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Church parking near stadiums scores big in win-win for congregations and sports fans_我的网站

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“足球回家了！”主场见证英格兰女足夺得欧锦赛冠军后，英格兰球迷喊出这样的庆祝口号。北京时间8月1日凌晨，2022年女足欧锦赛决赛在伦敦温布利球场落下帷幕，英格兰女足通过加时赛2∶1击败德国女足，队史首次问鼎欧洲冠军。 CHESTER, Pa. -- The Eagles and the NFL might still be the sports favorites at Calvary Baptist Church, just outside Philadelphia. But many here are also rooting for a neighboring team which last year reached the championship game of Major League Soccer.Their new-found fandom is all about location — and revenue from parking. The Philadelphia Union plays at Subaru Park, a stadium beside the Delaware River just a few blocks from Calvary in the economically challenged city of Chester. Its poverty rate is among the highest in the metro area.As the Union continues to attract loyal fans and reach new heights, so have the blessings bestowed on this historic church where Martin Luther King Jr. attended as a seminarian.It has been crucial. Like many other Black Protestant churches, Calvary Baptist struggled financially during the coronavirus pandemic. Attendance fell, and along with it, funding. But the church has transformed its parking lot to accommodate game-day fundraisers, with volunteers from the congregation staffing the lots and selling spaces for $15 per vehicle.These days, the church raises up to $3,000 per game — about half of what goes into the collection plate on Sundays, said its pastor, Keith Dickens. The welcome influx of extra money is being used to pay for utilities, ministries and a new speaker system that will allow Calvary to reach a broader audience by broadcasting its services online.“It’s been a blessing,” said Dickens, who on a recent game day proudly sported a Philadelphia Union hat. "Not only just to generate funding, but also to meet and minister to new people.”Across the nation, houses of worship located near stadiums — from Boston’s Fenway Park to the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field — have opened their parking lots to legions of fans.For churches offering parking near pro-soccer stadiums, their coffers recently received an assist from the world’s best active player, Lionel Messi who joined an MLS roster this year. All 250 parking spaces at the Calvary lot were full when Messi’s Inter Miami played the Union.Jeffrey Scholes, co-author of “Religion and Sports in American Culture,” said churches like Calvary show a growing willingness to use “secular entities like sport for religious purposes” including, “continuing a ministry, feeding the poor, keeping the lights on, things that ideally churches do."In the past, Scholes said clergy might have preferred the “old-fashioned way” of getting churchgoers to donate while shunning the sports-fan parking business as too “worldly."“There’s just much more openness to different kinds of nonreligious tactics to perform the necessary functions of a church or synagogue or mosque,” Scholes said. It also offers an opportunity to share with fans the history of congregations like Calvary, which was founded in 1879 by a group of formerly enslaved Africans seeking freedom to worship.On a recent game day, fans decked in the Union's navy, signal blue and gold colors pulled into parking spots in front of Calvary's colorful mural that pays homage to King. The civil rights leader worshipped at the church from 1948-1951, when he attended Chester’s Crozer Theological Seminary. Chester has a notable cultural and industrial history, but now has economic difficulties that make Calvary's new parking revenue all the more appreciated.“For us, if it gives back to a cause, it makes it all the better,” Abe Gitterman, age 37 and Jewish, said before he paid the parking fee. Next to him, his 6-and 7-year-old sons pointed to the mural and asked parking attendant and church member Lisa Lewis if this was the same man they had learned about in school. “Yes,” she replied, smiling. “It feels good,” she later said, “to tell them the history about the church.”It can also be fun. In Lubbock, Texas, Leslie Cranford, a parishioner at St. John’s United Methodist Church, said Texas Tech football fans have tailgated with RVs — taking up to four spots ($10 each) — in the church parking lot, near the Red Raiders' Jones AT&T Stadium. Sometimes, rival fans park at the church. “We tell them: we got to charge you extra!” Cranford said, laughing. She introduced the parking program at her congregation two decades ago. On a good season, they make up to $2,000 per game. “Dwindling attendance is a problem," Cranford said. "So, this helps us maintain our ministries.” In Boston, the Christian Science Church opened its parking garage to the public in 2014. That includes Red Sox fans who can park for $30 — a lower rate than closer to Fenway Park. Kevin Ness, manager of the Christian Science Committees on Publication, said the revenue helps cover the operating expenses of Christian Science Plaza, a popular tourist attraction which sits on top of the garage in the Fenway neighborhood. “This in turn allows the contributions from members to directly support the worldwide healing mission of the church,” he said. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bethany Church began its Packers parking program in 2010.“We thought it would be a great avenue for outreach, and a way to get funds to help support the growing ministries,” Bethany’s administrative assistant, Jill Connerym said via email. The church doesn’t have a set charge, and instead asks for donation, Connery said, adding that “many people are very generous.”Packers parking helps fund programs, including youth ministries, small group learning and building facility upgrades, Connery said. The church parking lot is often full on game days.“We are known for our hospitality,” she said. “We had a volunteer who began giving rides to Lambeau from our parking lot, free of charge to whoever didn’t want to walk the .5 miles to the stadium. So, now we are known for our shuttle service, and friendly volunteers.”Churches also have embraced other fans. Nashville First Church of the Nazarene offered their parking lots for three shows attended by thousands at nearby Nissan Stadium during the Nashville leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The parking program ($30 a spot) also is popular during Tennessee Titans games and has helped fund ministries in Nashville and missions in Haiti and Kenya.“Every one of these dollars comes right back in to help people,” said its senior pastor, Kevin Ulmet. “When people hear that, they love that, they say ‘we want to be a part of that.’ And that, to me, is the classic definition of win-win.”__Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.。

