2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

Combined U.S. viewership made yesterday's match the most watched soccer game of any kind in U.S. history -- edging out 2014's Germany-Argentina World Cup Final. Also beat out the most recent World Series and NBA finales (though not the 2015 NCAA basketball championship).

Way to go, ladies!
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Hope Solo is now endorsing equal pay for female athletes.

U.S. women's national team goalie Hope Solo endorsed equal pay for female athletes on Tuesday, tweeting a photo of a fan holding a sign that read “Equal Pay for [Female] Athletes” and adding “Could not agree more!”
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http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/07/07/world-cup-usa-hope-solo-pay-gap-female-athletes

I'm all for equal pay for men and women in the business world if two people of the opposite sex work the same job at the same place and have the same experience. I support that. However, there's a vast difference between the business world and the sports world. A lot of the money athletes make is based on advertising dollars and revenue. Women sports tend to not even scratch the surface of male counterparts, and should thus be paid accordingly.

By comparison, the best WNBA player does not deserve to make the same amount of money as Lebron James.

 
I agree to an extent; you can't ask a WNBA team to pay the same as a NBA team. They're two different organizations and it's simply not possible.

In this case the men's and women's world cups are both FIFA, and the disparity in payout is something they should have some control over. Remember, there was also the issue of artificial turf, something that would never happen in a men's world cup.

Broadly speaking it's been a men's world for a long time and without some effort from somewhere, that stranglehold will continue. Yet there needs not be such a disparity in opportunity as a professional athlete. It's not an intrinsic reality where we all just like watching men compete this much more than we like to watch women compete; it's sheer inertia and most glaring in specific sports.

The U.S. is actually pretty good about this relative to most countries, I would think. Men's sports are the incumbent moneymakers, but we have Title IX, without which U.S. women's soccer wouldn't be where it is today. I'm glad, because there is definitely something worth changing about "Oh, you were born a girl? Well, don't especially bother with athletics then."

 
You raise some good points, but I would say athletic opportunity to me at least doesn't factor into pay. Could those opportunities be better in America for women? Without question. But, we're also a lot more progressive than some other countries in this area. A lot. And I know, personally, I don't find women's sports enjoyable when matched up against men counterparts. Back to my NBA example, watching men play the sport is far more interesting to me than watching the WNBA.

Going by TV ratings, you could say the women's soccer team is owed their fair share from this year's cup. But, in terms advertising revenue, the 2011 Women's Cup only had $5.8 million compared to the $1.4 billion for the men's. Haven't seen 2015 yet but I'm guessing it's nowhere near the men's.

There are definitely some fairness and equality issues in the sports world but I do think people are just always going to find male sports more interesting, fair or not, and thus money should not be equalized unless all other factors are similar.

 
There's a big skills gap between men's and women's basketball. The stakes and interest is so much higher, the history so much stronger, and the money so much better. The pool of people willing and then able to dedicate themselves to such an extent to becoming a professional athlete isn't comparable. In the case of women, we often need some reminding that they can even have careers! (England soccer's twitter channel had a post to the effect of "Today, the Lionesses go back to being mothers, partners, and daughters, but they were also heroes." They're also professional soccer players!)

Similarly, US men's soccer lags behind the women's team in relative skill. Male athletes in the U.S. have basketball, football, baseball, hockey,... to aspire to. The U.S. invests heavily in women's soccer compared to other countries (we are definitely relatively progressive) -- and the fact that we have so many good players today, we probably owe to the burgeoning success of past USWNT performances in the 1990s. Mia Hamm was a huge sports figure and the hero of a generation. And besides, what else is a girl who wants to be a sports star in the U.S. going to do?

I certainly think men will always find men's sports more interesting. And people will always find the "bigger" events -- the ones with better production value and more fellow people following -- more interesting. The women's world cup should hopefully be a champion for the cause.

I guess to me it's less about pay than opportunity. Indirectly, more opportunity will lead to better pay on its own. So bodies such as FIFA would have the subsidize women's sports more using their earnings from the men's sports. But they can afford it, and it's necessary in order to get anywhere with opportunity. Without that effort, sports remains for the most part a man's thing, a reality that continues to feed itself over time.

 
2 stats:

The Women's World Cup brings in ~$27 million compared to The World Cup....which brings in $4.3....BILLION

The women in the WWC are given 13 percent of the proceeds. The men in the World Cup get...9 percent

This argument is done.

 
I agree with the points you're arguing about it being almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'll just go back to my initial point - today, in the current climate, there's no reason the women's national team should make as much as the men's national team.

If some day far in the future the women's cup brings in more advertising revenue and becomes a bigger machine, then I'd say they deserve the most money. I'm all for them getting more opportunity and expanding their brand.

But, opportunity does not equate to a pay increase in the current climate. Could it in the future? Sure, and I'd be ok with that. But, right now? Absolutely not - not until the women's team becomes a bigger revenue earner. I think that's probably the part you agree with.

 
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