As you’ve probably heard, the Women’s World Cup is recently underway and the US Women’s National Team had their first game yesterday. They made headlines for multiple reasons including smashing Thailand 13-0 and possibly, actually definitely, taking their celebrations a little too far. While the team had every right to run up the score as much as possible considering that goal differential is the number 1 tiebreaker, granted a team this good is never going to need that in the group stage, celebrating goals after you are up 5 or 6+ is not exactly a great look. But I’m not here to complain about that, I’m here to talk about how unbearable the USWNT and their fans have become in their never ending quest to compare themselves to the US Men’s National Team. You see because after yesterday’s performance, they were criticized. Some thought they should have eased up and not have ran the score up, again I’m not in that camp, and others criticized them about the over the top celebrations for goals all the way up until number 13. Probably would have been a good idea to end the choreographed celebrations after the first couple. So after the game when the criticism is rolling in from all sides, what is the spinzone that the USWNT puts on it? They ask if the Men’s team would receive the same criticism, because sure let’s pull them into this convo for no reason. The answer is they absolutely would. Literally any team in the world that is still celebrating goals beyond just a couple of high fives after they have scored 6+ on a clearly inferior team is going to and should be criticized. The team was blatantly wrong for how they acted and instead of admitting they were wrong, they just simply deflected with complaining about how the Men’s team wouldn’t receive the same treatment, which again they most definitely would. Celebrating goals up 6+ has nothing to do with Men’s vs Women’s soccer but pretty much all to do about sportsmanship.

But what happened yesterday is just the tip of the iceberg with the USWNT. This team comparing themselves to the Men’s team in every situation has been going on for a couple of years now. It all kind of started with their lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation for equal pay. Now I’m not saying that they shouldn’t get equal pay, if they deserve it. I’m just saying that they should be paid based on the revenue that they produce, simple as that. If they produce more revenue than the men’s team in a World Cup year, then by all means pay them more than the men. They would 100% deserve it. But the issue with that is the revenue doesn’t favor women’s soccer. The 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia generated over $6 billion dollars, while the Women’s World Cup is expected to generate around $130 million dollars, yet the prize money for the Men’s competition was $440 million which is 7% of the total revenue and the women’s prize money is $30 million which is 23% of total revenue. That’s 3x the % of revenue they are receiving vs the Men’s game. Doesn’t exactly sound like the women are getting cheated here. Granted of course I’ll give you that the US men failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. But that still doesn’t change the fact that the US Men’s team brings in more revenue every year except in years when the US women win the World Cup. When the Women’s team wins the World Cup like they did in 2015, the following year and victory parade of games is more revenue than the Men’s. So essentially 1 out of every 4 years, the women have a chance to exceed the Men’s revenue if they win the cup. So I’m all for paying the women more money in years where they deserve it, but then you can’t complain in the majority of years when they don’t bring in the revenue to exceed the men.

As revenue discrepancies don’t hold well for the Women’s lawsuit, they have tried to make the argument that they deserve equal pay because the roles are the “same”. Well that theory can be debunked quickly. The roles of the USMNT and the USWNT are about the same as the roles of an NBA player and a WNBA player. While you play the same sport, it’s not even in the same stratosphere when it comes to revenue, competition and fandom. There’s a reason the USWNT was able to trounce a Thailand team that had lost 11 of it’s last 12 games coming into the tournament and the Men’s team weren’t able to qualify for the World Cup. While it’s still inexcusable for the US Men not to qualify in CONCACAF, just remember that Mexico nearly missed qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. It just goes to show the competition level in the Men’s game across the board and that is something that just doesn’t exist in the Women’s. So honestly, not only can you not make the argument that they play the same role, you can’t even make the performance argument either. A WNBA team could win 3 straight championships but that performance doesn’t mean they deserve more money that the last place NY Knicks.

2015 World CupPhoto Credit: Sports Illustrated — 2015 World Cup
Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated

In the end, I want to enjoy the US Women’s team’s success in the World Cup every 4 years. The past 2 women’s world cups, I’ve been pretty big fan of watching the US team and seeing the US be competent at soccer for once. The 2011 team went all the way to the finals but lost and the 2015 team won the World Cup. But please for the love of god can we stop comparing this team to the Men’s, it’s hardly the same sport. Fight for equal pay if you deserve it, but don’t complain when a complaint isn’t warranted.

Thanny

The USWNT Is On The Verge of Being Unlikable