By Amy Tennery
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fans wishing to snap a picture with U.S. forward Alex Morgan will have a chance at the next best thing as a six-meter, 825-pound (375kg) statue of the soccer star hits the road ahead of the Women’s World Cup.
World Cup broadcaster Fox Sports conceived of the statue to promote its programming for the tournament, which kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
Known as ‘Liberty Alex’, the work is crafted from hard-coated and reinforced foam with a 3-D printed resin head and trophy, and features Morgan draped in an American flag, posing like the iconic Statue of Liberty.
Fox Sports will oversee the statue’s nationwide tour that includes stops at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Seattle and New York City.
Robert Gottlieb, president, marketing, Fox Sports, told Reuters his team began planning the project months ago.
“It got bigger with each iteration,” said Gottlieb.
“Originally it was like, ‘Oh we’ll make it 10-foot’ and then it’s like, ‘You know, maybe it should be 15.” And then you kind of see 15 and, you know, let’s make it 20. And of course the cost goes up with each iteration.”
Morgan, who will appear in her fourth World Cup, modeled the flag in an April photoshoot. A team of 3-D artists, sculptors, painters and visual effects makeup artists completed the work in roughly a month.
“Every time we made it bigger, the weight increased, the materials, the amount of workmen and also the shipping,” said Gottlieb.
“So we have to truck this all over the country now, so we had to make custom containers that fit this exact shape.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
