Adoring fans lined New York City's Canyon of Heroes on Wednesday to praise the World Cup-winning U.S. women's national soccer team as athletic leaders on the field — and as advocates for pay equity off it.
A float with members of the U.S. women’s soccer team and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, rear, makes its way up Broadway in a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
AP Photo/Richard Drew
Members of the U.S. women’s soccer team, including Megan Rapinoe, rear left, and Alex Morgan, right foreground, stand on a float before being honored with a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in New York, Wednesday, July 10, 2019. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
Girls in soccer jerseys wait for the arrival of the U.S. women’s soccer team at City Hall, after a ticker tape parade Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
U.S. women’s soccer team player Megan Rapinoe pours champagne for Allie Long as Alex Morgan, rear left, watches during a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
Fans celebrates as members of the the U.S. women’s soccer team pass by during a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
U.S. Soccer Federation president Carlos Cordeiro, left, U.S. women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe, center, and teammates celebrate the U.S. women’s soccer team World Cup victory during a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
U.S. Soccer Federation President Carlos Cordeiro poses with members of the women’s World Cup team before the start of ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. Megan Rapinoe is at left wearing red glasses. Carli Lloyd is at right with mirrored glasses. Others are unidentified. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
AP Photo/Richard Drew
From left, U.S. Soccer Federation President Carlos Cordeiro, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. women’s soccer players Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan joins teammates and others as the U.S. women’s soccer team is celebrated with a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title. Player at right is unidentified.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
Fans celebrates as members of the the U.S. women’s soccer team pass by during a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
Megan Rapinoe holds the Women’s World Cup trophy as the U.S. women’s soccer team is celebrated with a parade along the Canyon of Heroes, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title. Wednesday, July 10, 2019.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
AP Photo/Richard Drew
The U.S. women’s soccer team, Megan Rapinoe center, celebrates at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The U.S. women’s soccer team member Megan Rapinoe holds the championship trophy at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, Wednesday, July 10, 2019 in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The U.S. women’s soccer team member Jessica McDonald flexes during a celebration at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The U.S. women’s soccer team is celebrated at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, Wednesday, July 10, 2019 in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The U.S. women’s soccer team captains’ Alex Morgan, left, and Megan Rapinoe celebrate at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, Wednesday, July 10, 2019 in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
U.S. women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe celebrates with the FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, Wednesday, July 10, 2019 in New York. The U.S. national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
NEW YORK (AP) — Adoring fans lined New York City’s Canyon of Heroes on Wednesday to praise the World Cup-winning U.S. women’s national soccer team as athletic leaders on the field — and as advocates for pay equity off it.
Construction workers sounded air horns above crowds chanting “USA! USA!” as the hourlong parade moved up a stretch of lower Broadway that has long hosted so-called ticker tape parades for world leaders, veterans and hometown sports stars.
Co-captain Megan Rapinoe and her teammates shared a float with Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Soccer Federation president Carlos Cordeiro. Rapinoe struck her now-famous victory pose, took a swig of Champagne and handed the bottle to a fan. Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher held the World Cup trophy aloft.
Aly Hoover, 12, of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, stood at the sidelines with a poster of the face of Alex Morgan, another team star. “I just want to be like them,” she said.
Garret Prather brought his newborn son “to celebrate how the American women made us proud on and off the field.”
The team sealed its second tournament win by beating the Netherlands 2-0 on Sunday. It will get $4 million for winning the World Cup from FIFA, the international soccer governing body. The men’s French team got $38 million for winning last year.
The U.S. women’s team has sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender and pay discrimination. The women will get bonuses about five times less from the USSF than the men would have earned for winning the World Cup. The case is currently in mediation.
Kate Lane, who watched the parade, called the pay gap “massive” for the soccer players and “across the board” for most women.
“Especially in male-dominated professions,” said Lane, of Limerick, Ireland. “Women put just as much commitment into their work as their male counterparts.”
She’s hopeful the younger generation is soaking up the message from the women’s team, noting a girl about 7 years old wearing an “Equal Pay” T-shirt.
Earlier Wednesday, team members joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, as he signed a law expanding gender pay equality in the state. He said women’s soccer players should be paid the same as male players.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, introduced a bill Tuesday that would bar federal funding for the men’s 2026 World Cup until the U.S. Soccer Federation provides equal pay to the women’s and men’s teams.
At a City Hall rally after the parade, de Blasio, also a Democrat, honored the team with symbolic keys to the city, saying it “brought us together” and “showed us so much to make us hopeful.”
At the rally, Rapinoe noted the diversity of the team: “We have pink hair and purple hair, we have tattoos and dreadlocks, we have white girls and black girls and everything in between. Straight girls and gay girls.”
The parade is named for the strands of ticker tape that used to be showered down from nearby office buildings. The tape has since been replaced with paper confetti, already drifting down from office buildings before Wednesday’s parade started.
The Department of Sanitation said it will have 350 workers assigned to parade cleanup with trucks, backpack blowers and brooms at their disposal.
The team had already started celebrating its record fourth Women’s World Cup title. After touching down at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, players shared a toast and sang “We Are the Champions.”
Team members appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in Times Square on Tuesday to show off their trophy and answer questions from cheering kids.
Rapinoe, the outspoken star who won the awards for the tournament’s best player and top scorer, also appeared on CNN and MSNBC later Tuesday.
Rapinoe told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Republican President Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” is “harking back to an era that wasn’t great for everyone. It might’ve been great for a few people.”
Rapinoe told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Trump had yet to invite the women’s soccer team to the White House.
Trump had tweeted that he would invite the team, win or lose. Rapinoe has said she wouldn’t be going to the White House. The team has accepted an invitation to visit Congress.
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Associated Press writers Melissa Murphy and David Bauder contributed to this report.
