US Women's Soccer Team Getting NYC Parade for World Cup Win

The Canyon of Heroes is going gender neutral. It'll be the Canyon of Heroines on Friday, starting at 11am, when the World Cup Champion US women's national soccer team gets a ticker tape salute, a celebration rarely granted to an athletic team that does not compete regularly in the NYC area. The de Blasio Administration made the announcement Tuesday, one day after Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer wrote to the mayor, advocating for the rare honor. Social media buzzed with support for the idea. And Team de Blasio listened. Brewer's Twitter response to the announcement—"GOOOOOAAAAAL!"—surely made many who saw the team's 5-2 dismantling of Japan in Sunday's World Cup final (it was the most watched soccer game in US history) think of the hat trick that NJ native Carli Lloyd netted. (We can't stop thinking about that goal from midfield, Carli!) "See you at the 'Canyon of Heroines,' " Brewer's tweet added. Friday's parade will undoubtedly be an important symbolic moment for women's sports in America, as a women's squad will be given an honor that in recent years has been associated with the New York Yankees and the New York Giants, two of the most prestigious franchises in professional sports. The last time a ticker tape parade was held along the Canyon of Heroes for national athletes came in 1984, following the Olympics, according to the New York Times. There have been 205 ticker tape parades along the hallowed route (Broadway from the Battery to City Hall), the paper reported, citing the Downtown Alliance. The projected cost to the city, according to the Times, will be $1.5M.