National Anthem out at semi-pro soccer team’s games in Tulsa. What will be played?

An Oklahoma soccer team is saying goodbye to “The Star Spangled Banner” in favor of another patriotic ditty.

Tulsa Athletic, a semi-professional team with the National Premier Soccer League, says it will no longer open its home games with the National Anthem and will instead play Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

The team announced the decision Wednesday after days of “careful consideration and reflection,” according to a post on Twitter.

“From our beginning, we’ve developed a culture of inclusion and acceptance at Tulsa Athletic,” Sonny Dalesandro, co-owner of Tulsa Athletic, said in a statement. “We live in a country that allows us to freely speak our voice. We utilize this right as a club to continually try and improve our team and community.”

“We believe ‘This Land Is Your Land’ not only captures a powerful patriotic sentiment, but that it does so in a far more inclusive way,” Dalesandro added.

In a statement explaining the change, the team points to the third verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which includes a line that goes: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave…”

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Though these lyrics are rarely sung, the team said it believes the song “does not align with the club’s core values,” nor does it represent or unite Tulsa Athletic’s “diverse players, fans and community,” according to the statement.

The change comes amid conversations about racial injustice after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed in police custody after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for about eight minutes as three other officers failed to intervene. All four have been fired and criminally charged in the incident, McClatchy News reported.

Controversy over the anthem also came in 2016 when former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the song as a form of protest against racial injustice and police violence in America. Kaepernick, 32, the team’s star quarterback, became a free agent later that season and has been unsigned since.

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Floyd’s death has drawn renewed attention to the former athlete’s protests.

Tulsa Athletic said it believes its change in song choice will help create an “inclusive community” fans, athletes and the community can enjoy.

“[’This Land Is Your Land’] speaks to this country being built and shared by every person of every race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. It represents a future Tulsa Athletic is committed to striving for,” the team said in a statement.

The team said it‘s excited for the new tradition and welcomed fans to offer suggestions about which artists should sing “This Land Is Your Land” at one of its home matches this season.