those that choose not to tune in, the OL Reign player in the NWSL says they will miss a “massive cultural moment in so many ways” and that the tournament is set to be a “paradigm shift” for women’s sports in general.

Women’s sport as a whole has seen a huge upturn in popularity and investment over the past few years, with football, and US football specifically, leading the way on promoting the game and the equal opportunities it provides. “Just in general”, Rapinoe said, “the zoom-out picture in women’s sports now feels like we’re out of the dogged, fight phase. Not that there’s not still a lot to fight for, but the acceptable cognitive dissonance and denial of what we actually are, how incredible women’s sport is how popular it is, how profitable we can be, what the business actually is: I think those days are pretty much long gone that would be quite a tough and embarrassing position to still keep.”

‘Nothing will be the same’ after Aus/NZ 2023

“You’ve seen what’s happened since the last World Cup”, she continued, “with the stadiums selling out, or the women’s Final Four, cricket league in India, there are so many examples of this. This is a moment we’ll look back to and say ‘nothing was ever the same after this Women’s World Cup’”.

The World Cup begins on July 20 as New Zealand take on Norway in Auckland ahead of Australia facing the Republic of Ireland in Sydney. The first game for the USWNT will be on Saturday 22 July vs Vietnam and the World Cup final will be played on Sunday, 20 August.