Is the fact that women athletes aren't paid as much as men an issue for you?

Not a sports fan so I haven’t been paying attention. I’m just wondering though IF the difference is related to male dominated sports generating way, way more profits?

It’s an issue for me when the women’s team earns more than the men’s.

The fact that income is market-based bothers me.

Well the money has to come from some where @mazingerz88. Ticket sales and memorabilia.

@Brian1946…I need to look into that. If it’s true then I have absolutely no problem with the women making more than the men for the same reason. Also, why would that be an issue for you?

Could you explain that @hmmmmmm?

I don’t agree with the US Women’s team getting paid equal to what the Men’s team gets. They should be paid more than the men.

The pay issue has to do with profits and licensing.

The mens’ team DOES make considerably more profits than the women’s. 4 billion vs 75 million. Men take 9% in profit Women 15% of the profits.

When I first heard the upset about this I was asking whether the women’s games bring in as much revenue. The reporting on this lacked serious investigation initially. It really bothered me. I take issue when women just sound like they are complaining without any data.

Finally, some numbers are coming out and it’s looking like the revenue is high enough that it justifies better pay, but to be honest I haven’t seen apples to apples P&L comparisons yet.

Of course the women should be paid just as well as the men if the financials justify it.

Honestly, probably the men should be paid less, and some of these huge amounts of money should be given to charities or maybe lower ticket prices or something. I’m fine with athletes making a lot of money, because they can’t play into their 60’s like other careers, but sometimes the Pat is excessive. Receiving a lot of money in your 20’s can set you up for life if you don’t spend it.

No, not really. Rather, I don’t worry about women’s equal pay in soccer any more than I do women’s pay in any other profession.

Pay should be based on merit, not on gender. It’s that simple.

That’s why I disagree with the USWNT’s approach. The are saying they should get paid more because they are women. I think that’s in correct because it singles out women. They should be paid as much or more than the mens’ team because they are as good or better.

I know it’s a subtle point, but equality means equality.

No
If a woman is good enough to play on a men’s team then she should be paid the same as the other men.

Yes. Anyone who believes corporate patriarchy is a thing of the past, is delusional.

@Dutchess_III: “could you explain?”

In our economic system, there is no shoulds. There is no mechanism for setting wage/pay for jobs based on true value to society (or anything else). Therefore, we have a male-dominated spectator sport market that is more profitable, so these companies pay men more. There is no space for making normative statements about pay.

And if there is more profit hoarded by owners in womens’ sports, there is still no mechanism in capitalism for fixing this. They will pay what they can get away with.

^^Exactly right. I tell this to teachers all the time who say their job is very “important” and should be paid more. We don’t pay based on importance in our free market society, we pay based on supply and demand (mostly).

@Yellowdog

The US Men’s National Team is not bringing in billions in revenue.

@Yellowdog “The pay issue has to do with profits and licensing.”
Yeah but those “profits” don’t materialize out of thin air. The actual, physical money has to come from some where, and it comes from people paying, one way or another, to see other people compete in athletics.

@hmmmmmm….exactly Men’s sports make more $. There is no shame in that. It’s just a simple fact.

@gondwanalon this has nothing to do with women playing on men’s teams. Also not every player on men’s teams is paid the same. The least talented is paid the least and that’s just the way it is.

@Dutchess_lll If the USWNT world champions played the USMNT (USA men are ranked #25th in the world) then the USA men would win convincingly.

@gondwanalon

Actually the US Men’s team are currently ranked 30th in the world. The US Women’s team are ranked 1st in the world. Granted, those are for separate divisions, but I’m not sure there’s any solid, empirical metric by which to compare the divisions. The Women’s team does, however, generate more revenue for the US Soccer Federation and has, unarguably, been more successful than the Men’s team.

@gondwanalon I am aware of that. It also has nothing to do with women playing on men’s leagues.
It is also the reason men are paid more. They MAKE more. They are more interesting to watch.
Now don’t get all Politically Correct Pissy. I was an athlete and I know women pour their heart and soul into their games every bit as much as men, but they can not compete physically with men.

If a women’s team generates more money than a men’s team then the women should be paid more than the men.

If it does then yes they should. But I’m pretty sure they don’t.

@Dutchess_lll

What makes you so sure of that?

Logic Darth. How many people watch professional women’s basketball, baseball, football etc?
When I get back home I’ll dig up stats and facts.

It isn’t an issue with me. Everybody should get paid the same but all this competition/sports crap is just too much. People live like competition with everyone is all that matters.

@Dutchess_lll

The “logic” in this case is mere presumption on your part. Nobody watches the US Men’s National Team because the men’s team suck. When, say, your best finish was 3rd place almost 90 years ago people tend to lose interest. When your “sibling” team is dominating while you can’t even qualify people tend to start watching your “sibling” instead. What it boils down to, at the end of the day, is that people like to watch a competitive team, regardless of sex. And the US Men’s team just isn’t competitive.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/uswnt-us-soccer-revenues-lawsuit

@Darth_Algar Didn’t the men’s team just come in second in the gold cup? Are they getting better now? Or, when it comes to competing in the world will that still probably not matter? Meaning, will the teams from the other continents still be way better?

I could ask my husband this, but it’s 3am right now, and he’s asleep.

I know in my house we watched the women win the World Cup, and then that night we watched my husbands team, Mexico, win the gold cup against USA. I think that’s Central America and North and Caribbean. Im guessing probably it’s smaller and easier than other regions. By the way, his team is USA unless they are playing Mexico, so if it has been USA against any team he would have been tuned in to watch also and rooting for America in that instance.

I think there are two reasons Americans don’t watch men’s soccer, one, is they don’t do very well; and two, America loves American football.

Yeah. They’ll have to out law American football before soccer will become popular here.

Darth….I’m not talking only about soccer. I’m talking about all sports. Women’s teams are not as interesting to watch.as men’s teams, therefore they don’t bring in as much money, therefore they aren’t paid as much.

@Dutchess_lll

And the conversation track had shifted specifically to the US National teams.

Ok. I have yet to research how much revenue the female team generated vs the male team. I would bet the difference is substantial.

@Ditchess_III Many people find the women’s soccer more interesting than men’s soccer. My husband prefers watching the women. More exciting in his opinion, and he also comments about how the men will trio each other or be more aggressive in impermissible ways, and the women play a more honest game.

I was dicussing average viewers @JLeslie, not just your household.

@Dutchess_lll

As I recall in the past few years the US Women’s team has been pulling in around $1,000,000/year in revenues than the US Men’s team. Granted, that might not seem like a huge amount, but nevertheless – more is more. And I suspect that if the two teams continue along their present courses that gap will only grow.

I have yet to see the source of that claim.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/us-womens-soccer-games-now-generate-more-revenue-than-mens.html

(Granted, that article doesn’t say per year, like a different article I read, so which is correct? I don’t know. Regardless, whether it’s per year or over the last couple of years – more is more).