The debate over equal pay in sports has continued for
decades. Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when
we get crumbs. Ok. And I want women to have the cake,
the icing and the cherry on top too. I've said this
many times. The WBA doesn't pay my bills playing here
doesn't pay my bills. We make more money overseas. In
late 2022 congress passed the equal pay for team usa
law ensuring that women playing for international teams
must make the same as men for national teams and
athletes. Tennis leagues have made significant moves
toward equal pay. Here in the US. Earlier this year,
the women's tennis association announced there would be
equal prize money offered to both male and female
athletes at more competitions including grand sl
tournaments. But a fair solutio for the pay gap across
the rest of the sports world seems elusive. A recent
CNN analysis found that internationally women play
in the 2023 World Cup earned 25 cents to the dollar of
the men. A quadruple jump from the last but still far
below their peers. Other pro sports have also seen low
wages for women in hockey, about half of team usa hold
2nd and 3rd jobs to pay the bills. Despite training
playing year round, the average salary for WBA athletes
was just over 102,000 in 2022. And many athletes seek
work overseas for higher pay countries like China and
Russia can offer contracts for hundreds of thousands of
dollars. The average NBA salary is $8.2 million per
year of the top 50 highest paid athletes according
Forbes, there's just one woman, Serena Williams at
number 49. But some prominent athletes and sports
officials have vocalized skepticism over a blanket
equal pay policy. In a number of sports critics say th
pay gap is an unfortunate but fair distributi
on revenue generated and viewership, major men's sports
in the US still bring in bigger revenues and audience
than women's sports. But it's difficult to make a
direct comparison between revenues and viewership
without examining sports media coverage itself and the
lucrative broadcast rights. And it takes time now for
women to catch up after 50 years of lack investment. Uh
it takes time for them to catch up and, and, and now um
develop the audience in the same way. And how do you
develop an audience you get on television, broadcast
rights, make up the biggest share of revenue for major
sports teams in the US. Skeptics for equal pay. Argue
women's sports have less interest and thus aren't worth
the bigger deals But is it a matter of less interest or
less exposure Would more people be interested in seeing
women play If the hype levels and ability to tune in
the A US C and Purdue University study found 9
total television sports coverag in 2019 focused on
men's sports. The imbalance was similar in social media
posts and sports newsletters. This has nothing to do
with whether or not they are great. You know, women
athletes, this has everything to do with who is
controlling mass communications There are signs, the
existing TV, deals for women's aren't as rich as they
could be. A 2021 NCAA analysis of March madness
tournaments found the broadcast rights for women's
teams were undervalued by millions. Even though fewer
people watched the final for women's college basketball
between 2015 and 2021. Total viewers for the women's
final have increased by 32%. While for men, it's
declined by 40%. A women's game was only available on
cable while the men had a wider reach with free network
TV. A 2021 white paper for Yougov, surveyed reasons wh
viewers around the world don't engage with women's
sports as much the top reasons given were less media
coverage, lack of knowledge of teams and athletes and
limited marketing. When women share a broadcast and
marketing promotion with men, we see the gap in
interest disappears for example us audiences tend to
be equally interested in male and female athletes when
it comes to the Olympics. Compared to pro sports in
college sports, pro tennis players also see equal media
coverage and are broadcast together female tenni
matches and players draw similar viewership numbers as
men, as American interest in women's sports grows and
major sports leagues prepare for new TV rights deals.
We may see slow progress toward more equal medi
coverage. And as the playing field slowly evens out,
the rise of media coverage may bring higher reven
viewership and interest and pay for women athletes,
amber strong scripts, news.