That being said, the US Women's National Team is off base with what I view as a socialist scheme for what they label "equal pay." True, they train just as hard as the men and they win as much or more than the US National Men's team, BUT......
In the end all athletic events are entertainment business commodities events. Compensation translate to fans in the seats and licensed merchandise sold. There's a reason the mediocre Dallas Cowboys are the most lucrative franchise ever (if you believe the reports) and that is because like it or not, Cowboys fans are willing to fork over an obscene amount of money to attend games, buy merchandise and otherwise make Jerry Jones richer. You say "But that's AMERICAN football.....what about soccer?" So let's look at that.
The argument being put forth by the likes of Senator Manchin and the USWNT is that this last Women's World Cup (a FIFA production) earned more than the last Men's World Cup which incidentally did not include the US Men's team. When you cut out the largest and most lucrative viewing segment, you get less revenue. Even AOC should be able to figure that out. But then there's the story of ad revenue. From "Money":
"...Total money paid for TV ads during the women’s 2015 FIFA World Cup on Fox. That’s nearly three times as much as the $6 million in ad money collected by ESPN for airing the 2011 women’s World Cup. Still, it’s a tiny fraction of the $529 million in TV ads paid to ESPN during the men’s 2014 World Cup on ESPN..."
This translates into less revenue for the women due to outside forces that are not controlled by US Men's Soccer. Also, most of the men on the US Men's Team play in the growing Major League Soccer. While there are existing Women's teams and leagues, they do not have the following of the MLS teams.You cannot MAKE people buy tickets. This is not to say womens' teams will never achieve the same compensation as men, but when you go out of your way to antagonize and alienate the people who might actually pay to see you play, it's counterintuitive to growing your brand and attracting fans to buy tickets and merchandise. Right now, there's a surge of people buying USWNT merchandise but down the road this will fade as all bandwagon jumping diminishes. This is why you so seldom see successful pro athletes take controversial public opinion based stances. Rapinoe did more damage to their argument for equal pay that many of these players-and let's remember they are entertainers not politicians-will not recognize until later.
Also, for the sake of argument, I'll just leave this here from 2015 where the same lame arguments were being made by largely the same groups and media outlets:
From: National Review by Tim Cook
"ThinkProgress is in a huff because the real world insists on standing athwart its unicorn paddock:
The U.S. women’s soccer team defeated Japan on Sunday to win the World Cup. For their dominant performance, the team will collect $2 million from FIFA, the international body that runs the tournament.The championship prize for women pales in comparison to the $8 million in prize money awarded to men’s teams who lose in the first round. Every men’s team was awarded $1.5 million just for participating.
Gosh, why could that be? Perhaps it’s because there is an entrenched worldwide conspiracy to be mean to women. Or perhaps it’s because the women’s World Cup doesn’t bring in much revenue and the men’s World Cup does. Per the right-wing apology website Huffington Post:
“The World Cup pays for all the 20 World Cups FIFA organizes, the under-17, under-20 men and women, club football, beach soccer all is financed by the men’s World Cup which brings directly $4.5 billion to FIFA.”The women’s game continues to grow in popularity with next year’s finals featuring 24 nations, up from 16 in 2011, for the June 5 to July 6 at six venues across Canada.The Canadian Soccer Association said it expects attendance to come in a close to 1.5 million.
COMMENTS
The actual figure was far below that, even after FIFA reduced the price of tickets to try to gin up interest. By contrast, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil attracted 3,429,873 people to the games, and 5,154,386 fans to all FIFA events. Likewise, according to the openly misogynistic New York Times, the Women’s World Cup of 2011 “brought in just $5.8 million, while the men’s cup in 2014 netted $1.4 billion.” Advertisers, the Times confirms, will pay 80 times as much to cover the men’s competition as the women’s.
The women are being stiffed. Stiffed, I tell you."
