America’s Team
The U.S. women’s World Cup players are crushing the arguments holding down their paychecks. Soccer overlords could not have missed hearing the equalpay chants. What they plan to do next is another matter.
The championship drew a billion global viewers, the U.S. team earned a tickertape parade through Manhattan, and their jerseys are flying off the shelves. The 23 players stand to collect hefty payments from a pot reserved for Cup winners.
But the underlying rules aren’t so rosy. Female athletes earn a fraction of the bonuses enjoyed by male players, and training facilities are nowhere near as good. Contracts on pay, TV rights and residuals pay wildly different sums. The players and the sport’s higherups are now slogging through legal arguments over equalizing the salaries of male and female athletes. Mediation is scheduled that could plot a
way to rebalance the picture.
That’s the legal side to a sports world that’s completely changed. The familiar arguments about audience size and commercial popularity just won’t work. The team’s record of two straight World Cups has turned the U.S. into a soccer superpower on the women’s side. The men’s team now brings in less revenue and fewer wins.
“I think we’re done with: Are we worth it? Should we have equal pay? Is the market the same? Yada yada,” said top scorer Megan Rapinoe after the final win. Her feelings were taken up crowds in World Cup stadiums and along the New York parade route. Shouts of “equal pay” were heard as loudly as cheers.
The women’s team now has the momentum it needs to achieve another win. A surging sport should end gender discrimination and pay its women stars what they deserve.