This is stupid and shouldn't matter, obviously, but the biggest reason I think the salary are so unequal is that the men make so much from their pro teams and the women don't, that the US can take advantage of the women because it becomes their primary salary. If the federation or a coach or all the travel pisses Christian Pulisic off, he can just say f it and refuse call up's any time he wants because he makes like $20 mil a year from Chelsea. Alex Morgan does that and she all of a sudden is only making like $60k a year from her club team.33anda3rd wrote:I don't get the argument that the ladies should make the same money as the men. They've won 4/8 World Cups and the men can't put a goal on Mexico at home. Clearly the ladies should make more.
Also, it'll be interesting to see how this affects NWSL because it gets these little boosts every four years from the World Cup interest and then, like clockwork four years later, they're barely scraping by again. This time seems to be a real sea change when you see brands like Budweiser and Nike finally pouring real money into it, but if the women get equal pay (I think they will and soon), all of a sudden the difference between being rich and making an income below the poverty line will be making the national team. I mean, it already is, but we're talking the difference between making a couple mil a year just for soccer and making $15-60k a year to play soccer, not even including the profile raising that leads to endorsements. The competition for those 23 spots will be insane. An argument to be made that it will be what pushes our women to stay in front of the ever-improving global field of competitors. It's legitimately the difference in salary between a CEO of a billion dollar company and a gas station cashier. If you're one of the last few players cut from the national team before a big tournament...holy [expletive].
So really, the long term question is how this rising tide actually lifts the non-international, female American pro soccer player because right now, it's trickle-down economics at it's finest with all of the attention being paid to the plight of the top 1% of the talent pool, and you can't build a thriving, self-sustaining pro league with the top 1% of the talent pool. Long-term, it can't be about how much the Megan Rapinoe's of the world get paid, it's gotta be about how the average pro playing in the NWSL gets paid.
This is really good insight into what I'm talking about: https://sports.yahoo.com/jessica-mcdona ... 48456.html
Jess McDonald is going to make life changing money based on being one of the last players on this roster, but she had to GRIND for decades in the face of circumstances that make it clear she was probably stupid to keep trying. The problem with that is that she's one of the 23 best american women's soccer players so she made it and even at her lowest moments, probably knew she had the goods. If you're the 150th best, and you were good enough to get a college scholarship to a good school but know you're never going to be national team caliber, the smart move is to leave the sport behind and go into whatever field your major prepared you for.
This cost/benefit equation has only very recently changed in MLS, by the way. 5 years ago, you had fringe national team players like Alan Gordon making $35k a year. Beckham, a bunch of sponsorship dollars, and rising interest in the global game is slowly changing that, but it's a bigger issue from 30,000 feet than just the WNT's pay.