Bear Down Wildcats

I'm not a lawyer, nor an accountant but I have a few questions about the complain that was filed today in which the women's team is demanding to be paid the same as the men's team...I'm looking for actual facts or summaries of the suit...not commentary...yet:

1) Are the women claiming (and do the actual financials support) that the WNT brings in more revenue to U.S. Soccer than the MNT?

2) Are they claiming that they play more actual game time and so are paid way less per/time than the men?

3) If there were no such thing as the MNT, would they still be seeking the compensation but have to use a different basis for the suit because there would be no MNT to compare to so it couldn't be an equal pay claim?

mytwocents wrote:I'm not a lawyer, nor an accountant but I have a few questions about the complain that was filed today in which the women's team is demanding to be paid the same as the men's team...I'm looking for actual facts or summaries of the suit...not commentary...yet:

1) Are the women claiming (and do the actual financials support) that the WNT brings in more revenue to U.S. Soccer than the MNT?

2) Are they claiming that they play more actual game time and so are paid way less per/time than the men?

3) If there were no such thing as the MNT, would they still be seeking the compensation but have to use a different basis for the suit because there would be no MNT to compare to so it couldn't be an equal pay claim?

The media seems to be cherrypicking some revenue numbers (and I don't know how anyone got them) saying that the WNT will bring in $51 million this cycle, while the MNT will bring in $60 million. Problem is, I have no idea how people are calculating these numbers. For example, in 2015 both teams played 13 home matches. Average attendance was ~40k for men, and ~27k for women. Even considering that 2015 was the USMNT's worst year in a long time, vs. the best possible year for the WNT, the USMNT was a much bigger draw.

Couple that with the differences in revenue between the Men's and Women's WC, and I just can't see the WNT generating anything close to the MNT. Supposedly, even with the Copa America Centenario coming up, the prediction is for the USWNT to bring in more revenue? How?

This all just seems to be a negotiation tactic for the USWNT to get a better CBA next year. Good luck. The MLS player's union were all gung-ho last year, expecting a big pay-day. They got basically nothing, and I expect a similar result here. Maybe changes w/r/t flights and accommodations, but not much in terms of per-game bonuses and such. USSF operates the WNT like a club team, because the NWSL is no way to make a living (a league that loses money, created by the USSF). So from the USSF's point of view, they're thinking that 99 percent of these girls, aside from the most-marketable (e.g Alex Morgan, Rapinoe, Le Roux, etc.), are being funded entirely by the USSF, and would be without a pro soccer career otherwise.

The WNT can't afford not to play with the Olympics coming up (it's basically the only other competition that gets exposure aside from the WWC), so I figure USSF is going to play hardball here.