Women's World Cup - USA! USA!

[homer]

Congrats to Team USA! Dominating performance.

[pacopete4]

Loved it. So great to see.

[trwi7]

They offended me by scoring that second goal. They only needed one!

[stoutdude04]

They offended me by scoring that second goal. They only needed one!

 

A Badger alum scored it too. So that's neat!

[RobDeer 45]

What a great event. I really got in to it. I also loved how much my two boys, 6 and 3, got in to it too. This team is really fun to watch.

[Samurai Bucky]

What a great event. I really got in to it. I also loved how much my two boys, 6 and 3, got in to it too. This team is really fun to watch.

It was much better than the egg laid by the USMNT against Mexico.

[clancyphile]

What a great event. I really got in to it. I also loved how much my two boys, 6 and 3, got in to it too. This team is really fun to watch.

It was much better than the egg laid by the USMNT against Mexico.

 

You know, after looking at how the USWNT has done compared to the USMNT, I just can't support equal pay.

 

With four World Cup championships, and four Olympic Gold Medals, the USWNT has posted such performance that they deserve higher pay than the USMNT.

[OnTheBlack]

What a great event. I really got in to it. I also loved how much my two boys, 6 and 3, got in to it too. This team is really fun to watch.

It was much better than the egg laid by the USMNT against Mexico.

 

You know, after looking at how the USWNT has done compared to the USMNT, I just can't support equal pay.

 

With four World Cup championships, and four Olympic Gold Medals, the USWNT has posted such performance that they deserve higher pay than the USMNT.

 

 

Well, as long as more people watch the Women play and buy their jersey's for their daughters, they'll get a much stronger argument for equal pay. Of course...I don't know how much money either team generate, only that the little I've read cites the women's lawyer as saying that revenue shouldn't matter, they should do the right thing. Which..incidentally is what they do in figure skating. For men. Women generate more money but they share because it's the right thing to do.

 

I don't know, either way, it was a lot of fun to watch and I have to admit, I'm a bigger fan of a soccer now than I was before and particularly a bigger fan of a few of the women.

[OnTheBlack]

By the way, I know this is late, but I thought the little "tea sipping" celebration in the semi's by Alex Morgan was hilarious and I think it's even funnier that people were upset by it. But I think it's kinda weak she said it had something to do with Game of Thrones. Just own it. It was a light hearted jab.

 

It's not like it's something really offensive. It's England. They drink tea. Drinking tea is a pretty boring and mundane activity. There are a lot more offensive things that could be gone when playing teams from around the world.

[SeaBass]

That goal by Rose Lavelle was incredible in that she took it from near midfield all on her own and split the defense nearly perfectly to set up her own shot. I feel like that's a real rarity in soccer, a lot of scoring comes off a series of well timed passes. She basically took it on her own and dunked on the defense like Giannis would.

[FVBrewerFan]

What a great event. I really got in to it. I also loved how much my two boys, 6 and 3, got in to it too. This team is really fun to watch.

It was much better than the egg laid by the USMNT against Mexico.

 

You know, after looking at how the USWNT has done compared to the USMNT, I just can't support equal pay.

 

With four World Cup championships, and four Olympic Gold Medals, the USWNT has posted such performance that they deserve higher pay than the USMNT.

 

That's similar to saying if Milwaukee had a WNBA team that won a few titles, they should earn more than the Bucks. Or take gender out of it. What if Biloxi won several titles, should those players earn more than the Brewers?

 

The men bring in far more money. Surprises me, but they do. If they want to pay the women the same as the men, that's fine with me- but I don't think they NEED or should do that.

[homer]

I would like to see the revenue breakdown between men and women.

[tmwiese55]

I saw something on this topic that the women's teams are paid out 20% of revenue generated by this all. The men's teams are only paid out 7% of the revenue. I don't know the source or accuracy, but if we assume that's true it seems they are already making an effort to pay them as much as they can, it's just that it generates so much less revenue than men's. Or I suppose you could take that stat to argue that the men are being ripped off and someone is stealing all that money somewhere in the process. Or, spitballing here, they're taking money from the men's pot to pay the women as it is, idk.

 

I'm pretty sure that's how it is in the WNBA. Last time I saw info on this, several years ago so take with a grain of salt, the WNBA was a revenue loser being funded out of the real NBA's pocket as it's just good for the game in general. Yet of course we've seen all the complaints how they're not paid enough and all that. And it does seem to me WNBA players aren't paid enough to be worth their efforts and vs what they can get in Europe, but sorry it's just capitalism. If no one goes to the game or watches then there is nothing you can do, they're just not generating money.

