California Senator and Democrat candidate for president, Kamala Harris, took to social media, Saturday, to make a special plea for Women’s soccer players to gain equal pay with their male counterparts.
With the U.S. National team racking up several impressive wins during the Women’s World Cup being held in France this month, Harris noted that America’s team is showing some amazing footwork during the tournament.
“The USWNT scored more goals in their first World Cup match against Thailand than the U.S. men’s team scored in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups combined,” Harris tweeted on Saturday. “We’re beyond past time to pay these championship athletes what they deserve.”
The USWNT scored more goals in their first World Cup match against Thailand than the U.S. men’s team scored in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups combined. We’re beyond past time to pay these championship athletes what they deserve. https://t.co/S2BdFYZCMT
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 29, 2019
Harris joined Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand who also accused soccer of sexism after the U.S. Women’s big win over Thailand. Several weeks ago, Gillibrand also jumped to Twitter to insist that the big win proved that the women deserve to be paid as much as the men.
Here's an idea: If you win 13-0—the most goals for a single game in World Cup history—you should be paid at least equally to the men's team.
Congratulations, #USWNT!
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) June 11, 2019
Of course, it isn’t just a matter of “paying more” as if the pay gap between the players on the U.S. National Women’s team and those on the Men’s team is a matter of pure discrimination. Indeed, it is a matter of capitalism, not bias.
As Breitbart Sports recently reported, far from mere “sexism,” the reason there is a pay gap between the men and the women is that the men bring in many millions of dollars more in revenue than the women.
Revenue wise, in 2010 the Women’s World Cup brought in $73 million in revenue. But that same year the Men’s World Cup earned a whopping $4 billion, according to NBC Sports.
Men’s soccer also earns far more viewers than women’s soccer.
In 2018, the Men’s World Cup garnered 3.6 billion total viewers across the world. That viewership brought $6 billion in profits to FIFA, the international soccer league. However, the last Women’s World Cup in 2015 only saw 764 million viewers.
Ultimately, it is a matter of popularity and the size of the fan base. Male players make more money than female players because the men have far more fans and bring in far more revenue to teams, leagues, and television stations.
It really is just that simple.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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