People Are Upset That The US Women's World Cup Team Earned A Lot Less Than The Men's Champions
(Source) — In the Women’s World Cup, the USA soccer team took the championship against Japan on Sunday—just not with their pocketbooks. In fact, they are being paid 40 times less than their male counterparts. In a Politico piece, Mary Pilon points out that the National Women’s Soccer League salaries range from $6,000 to $30,000 and teams often have a salary cap of $200,000. The Men’s League Soccer league salary cap clocked in at $3.1 million last year, and the total payout for the women’s World Cup will be just $15 million compared to the men’s $576 million sum. Women’s soccer isn’t the only sport underpaying players according to gender. In golf, the PGA tournament prize money, $250 million, is five times the amount of the women’s LPGA, $50 million. In 2013 the WNBA’s salary minimum was just under $38,000, and the team’s salary cap was $913,000. On the other hand, the NBA salary minimum was $490,180, the team salary cap was $58.7 million, and players like Kobe Bryant alone make $25 million per year.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills right now. Sites like Jezebel often run this nonsense but this is a “story” that Politico, NESN and Buzzfeed have posted in the last day. Yet they hardly mention those pesky little things like revenue, attendance, and viewers. Admittedly, the Final this year crushed it in the ratings but that’s one game in one country. And it happened to be that country’s birthday weekend so everybody was feeling nice and patriotic. The men’s tournament is like that for a full month, all over the world. The stadiums are packed every game, from the group stage to the final the entire month is an event.
I’ll admit I never took a women’s studies course but my understanding of feminism is that it strives for equality between the sexes. Isn’t this just outright asking for a handout? You want the WNBA to pay players like Kobe? The LPGA to have purses like the PGA? Title IX doesn’t last for life, you get it through college and then it’s time to start producing on your own. I’m all for women getting their fair pay, but if you want to make more then earn more. Be more appealing to advertisers and viewers aside from one day every four years in international competition. This is like a bench player complaining he doesn’t get paid starting pitcher money. Be better so you sell more jerseys, bring more eyes to the sport, and put more asses in the seats. Pretty simple.
