The world of professional sports is all about the bottom line. I get that, but I think it’s out of control.
I’m confused about when the bottom line became focused solely on ticket and merchandise sales and stopped including winning games. Because at the end of the day, isn’t a professional athlete’s job to win, not sell tickets? Maybe I’m being too idealistic, and maybe American capitalism has turned the love of the game into a sick addiction to money, but no one wants to admit it.
That’s not a good enough excuse to pay the U.S. women's national team no more than $5,000 for a win in a friendly match, which is the base rate for the men's national team, win or lose. The U.S. women’s national team only got $2 million for winning the Women’s World Cup while the men got $9 million for losing in the round of 16.
Yes, the inequality for the USWNT falls back on FIFA too, not just the U.S. Soccer Federation. But does it really matter whose fault it is? What matters is who's going to fix it.
U.S. Soccer should pay the USWNT equally. I know the arguments and counter-arguments for that are plentiful. I’m not trying to cover them all here. I want to point out that there are disparities not just with the pay of the women’s national team, but athletes of all ages in women’s sports in general face a number of disparities.
I support the USWNT in their lawsuit, and if that means boycotting the Olympics, so be it. They deserve equal pay, but this reaches farther than just the USWNT.
On April 10, the USWNT beat Colombia 3-0, but Colombia was missing Lady Andrade, arguably their best player. Along with Andrade, Daniela Montoya was also left off the roster. This had nothing to do with talent, fitness, injury or otherwise.
According to Monica Gonzalez, an ESPN soccer analyst, the players were being punished for speaking out against their federation’s poor treatment of the women’s national team. And when Catalina Perez, the starting goalkeeper, was asked for comment on the fact that the Colombian women’s national team hadn’t been paid in four months she said, “I can’t really talk about that.”
The struggles of the Colombian women’s national team are the reason why the U.S. women’s national team should sue the U.S. Soccer Federation for unfair wage discrimination. The consequences from the Colombian Soccer Federation are why the U.S. women’s national team players need to keep speaking out.
The actions of the U.S. Soccer Federation could be enough to start change, not only for the Colombian women’s national team, but other federations around the world that are neglecting their women’s teams. U.S. Soccer has the resources and the potential to completely change women’s soccer.
This is why these women need equal pay. It's not just about being fair. If we want anything to honestly change, we need to listen to Trevor Noah and “think of equal pay as an investment,” and the right thing to do. U.S. Soccer needs to lead this change and start investing in the future.
