US Women's Soccer and their Lawsuit

So. Over on FB I am arguing this with people. For those not aware. US Women's Soccer just lost a court case recently.

The claim, that Megan Rapapoe keeps publicly making even after a COURT said "that is not actually happening when you add in ALL THE FACTS"? That the Men getting more money for qualifying and winning tourneys is an "Equal Pay issue". The problem? Glad you asked. What Ms. Rapapoe leaves out when she is screaming "UNFAIR! UNFAIR!" is that the men get NO SALARY or BENEFITS from US Mens Soccer. The men get that from their Pro Clubs. The Women get both salary and benefits. Megan leaves that out every time though. So she wants "Equal bonus money!"? That sounds a little off but still fair right? Give them the Men's Deal? No. They want the Salary. The Benefits. THEN they want the same Bonus money for wins as well.

Court ruled that that is not "Equal Pay". Because you cant separate sections of compensation for "equal" claims and say "No. You cant look at the whole! Just the part we want equality on. Yeah. We get that that and that the Men dont. SO?! We should get the same bonus anyway!".

 

I listened to the breakdown of the results from the lawsuit. The women wanted to keep everything they were getting that the men weren't and get everything the men were getting too. Basically they wanted their cake and eat it too. So the women didn't want equal pay, they wanted superior pay. The judge said, you got paid for the contract you negotiated for and turned down the contract that the men were given, even though they were offered the exact same deal. The women thought they would get a better deal from their contract and not the men's contract. After their season was over, they compared and figured that the women would have gotten more money from the men's contract and wanted to get retroactive pay from the men's contract while keeping the benefits from their own contract.

 

In a nut shell. Yeah. They tried to argue, and Rapapoe still does, that we need to ONLY look at the Bonus structure and ONLY the bonus structure. Because for some reason, in her mind, the fact the Men get base and benefits from whatever team (US Pro or Euro league) means the women should get that from USS and ALSO get equal bonus. Want to hear the funniest? I saw someone do the math on Youtube. If they took the men's deal? They would get the base, enough to pay their OWN benefits AND had more left over. All from bonus.

Rapapoe and others like her are inching me into a more social center position of "OK. As of like 2015, things were pretty good. Lets set it there and leave it alone for a little OK.".

 

Yeah, they went for the safe bet, instead of the risky one. Hindsight is 20/20.

 

Their gripe is really with their pro clubs. But those clubs will just cut them if they speak up.

 

In this case they generate more. And MAKE MORE from US Soccer. Their issue is they get more base and less bonus. The men get their real pay and medical from their pro teams.

 

Women's Soccer does not generate more money. In ticket sales men's soccer generate more than 10 times the money as in women's soccer. The Soccer Federation's prize purse, based on income from the attendance and distribution of the game is 10 times higher for men's league than the women's league. In the new contract offered by the federation, they proposed that the prize purses of both the men's and women's league be combined then split evenly among all the players, both male and female. But this does not seem to be acceptable. The women seem to want all the safety net, all the guaranties, and all the benefits in their old contract, plus all the perks and bonuses from the men's contract that have none of the safety net and bonus that the women got. The women want the cake and be able to eat it too.

 

Agreed. But the Women's national team plays "more games". How does the Men's National generate more. Not Pro Clubs. The National Teams.

 

Most likely television rights. The Networks are willing to pay more for the men's games because they can get better ratings. More viewership means they can charge more for ads.

 

While true. Hard to "attract viewers" than the women in Tournaments when the Men either dont qualify or lose in the 1st round.

Not sure as I dont care enough to read these 100+ page deals unless I get paid for it. But unless there is a "US Men's get pay for all televised games whether they play or not"? The women's NATIONAL team generates more TV money because they go deeper.

Now the Pro Clubs are a different animal. The women dont get paid well and benefits because the Women's PRO money is just not there. Men do.

In the end they want all the upside of the Men's Deal PLUS the security of their deal.

 

TV Ad revenue is not only based on the number of times it is played. It depends on the ratings of the program and the time of day, it is televised on. A television company will charge more per minute for a high rated program and for optimum time slots. Hypothetically they can charge $100,000 per minute for a men's game, and maybe $10,000 per minute for a women's game. Even if the women play more games, the men will generate more revenue. (I don't know the actual rates for commercial time, so don't take those numbers as fact. It shows how some people think that I have to put this statement in here.)

 

While, again, accurate? The US Men's Team and Women's Team are based on their revenues. Not FIFA revenue. The US gets a cut of the TV they are ON. Not a cut of the OVERALL revenue for the tourney. 2019? Rounds which are 4 teams round robin (so 4 games, 40k). Next round each team plays 2 (20k). then 1 (10k). So 80k. Men in 2019 World Cup? Did. Not. Qualify. So they could get 1 trillion a game and they generated 0 for USMNT.

The Men's Club Games make more. That is why they are paid salary and benefits by the clubs.

 

You can easily look up the revenue from the men's and women's games. I'm sure you know that the men generate far more money than the women. You know this and still argue against it. I'd like to know why.

If they dont make a World Cup, like 2019 the crux of the suit, they did not make "more money" as the USMNT. I am not talking about PRO GAMES. That is different from the MNT. And why the men can take a bonus only. Because they get PRO money and the women dont. The CLUB games have nothing to do with the National Team revenues.

In the end the women are still WRONG. They want SALARY, BONUS and BENEFITS. But want the best of all parts.