This page was created by Collin Hardwick.
Third US Women's Soccer World Cup Win
People were finally starting to take note of the USWNT’s dominance on a world stage and the revenue from the World Cup exploded that year. That year, women brought in 23 million dollars vs the men’s 21 million, to turn a profit of 6.6 million dollars vs the men’s 2 million (Block). Up until this point, women had to win consistently to keep up with the salaries of the men’s team, despite the fact that the men’s team is less than stellar.
While in the past, the women’s team was being paid a higher percentage of their revenue than the men’s team, we saw this gap shrink as the USWNT began proving that they were a team worth watching by collecting so many medals (Campbell). Now, the salary deal that was helping the women keep pace with the less impressive men’s team was working against them.
It was not enough to just win anymore, as can be seen in the figure provided by the New York Times above. Their fixed salary in exchange for lower bonuses based on revenue was beginning to work heavily in favor of the USSF (Killion). Some players decided enough was enough.
Top image source: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/womens-world-cup-usa-victory-celebrations-continue-record-breaking-win-japan/
