Gotham & Dove Have now Been Cleaning up for a Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gotham FC and Dove to celebrate 

Keep Her in the Game anniversary at rivalry match

Festivities include appearances by Grammy Award-winning singer Ciara, media personality Kylie Kelce and youth wrestling star Honor Smoke; 

prematch meetup with Togethxr

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (July 15, 2025) - Gotham FC is under one month away from celebrating the one-year anniversary of its highly impactful community initiative Keep Her in the Game (KHITG), presented by Dove, at the Aug. 9 Rivalry Weekend showdown with the Washington Spirit at Sports Illustrated Stadium.

Match programming is jam-packed for the highly anticipated 12 p.m. EST game, which will broadcast nationally on ESPN and pit two 2024 NWSL semifinalists against each other in a meeting with serious playoff implications. It is expected to be the largest crowd of the season for a Gotham FC home match, with a dollar donated to GFC community partner and youth soccer club South Bronx United for each fan in attendance. 

Grammy Award-winning singer Ciara will light the torch in the pregame festivities, with youth wrestler Honor Smoke serving as torch bearer. In addition to leading the prematch coin toss, Dove partner and media personality Kylie Kelce will meet with hundreds of girls from the KHITG initiative who are attending the match and participating in a prematch demonstration of the program’s impact. 

The media and commerce brand Togethxr will cohost a prematch party for Gotham FC fans from 10-12 p.m. at the new Keepers restaurant, bar and coffee shop on Pete Higgins Blvd across the street from Sports Illustrated Stadium. 

“We are so excited to host this incredible celebration of Keep Her in the Game in a big way,” said Laura Petro, the vice president of brand and fan experience for Gotham FC. “This initiative is at the very core of our club’s values, and a rivalry match on national television is the perfect stage to put its impact on full display with powerhouse guests and an amazing crowd.”

In August 2024, Gotham FC launched Keep Her in the Game, a research-backed initiative aimed at reversing the high dropout rates among adolescent girls in sports. The program provides curated resources and support to empower young athletes both on and off the field in response to alarming data showing that by age 14, girls leave sports at nearly twice the rate of boys and face 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports. 

Earlier this year, Dove joined forces with Gotham FC with an NWSL record-setting partnership, becoming the presenting sponsor of Keep Her in the Game in making the iconic personal care brand’s first major investment in a women’s sports team. The initiative has far surpassed its one-year goal of reaching 1,000 girls, engaging more than 95 local youth soccer clubs and their coaches. This partnership with Gotham FC continues the Dove brand’s commitment to keeping girls in sports through the Body Confident Sport program, a first-of-its-kind, scientifically-proven set of coaching tools to build body confidence in 11-to-17-year-old girls.

With the dollar-per-fan donation, Gotham FC is helping support South Bronx United’s work to provide access to coach mentorship to more than 300 girls while they learn the game, play competitively and develop on and off the field as athletes, leaders and scholars. South Bronx United will also be honored along with KHITG coaches during a halftime ceremony.