Women’s Soccer Wage Inequality Starts With Advertising, Then U.S Soccer Federation

With the news breaking this morning of the U.S. Women’s National Team filing a federal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the U.S. Soccer Federation pays women significantly less than men, it seems like everyone decided to give their take on the issue.

Several of the arguments against wage inequality in U.S. Soccer led me to this startling fact: Fox estimates that it received around $17 million in sponsorship for the entirety of the Women’s World Cup, as compared to the $529 million in sponsorship that stemmed from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Let me remind you that over 23 million Americans watched the Women’s World Cup Final against Japan. 23 million Americans watched Carli Lloyd wreck the Japanese defense in the first half. 23 million is more Americans than the number that watched the final series game in the NBA Playoffs, NHL Playoffs and MLB World Series.

23 million is also the number of Americans who saw the advertising from the Women’s World Cup Final.

Not only did the network, in this case Fox, highly undervalue the Women’s World Cup, but advertisers paid practically nothing for a ridiculous number of advertising views throughout the tournament and especially in the final. Advertising revenue that would trickle down to U.S. Soccer, and eventually the players, is basically gone because Fox undervalued the product. That’s just bad business.

So, sure, calling out the U.S. Soccer Federation with a federal complaint is a step in the right direction, but until networks and advertisers respect women’s soccer not much will change.

Because advertising for the entirety of a Women’s World Cup that brings in over 23 million viewers to a single game should be worth more to advertisers than just under 34 total NBA Playoff commercials.

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