US Women's Soccer Team - Celebrate? Yes! Equal pay? Not until the work is equal.

The onslaught of thirteen goals by the US Women’s World Cup soccer team in their game against Thailand opened up discussions on two fronts.  First, as typical in soccer, each goal was followed by an impromptu (or perhaps not so impromptu) celebration.  Some treated this with chagrin.  Second, presidential candidate, Kristian Gillibrand used it as a chance to lament the so-called pay inequality between women and men and former US women’s player Abby Wambach suggested if the men did it, no one would complain.  Both are playing off the very tiring and very trite men v. women game.  Both comments serve no unifying purpose.  As I will show below, Gillibrand’s comment is economically incorrect and Wambach’s comment is just stupid (yes, stupid).

Before I make any observations here, let me say this:  the American Women’s soccer team is fantastic and the players should be congratulated for their hard work, skill and perseverance.  Moreover, the players should celebrate every World Cup goal because they earned them.  This isn’t rec league soccer and ought not be treated that way.  I watched all their games in this World Cup and enjoyed seeing them prevail.  They deserved the trophy.  Now, on to the arguments.

As to the “too much celebrating” argument – balderdash.  The blunt reality, the inarguable truth, is that soccer at the highest levels is almost inevitably a low scoring affair.  Thus, goals are typically very meaningful and celebrations well-deserved and well-received.  It is expected and anticipated players will celebrate.  The World Cup represents the best of the best from every country and is a chance for players to make an impact on the largest possible stage.  Undoubtedly, there is an excitement about merely playing in a World Cup, let alone going on a massive rampage resulting in 13 goals, so there will be celebrations.  More importantly, which goal is the “crucial” goal after which celebrations should be toned down?  It is pure subjective nonsense to pick the exact number after which celebrations should be toned down or stopped.  As a long time soccer spectator and sometime coach, I can say that at this level it’s incredibly rare to see such a performance.  Let the players celebrate – it’s not being done to denigrate the other side – it’s being done because they’re exuberantly enjoying themselves.  We ought to relish in such enjoyment.

Now for the more serious issues.

The debate about the US Women getting equal pay has been raging for years.  The standard argument is that the US Women have won multiple World Cups and, therefore, provide an even better product than the men, so it’s unfair that they don’t get paid as much.  Again I say balderdash.  Yes, the US Women’s team has won multiple World Cups and I’ve rooted for them since the 1999 win over China (the infamous Brandy Chastain sports bra incident). 

But equal pay should be for equal work.  First, the women’s World Cup has always had fewer teams playing and fewer legitimate contenders since it was started.  Thus, definitionally, it is easier to win than the men’s game.  This is not a knock against the winners, who all played well and deserve the accolades they’ve received.  It’s just a simple mathematical fact and cannot be ignored.

Second, regardless of all the inanity surrounding our bizarre willingness to believe the sexes are somehow equal in every possible way, the truth is that the US Women’s National team would not beat a topflight U18 boys team.  Why?  Because those seventeen and eighteen year old boys will be, on average, several inches taller, 20 to 30 pounds heavier, stronger and faster than the women.  This isn’t an issue of skill, as the women are very skilled.  But head to head, I would bet that such a boys team would win 9 out of 10 matches (and probably all of them) with the women based on sheer size, speed and aggressiveness.  Yes, when a woman corporate executive, or woman accountant, or a woman doctor, or a woman truck driver, or a woman teacher is doing precisely the same job as a man and isn’t paid the same, it matters and it’s wrong.  They’re doing the same work.  Despite their successes, the Women’s National team is not doing the same work as the men because they are not playing against the same level of competition as the men.  It would be like saying a woman who is a paralegal at a law firm should be paid the same as the lawyer who is a man.

Economics matter, too, when determining pay.  Regardless of what people want to argue, men’s soccer (and we’re talking national team soccer here) results in significantly larger revenues than women’s soccer.  As a result, men get paid more because people are more interested in the product.  More people watch the matches on television, resulting in larger advertising revenue.  More people buy the paraphernalia.  Of the top 15 selling soccer jerseys in 2017, none were women.  http://www.soccer365.com/top-15-selling-soccer-jerseys-may-2017/   More people buy tickets for matches.  You can’t ignore this reality (unless of course, you’re a U.S. presidential candidate, then all that matters are sound bites).  It would be like arguing that a coffee shop with 50 locations nationwide should be making the same money as Starbucks because everyone agrees their coffee tastes better and it has won more awards for its coffee than Starbucks – no one who understands even a tiny bit about economics thinks that.