二 | 在赢得这个具有里程碑意义的冠军后，英国女王向球队表示祝贺。英格兰女足队长、现效力于阿森纳女足的威廉姆森赛后称，“希望我们夺冠能改变社会，让更多人来看我们（女足）的联赛。”英格兰的狂欢英国广播公司（BBC）称，这不仅是英格兰女足赢得的第一座重要奖杯，更是英格兰足坛自1966年男足世界杯夺冠后，56年来斩获的首个重要大赛冠军。

三 | 本场决赛共有87192名球迷在球场观战，这一数字创下欧洲足球锦标赛（包括男女足）的新纪录。有英媒估计，约2000万名英格兰球迷开始狂欢，7000多名球迷在伦敦特拉法加广场疯狂庆祝。

四 | 有大约1950万英格兰球迷在电视机前观看这场比赛，创下本年度英国收视纪录。

五 | 英足总认为，在“雌狮军团”夺冠的激励下，预计到2024年，将增加12万名参与女足运动的姑娘们。本届女足欧锦赛规模空前。

六 | 据福布斯网站统计，31场比赛的总上座人数达到574865人，是2017年荷兰女足欧锦赛的两倍多。法新社分析称，“本届赛事向球迷提供相对便宜的门票，吸引那些可能无法购买男足赛事的家庭。

七 | ”本届女足欧锦赛票价从5英镑到50英镑（约40元至400元人民币）不等。女足球员成为榜样欧锦赛的火爆是欧洲女足运动发展的缩影。

八 | 欧足联称，在过去20年，欧洲女足赛事知名度和受欢迎程度获得显著增长。

九 | 伴随着欧锦赛和欧冠联赛的高曝光率，顶级女子球员成为年轻女孩的榜样，由此带动欧洲女足青训发展。英国《卫报》称，“在2011年成立英格兰女足超级联赛（WSL）时，英足总的目标是要打造一支成功的国家队。”在与德国女足的欧锦赛决赛中，收获进球的图恩和凯莉均来自该联赛。接下来，英足总的目标是让75%的学校支持女足发展，让75%的草根俱乐部拥有至少一支女足球队。

除了女足欧锦赛，在今年欧洲女足冠军联赛中，巴塞罗那女足对阵皇家马德里和沃尔夫斯堡的两场比赛，现场观众数均超过9万人。得益于男子职业足球良好的发展基础，巴萨女足在球迷号召力、市场商业化等方面进步明显。

十 | 不过，德国女足主帅泰克伦堡也指出，尽管德国女足已8次问鼎欧洲，但这项运动在德国的发展仍有许多工作要做。德甲女足联赛的大多数俱乐部并不能为球员提供“全职”支持，德国女足需要更公平的发展机会。目前来看，欧洲足坛的性别收入差异依然明显。从两项大赛对比来看，2022年男足世界杯总奖金为4.4亿美元，而2023年女足世界杯总奖金为0.69亿美元；2020年男足欧锦赛奖金额为3.36亿美元，2022年女足欧锦赛总奖金额为0.16亿美元。不少中国女足球员“留欧”值得一提的是，欧洲女足俱乐部中，也有不少中国球员的身影。上赛季以租借合同加入英格兰女足超级联赛热刺队的唐佳丽，将在新赛季转会至西班牙马德里CFF俱乐部，成为首位登陆西甲联赛的中国女足球员。

十一 | 在亚洲杯有惊艳表现的张琳艳同样开启“留欧”生涯，她以租借形式加盟瑞士苏黎世草蜢足球俱乐部。苏超凯尔特人女足7月31日宣布，中国球员沈梦露加盟球队，她将与沈梦雨成为俱乐部队友。在此之前，中国女足球员王霜曾在法甲巴黎圣日耳曼女足效力，杨淑慧也于今年初加盟法甲另一支女足俱乐部ASJ苏瓦奥队。此外，涂琳俪目前效力于冰岛FHL俱乐部。7月31日结束的美洲杯女足决赛中，巴西女足1∶0击败东道主哥伦比亚，第8次加冕美洲杯冠军。