I wish you hadn’t tagged me :(
Yes the US women’s team is more successful than the US men’s team. Good for them. Does this idiot actually think that winning a match in the Women’s World Cup is comparable to in the men’s? There is quite simply more money in the men’s game coming from advertising, ticket revenue and merchandise meaning more money in the pot to assign as prize money. I mean it’s basic fucking numbers, come on. I get she feels bitter that they get paid less than the men’s team when they are more successful but she really is comparing apples and oranges. I do wonder how the women’s team would fare in the men’s competition - I wonder if they’d even qualify. Who knows, maybe they would… it’d sure be interesting to find out. But here let me give you some of the stats - pasting from a previous post -
Men’s World Cup - average attendance 52,919
Women’s World Cup - average attendance 25,665
According to figures from FIFA and KantarSport, 764 million in-home TV viewers watched at least one minute of match action from Canada. Some 555.6 million people tuned in for at least three minutes during the competition, up more than a third on the comparable figure from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 in Germany.
Note ‘record breaking. [X] The total in home audience for 20 consecutive minutes was 327.8 million
More than one billion fans tuned in to watch the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, with the competition reaching a global in-home television audience of 3.2 billion people, according to final figures from FIFA and Kantar Media.
[X] Total in-home audience reach (20+ consecutive minutes): 2.1 billion
Womens - Average global in-home audience per live match: 8.4 million
Mens - Average in-home audience per live match: 186.7 million
Seriously this bugs the arse off me every time I see it moaned about. The men’s and women’s games cannot be compared in terms of interest, in terms of money generated, in terms of number of fans. In terms of anything. As a football fan myself I am all for the women’s game gaining more attention and more fans. But ultimately football is a business, and it is foolish at best to say that the women’s winners should earn as much as the men’s when there simply is not enough money in the pot to do that in the women’s game. And frankly this is only came up last year because the US team won and lots of people who don’t give a fuck about soccer and who have probably not watched a game since wanted something to moan about.
You can see I get slightly annoyed about this. Right now I am so annoyed at this being back on my dash that I can’t bring myself to type anything new so I will just copy/paste from another previous post. I stand by these sentiments.
Nobody seems bothered about all the other sports. All of a sudden football is at the forefront of American women’s minds because they won it. And good on them for doing so. But why is this only an issue now? To be cynical - it’s because most of you moaning that women footballers don’t get paid as much probably don’t give a crap about football either. Until it suits you. Until it gives you a reason to push your agenda. That’s why. And as a football fan I have to say that pisses me off. In fact if you all were football fans you’d understand the economics of it and wouldn’t be complaining in the first place - instead you’d be supporting women’s football in more constructive ways.
If you have a genuine interest in football, if you want to see the women’s game improve and prosper then by all means support it, become involved, go to women’s matches, buy a shirt, buy a season ticket. Become a fan.
But if this is just a momentary interest, if you’re not going to follow through with your apparent enthusiasm for football and you’re going to lose interest next week then I wish you would stay the hell out. Football most certainly does not need to become the next breeding ground for Sarkeesianesque complainers who don’t actually give a crap about the game, its players, or its fans and just want to push their own agenda and twist the truth to suit their sad little narrative of oppression.
