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Nike and US Soccer Foundation Dedicate Soccer Field

Nike and US Soccer Foundation Dedicate Soccer Field

Published 01-16-03

Submitted by Nike Inc.

LOS ANGELES, CA – South Los Angeles residents now have a world-class soccer field to call their own: the new, state-of-the-art Ross Snyder FieldTurf field--a result of a $500,000 donation by Nike and the US Soccer Foundation.

The donation of the new field represents an ongoing partnership between Nike and the US Soccer Foundation to increase inner city access to soccer on high-performance fields. Working in conjunction with LA’s Department of Parks and Recreation, the construction was made possible by Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program (which turns recycled footwear in to playing surfaces). The Reuse-A-Shoe program is part of NikeGO, Nike’s new initiative in the US aimed at advancing physical activity among youth ages 9-15.

“We believe that active kids are healthier, happier and more likely to make positive life choices,” said Joe Elsmore, Nike’s Director of Soccer Sports Marketing. “Access to sports facilities is key in giving kids the means to become more active, and we are proud to be a part of providing kids in South LA the opportunity to experience soccer on a world-class surface, in their very own neighborhood.”

“We’re proud to be a part of this wonderful new field that will give so much to the young athletes of South Los Angeles,” said James D. Hamilton, chairman of the US Soccer Foundation. “The U.S. Soccer Foundation’s goal is to enrich lives through soccer. We have made more than $35 million available to our sport over the past seven years, and when we look at a facility like this, we all understand just how important soccer can be to a community.”

Members of the community and representatives from Nike and the US Soccer Foundation (USSF) today celebrated the opening of the newly constructed Ross Snyder Field, off East 41st Street in Los Angeles. More than 100 local residents observed the official shoelaces-untying ceremony at the field. City Council Member Jan Perry was in attendance, as well as representatives from several local community groups, including Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles.

“Nike and the US Soccer Foundation’s generosity and civic leadership brings more than just a soccer field to this community. This state-of-the-art facility provides open-space to a community faced with brownfields and tight, crowded neighborhoods and a recreation center for youth who face growing obesity statistics,” said Councilwoman Jan Perry. “Now, South Los Angeles can finally say that it has a recreation facility comparable to those found elsewhere.”

As part of the dedication event, award-winning soccer coach Rene Miramontes held a soccer clinic and hosted a scrimmage for more than 50 South LA kids. The field will eventually house 100 teams from the North Central American youth soccer league in the area serving nearly 2,000 local kids ranging from 5 to 18 years.

Constructed over a two-month period outside the Ross Snyder Recreation Center, the new FieldTurf soccer field is a high-performance, low-maintenance surface that incorporates Nike Grind material from athletic shoes that are recycled through Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program. More than 125,000 pairs of recycled athletic shoes were used to create the Ross Snyder Field.

United States Soccer Foundation (USSF)
The philanthropic arm of soccer in the United States, the US Soccer Foundation has made more than $35,000,000 worth of financial support available to the game and continues its innovative approach to gaining support from private, public and government sectors. The Foundation was established in 1994 to administer the profits from the phenomenally successful 1994 FIFA World Cup. Since that time it has managed to provide enormous benefit to soccer at all levels while at the same time maintaining a wise investment policy that has protected 100% of the original corpus. It is an activist organization, working wherever possible to expand soccer’s reach and to implant it even more firmly in American communities.

Nike
NIKE, Inc., based in Beaverton, Oregon, is the world’s leading designer and marketer of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly owned Nike subsidiaries include Bauer NIKE Hockey Inc., the world’ leading manufacturer of hockey equipment; Cole Haanâ, which markets a line of high-quality men’s and women’s footwear, accessories and outerwear, and Hurley International LLC, which markets action sports and teen lifestyle apparel.

NikeGO and the Reuse-A-Shoe Program:
NikeGO is a grassroots community affairs program with a mission to increase physical activity in youth by offering thousands of children the motivation to discover the joy of movement and the fun of physical activity. Reuse-A-Shoe is an integral part of NikeGO, and aims to help get kids active by providing them the means to do it. Reuse-A-Shoe collects, slices, and grinds up defective and post-consumer athletic shoes to make Nike Grind material, which is then used in a variety of sports surfaces. Since its inception in 1993, Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program has recycled more than 13 million pairs of shoes, and has donated nearly 100 athletic courts, tracks, fields and playground surfaces in communities around the world. For NikeGO grant information, visit www.nikego.com. For more information about Reuse-A-Shoe, including where to drop-off shoes to be recycled, visit www.nikebiz.com/reuseashoe.

FieldTurf
FieldTurf is a revolutionary synthetic turf, designed with a single goal in mind: to create an artificial surface that duplicates the playing conditions of real grass. FieldTurf and Nike have worked together to produce top-quality football, soccer and multi-purpose sports fields using Nike Grind. After years of research and development, and hundreds of tests on the playing field and in the laboratory, FieldTurf is an artificial turf unlike any other. It looks like grass, feels like grass and plays like natural grass.

Nike Inc. logo

Nike Inc.

Nike Inc.

NIKE, Inc. based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly-owned NIKE subsidiaries include Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories and Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes surf and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories. For more information, visit www.nikeinc.com.

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