 

If what someone just said regarding figure skating is true (that women generate more but men still get paid the same) I think that should go away too and I think it's BS there is a double standard in that regard. Tie it to revenue/capitalism, that simple to me.

 

For example, womens golf US Open generates X amount of money and the women should get the approved cut. If men generates Z money, they should split that pot up to them. It's that simple to me.

[nate82]

The WNBA'S whole TV contract is 1/10 of the NBA's the last I looked and could be lower. I believe the Brewers have a TV deal close to what the WNBA's is. The Brewers ticket sales are also above the WNBA's as a whole I believe. The last I looked the WNBA had an attendance around 1.3-1.6 million per year.

 

Womens sports in general are less attended by both men and women. Men still are the #1 audience for sports the last time I looked at viewership for sporting events.

 

Revenue for women's sports compared to men's sports are barely breaking even if at all. There just isn't a demand for the product that is put out there even when the product is far superior to the alternative. US men's soccer is an inferior product if you go by success of a team but still drives in more demand than the women's product.

 

This would be a very interesting case study in economics.

[MrTPlush]

Lol you deserve to get paid based on how much money you generate. If the men generate more money sucking vs. the women winning (likely) then cry me a river. Why should they be paid the same if they don’t generate the same revenues?

 

“They deserve more” Sorry Clancy but I feel you are using the same logic when people say firefighters deserve more than football players. I don’t think you understand how things work in the money world. Generate money...get money. Usually how it works.

 

Now if the women generate more or it is disproportionately wrong compared to the men...then all the power. But basing it on their success? Annoying and seems like total inability to understand reality.

[nate82]

This is really more about demand than anything else. Take the WNBA for instance the average ticket price for an WNBA game is about $20 and they average about 1.6 million fans per year. The WNBA also brings in $25m a year from their TV contract with ESPN.

 

So in total the revenue that we know about is about $57m a year for the WNBA. That is less than what any single NBA team makes in one year. This is the main reason why female athletes are paid less than male athletes. The whole league of the WNBA provides less revenue than one team in the NBA.

 

Also if you look at FIFA the reason the women's teams make less is because the men have a $400m pool while the women only have a $40m prize pool I believe it is. This is all tied into sponsorship's and goes back to my main point in my previous post of men's sports having a higher viewer rating than women's sports. It can be seen in the WNBA and any other women's sports. Outside of gymnastics women's sports is viewed less compared to men's.

[CheeseheadInQC]

According to a couple of stories I've read, the US women's team generated more revenue for the soccer federation than the men's team from 2016-2018, and I imagine the difference is only going to be greater now. Obviously that isn't the case elsewhere, but there is a case to be made that FIFA hasn't exactly made a sufficient effort to either expand the reach of the women's game or market the tournament (the complaints about the schedule, etc.).

[OnTheBlack]

Lol you deserve to get paid based on how much money you generate. If the men generate more money sucking vs. the women winning (likely) then cry me a river. Why should they be paid the same if they don’t generate the same revenues?

 

“They deserve more” Sorry Clancy but I feel you are using the same logic when people say firefighters deserve more than football players. I don’t think you understand how things work in the money world. Generate money...get money. Usually how it works.

 

Now if the women generate more or it is disproportionately wrong compared to the men...then all the power. But basing it on their success? Annoying and seems like total inability to understand reality.

 

 

This is the absolute, unquestionable bottom line. It's why I always find it annoying when they talk about how Pro-Athletes don't "deserve" what they make. No, player to play, maybe not, but as a whole, they obviously do.

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I think it's sad that women, the Women's soccer team doesn't make more money. They seem like they deserve to get paid more, but if they don't generate as much revenue...well, that's kinda the bottom line.

 

I would think a few sports would be closer. Soccer being one of them. Tennis another.

[homer]

Interesting article in Business Insider about the pay disparity. Apparently, men's and women's tennis players make about the same amount of money because they play their big tournaments at the same time:

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/womens-soccer-players-footballers-equal-pay-fifa-world-cup-2019-7

 

"While tennis still has a pay gap at smaller tournaments, the women have achieved equal pay at the biggest events by playing the four Grand Slam tournaments with the men. With the major sources of revenue (broadcast rights, advertising, ticket sales) pooled together, it is nearly impossible to say if the men or women are generating a larger share of the pie."

