The fight for equality goes on
The United States women’s national soccer team was honored Wednesday with a tickertape parade through New York, down the same streets of the Canyon of Heroes that have witnessed similar ceremonies for returning astronauts and other explorers who conquered the great unknown.
Previous U. S. teams also were celebrated for their success at the World Cup. Twenty years ago, the ground- breaking 1999 team was on the cover of seemingly every magazine in the nation. Just four years ago, the 2015 team was the first to ride through the paper rain on the streets of Manhattan.
The great unknown for the 2019 team, however, is whether their accomplishment will lead to lasting change for their sport, themselves, and for the goal of gender equality. In many ways, the other three championships represented a wonderful tide of emotion, but one that fell as quickly as it rose. Will it be different this time?
“Any time you can elevate the public’s consciousness, it helps,” John Langel said. “This is an evolution, not a revolution, and it feels as if it has reached another tipping point. I think we’ll see another jump up, and not just for women’s soccer. Hopefully, we’ll see the impact elsewhere.”
Langel, a retired partner with the Philadelphia law firm Ballard Spahr, was the general counsel for the U. S. Women’s National Team Players Association from 1998- 2016. With the leaders of the 1999 champions, Langel and the WNTPA fought the first major battles with the U. S. Soccer Federation over equal treatment from the sport’s National Governing Body, and helped start the Women’s United Soccer Association, the first major women’s league in the United States.
Both the battle to gain equal treatment for the national team and the battle for building a sustainable league model, are still ongoing.
“Everyone is kind of asking what’s next and what we want to come of all of this,” outspoken star Megan Rapinoe said after the team captured the World Cup trophy. “It’s to stop having the conversation about equal pay and are we worth it. What are we going to do about it?”
The two fights are really different conversations. The obligation of U. S. Soccer is not the same as the obligation of the marketplace. The women unquestionably deserve equal treatment from their federation, and they filed suit in March seeking it. The case is currently in mediation. Less clear- cut is whether a viable domestic league is a birthright or a goal that must pencilout logically on corporate America’s bottom line.
“This is a significant time, and the public’s response is significant,” Langel said. “I always thought it was incumbent on corporate America to pursue this not as a moral buy, but because it does make business sense. We’re seeing more of that, of corporate America recognizing the value of women’s viewership.”
After the championship Sunday in France, the National Women’s Soccer League, now in its seventh season, announced that Budweiser had signed a multiyear sponsorship deal. Also, ESPN agreed to televise 14 games through the remainder of the current season. That replaces league- wide visibility lost when the A& E networks dropped the league earlier this year.
Salaries are capped at approximately $ 46,000 in the NWSL, and some top U. S. players — including Rapinoe and Alex Morgan — have opted in their careers for stints in more lucrative European leagues. Growth of the NWSL is a chicken- and- egg proposition. Will more sponsorship and exposure increase attendance, or will a league that averages about 6,000 per game lose its luster as a corporate buy before that happens? It is a race that two previous leagues lost.
The easier question to answer is what the federation should do. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, from 2016- 2018, the women’s team generated $ 50.8 million in revenue for U. S. Soccer while the men’s team — who did not qualify for the 2016 World Cup — generated $ 49.9 million. Meanwhile, men on the national team were given a roster bonus of $ 55,000, and the women were given $ 15,000.
Answering the players association lawsuit, U. S. soccer claimed “legitimate business reasons” for that and other disparities. It will be interesting to hear those.
It’s about doing what is right rather than what you can get away with. The current team is intent on shining a light on those decisions.
Maybe they will have better luck this time, because maybe now the time is finally right. Parades last a day. This team wants more than just that. They want tomorrow as well.