For more analysis of this go to World Cup Soccer disparity in pay is justified.  The author of this Forbes article points out that on a percentage basis, women players actually receive more of the revenue generated during a World Cup cycle.  The reason their actual pay is less is because the men’s World Cup generates a gargantuanly higher gross revenue than the women’s (about 50 times more than the women’s).  Let’s put this in a simple example.  The men’s world cup makes $50.  The women’s makes $1.  The players in the men’s world cup split 7% of the revenue, which is $3.50.  The women get a 25% split but it’s only 25 cents because they made so much less money overall.  This disparity simply cannot be ignored.

There are articles all over the internet right now trying to dredge up numbers to justify equal pay.  CNBC, for instance, has an article that shows the women’s team has generated more revenue than the men’s team in the past three years (2016 – 2018).  Women Generate More Revenue than Men.  What CNBC doesn’t say is the women played 61 games versus the men’s 49 during that three year stretch.  Interestingly, the women generated just over $50,000,000 in revenue for those games, or about $820,000 per game.  The men, according to CNBC generated just over $49,000,000 in revenue for those games, or $1,000,000 per game.  Had the men played 61 games, they would have generated around $61,000,000 or about 20% more than the women.  Put another way, in 49 games the women generated just over $41,000,000 – significantly less than the men.  The whole story isn't just the raw revenue numbers.

In another article trying to make points in this debate, CNN noted the women’s final in 2019 (14+ million viewers) was watched by more people in the United States than the 2018 men’s final (11+ million viewers).  Women World Cup Ratings.  Once again this isn’t comparing apples to apples.  The women’s game involved the United States team – of course people were watching because, despite our differences, Americans still rally around their team.  The 2018 Men’s World cup final was between France and Croatia.  It still got almost 80% of the viewership the women’s final got and the US men’s team didn’t even make the tournament. 

There were numerous other articles touting the viewership numbers without providing any context – just like references to the “revenue” argument is made without context.  By the way, worldwide viewership of the entire women’s world cup in 2019 was about 750,000,000.  Contrast that to the 2018 men’s world cup, which garnered over 3.5 billion viewers (or 4.5 times more).  These numbers are per FIFA, which has no reason to downplay the women’s numbers.

These enormous disparities exist for one simple reason: men watch sports more often than women and men prefer to watch men’s sports.  This leads to enormous disparities in revenue which lead to enormous disparities in pay.  The economics simply don’t add up to “equal pay for equal work” because it’s just not equal work in any economic sense.

Let me say once again, I am not arguing that the women don’t practice hard, don’t play hard, and don’t deserve the accolades they are receiving.  Just the opposite – I have no doubt that the women do practice hard, play hard and deserve the accolades.  But we’re not talking about accolades, we’re talking money.  Economic realities play a significant role here and cannot be blithely ignored.

Finally, and most ridiculous, is Abby Wambach’s comment that if the men’s team celebrated like the women did no one would complain.  Setting aside the obvious reality that no men’s team will likely ever win a World Cup group match 13-0, it is equally obvious that sportsmanship matters in the men’s game, too.  Her comment was a back-handed slight about the men’s team which was totally unnecessary.  I’ve never heard any of the men’s national team players criticize the women’s team.  More importantly, the men’s team doesn’t control the drivel that so often rolls out of the mouths of talking heads and sports commentators.  The truth is there would have been plenty of talk about sportsmanship if any men’s team beat another squad like this at any World Cup and it kept celebrating.

Most distressing about Wambach’s comments, though, is that they were gratuitously unnecessary.  They’re a false equivalency and they don’t address the issue at all.  It would be like someone criticizing a company for producing too many cars and a former car company executive suggesting that if the motorcycle company did this no one would complain.  Different industries, different set of rules, different set of circumstances.  The better part of valor would have been for her to simply say “it’s the World Cup and you never know if you’ll be there again – so celebrate.”  But, ironically, it appears she’s not really interested in the better part of valor . . .

That said, equal pay for equal work needs to take into account precisely what we mean by equal work.  Reality is difficult for many to grasp, but the harsh factors here that determine who gets paid are what matter.  If the women’s team really wants to prove it should get the same pay as the men’s team – play the men’s teams and beat them.  That would be the true test of equal work.

But we all know full well how that would work out.