 

The big difference in revenue comes during the World Cup which is run by FIFA, not the USSF.

 

"The entire purse for the 2019 Women's World Cup was $30 million, with the winning country receiving $4 million. In contrast, FIFA's purse for the men's 2018 World Cup was $400 million, with the champions receiving $38 million, more than the entire purse at the Women's World Cup.

 

If the women were to play alongside the men in a single World Cup every four years, there would no longer be a gap in revenue generated by the women and the men, as they would be creating one larger pool. And if that argument goes away, so does a large chunk of the pay gap."

[tmwiese55]

Good post. I thought of that after I posted yesterday but was just thinking of Olympics as they all play together at the same so tough to know who's generating what, of course Olympics don't pay though. And then I thought of Tennis in that how can they tell during Wimbledon now, unless they truly breakdown ratings event to event which seems way to much imo.

 

While what you post of course would be good for women, and probably the sport overall. couldn't one easily make an argument that the men in that Soccer World Cup scenario would be getting kind of screwed? Since of course they have years and years of data showing they generate more, plus of course the men's professional leagues that obviously blow revenues for women (heck, of any sport) out of the water. IMO, they should probably look at it from a "we're all in it together as soccer players regardless of gender" type of perspective but an argument can easily be made and isn't really out of line.

 

One thing to consider if you were to play them at the same time, the men would dominate the coverage and interest and overshadow the women just out of the public being more interested. So the women would somewhat be pushed to the undercard. Whereas now they get their own spotlight or 'time to shine' so to speak. I'm sure they'd take the money instead, just saying it would be an unintended consequence.

[madbad2000]

The big problem I have is that FIFA controls the money and they are absolutely loaded. According to FIFA's 2018 financial report, the organization pulled in $4.6 billion, $2.89 billion in expenses/investment and has $2.74 billion in cash reserves. It's not comparable to owning a football or baseball team where the profit goes to the ownership group. And when you look at what they are paying in terms of their events versus what they force host nations to spend in order to host is nuts. It is hard for me to look at that organization and feel as if they are operating at the bottom line and payouts for each tournament need to be based on revenues of that event. The World Cup (men and women) are huge events for FIFA in more terms than revenue. According to FIFA's mission, their purpose is to spread football throughout the world through investments/development and maintaing consistent rules/fair game policy. The publicity and draw to soccer as a whole is nearly incalcuable in terms of the value they are receiving. This world cup was huge for drawing interest to soccer in the States, for both men and women viewers. The buzz of this tournament is what is needed to get additional countries to start their women's teams. Don't forget the women's tournament is only 24 teams vice 32 for the men. The more countries that buy in only means more viewers/advertisers/hosts for the women's tournaments. And the payout for a World Cup is only once every 2 years. It would be incredibly easy for FIFA to match the payouts for men and women and still roll away from their events swimming in cash. And to be fair, they can quite easily par some of that payout from the men's side to pay the women's. I would guess that a large percentage of the men's tournament players would likely accept playing for free as their main source of revenue is from their professional clubs. (not advocating this position, just saying that pride/winning is huge to players) There are other things they can do such as have a portion of the payout go to the winning club's national program with input from the players. This would serve their mission of investment while giving a charitable aspect to the team's performance. Lots of ways that FIFA can handle this to come out of this latest push with a major win and not really hurt their financial position.

[owbc]

The theme I see coming through here is that NCAA athletes really need to get paid. Those are people who are generating a ton of revenue and not getting any of it. They are really getting screwed.

[homer]

The theme I see coming through here is that NCAA athletes really need to get paid. Those are people who are generating a ton of revenue and not getting any of it. They are really getting screwed.

 

[tmwiese55]

good post madbad. Yea probably the bigger thing to worry about is just how massively corrupt the whole World Cup is as well as the Olympics. People are just stealing money.

 

Don't want to get into the college thing as it's been beat to death. I'm generally on the side of finding a way to get the two main sports kids more money (but then here we go, why does men bball get paid but not womens, etc). But one thing to think of on topic is how much revenue and attendance are those same kids getting when they play in the D league? Name on the front of those jerseys is generating most of it. Take our Nigel as an example, packed arenas and big TV deals that "he's generating". He's done, goes to D league and there is 1500 people at the game and almost no one watching on TV. Just remember that in the equation too.

[rickh150]

Those college kids should get paid for food, room and board, and classes for four years.