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Eli Sommers

Jessup

CCP English 1101

15 December 2019

Women’s Pay in Professional Sports

The topic of women’s pay in professional sports has been brought a lot more

recently after the US Women’s National Team won the Women’s World Cup in 2019.

People debate over whether professional women athletes should get equal pay to

professional male athletes. The debate clearly revolves around two groups of people

with very opposing opinions. There are those who either support equal pay for male and

women professional athletes, and those who believe male athletes bring in larger

audiences and higher revenues thus deserving more pay. Regardless of one’s personal

opinion, equal pay between the two would cause for a loss of revenue in sports. In order

to ensure that professional sports keep being successful in their profits, it is crucial that

athletes should be paid based on their abilities to bring in large audiences, how large

their following is and how much revenue they bring in whether they are a male or

female.

First and foremost, professional sports organizations focus on bringing in large

audiences to watch their teams play in hopes of making more profit. It has been proven

that professional male sports tend to bring in much larger audiences than professional

female sports. Professional women’s athletics receive less interest from an audience

standpoint, which causes it to have a lack of television coverage. As seen in ​Women’s

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Soccer Will Deserve Equal Pay When It Generates Equal Revenue, ​Polumbo states

“women's teams draw smaller audiences and therefore provide less commercial

benefits for the tournament sponsor.” Television can not make as much money when

they have smaller audiences because they companies will pay to have their commercial

played. Also, these smaller audiences allow for less profit to be made whether it is

through selling merchandise, or by selling enough tickets to fill the stadium during a

game. Audiences played a large role in sports, it brings excitement to the game and

helps these companies make money to pay their athletes.

Additionally, male athletes tend to have much larger followings than female

athletes. These exact followings is what allows for these athletes to have more

opportunities to make money in sponsorships and commercials. Sponsorships are a big

part of how athletes make money, they allow for athletes to make money outside of their

respective sports. Having a large following makes companies want to sponsor you in

hopes of attracting to your followers. Endorsements are a huge way for athletes to make

money. For Example, Lebron James just signed a billion dollar lifetime contract with

nike. Why would Nike do this? In hopes of appealing to Lebron’s fans and ultimately into

them buying their products. The larger followings that male athletes have, provides

them with more opportunities to make money.

Although pay should be based on the person’s value and money they bring in,

there are many people who think professional women athletes deserve equal pay to

male professional athletes. These people argue that women have less of an opportunity

to bring in higher profits because they have a lack of television coverage compared to
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their male counterparts. As seen in ​Women in Professional Sports​, it states “the

perceived lack of audience interest in women's sports largely arises from the dearth of

television coverage” (1). People argue that women's sports is rarely shown on

television which causes it to have less of an opportunity to bring in money for their sport.

Also, these same people may argue that women facilities are located a lot farther from

the city than male athlete facilities. Also, in ​Women in Professional Sports, ​it states

“women's venues are almost always located farther from the downtown core of their

representative city than men's venues” (1). These people argue that male athlete

venues are located in more profitable areas than female venues. However, this isn’t

true. For example, the Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA team) have the exact same venue

as 2 NBA teams. The Sparks have the exact same opportunity to make profit as the 2

NBA teams. Women professional sports teams have the same opportunities to make

money as male professional sports teams.

Making a profit is the biggest part of sports. In order for a team to keep being

successful, they must bring in enough profit to pay its players. These teams bring in

money in many ways whether it is selling jerseys, filling up seats, having good television

ratings, and even through sponsorships. Male professional sports are a lot more

profitable than women professional sports.They bring in bigger crowds, more

sponsorships, and even are broadcasted more because of it. A recent example of this

could be seen in the World Cup last year. As stated in ​Why the Debate for Equal Pay for

​ cArdle states that “the Men’s World Cup last

US Women’s Soccer isn’t that Clear Cut, M

year generated $6 billion...the Women's World Cup is expected to generate $131

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million.” The Male World Cup generated $5,869,000,000 more dollars than the

Women’s World Cup is expected to make. The large revenues brought in by the Male

side is what allows for the US men's soccer team to get paid more than the women’s

team. However much an athlete gets paid is usually based on how much profit they

bring in, as well as how much money is in their respective sport. The larger revenues

brought in by male professional sports is what allows for males to be paid more than

females within professional sports.

Professional male athletes deserve to be paid higher salaries than professional

women athletes because they bring in larger audiences, have larger followings and

larger revenues. The debate of this issue was brought into the light after the 2019

Women’s World Cup. Although the US Women’s National Team thought they were

being paid poorly, they received what was fair based on the revenue that they brought

in. Although I do see why they were upset, ultimately these professional sports have to

make a profit so paying them by basing it on how much revenue they bring is the only

thing that is fair to do. Although everyone may have their own opinion on this matter,

male sports ultimately brings in a lot more profit than female sports which is why they

deserve to be paid more.

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Works Cited

Polumbo, Brad. "Women's Soccer Will Deserve Equal Pay When It Generates Equal Revenue."

Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection​, Gale, 2019. ​Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints​,

https://link-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/WYTQHX972039788/OVIC?u=dayt3

0401&sid=OVIC&xid=3d1bb478. Accessed 10 Dec. 2019. Originally published as "No,

it isn't 'sexist' that women's World Cup teams don't get equal pay," ​Washington Examiner,​

10 June 2019.

"Why the debate about equal pay for U.S. women's soccer isn't that clear cut."

Washingtonpost.com​, 9 July 2019. ​Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,​

https://link-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/A592765468/OVIC?u=dayt30401&si

d=OVIC&xid=b203087a. Accessed 10 Dec. 2019.

"Women in Professional Sports." ​Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection,​ Gale, 2019.

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints​,

https://link-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/ZCMWBA044368671/OVIC?u=dayt3

0401&sid=OVIC&xid=ce57f0a2. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.