PD Editorial: US women are soccer’s global superpower

Congratulations to the U.S. Women's National Team for winning their second consecutive World Cup with Sunday's 2-0 victory over the Netherlands.

With four World Cups (out of eight since the women's tournament began in 1991) to go with four Olympic gold medals (out of a possible six) and the top worldwide ranking 10 of the past 11 years, the American women's team is soccer's global superpower.

The 28-member team, led by Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle and Alex Morgan, is also a marketing sensation, with Nike CEO Mark Parker reporting recently that its jersey “is now the number one soccer jersey, men's or women's, ever sold on Nike.com in one season.”

Their games are a hot ticket, bringing in $50.8 million in ticket revenue from 2016-2018, the Wall Street Journal reported.

They are must-see TV, with 27% of all American TVs in use at the time tuned to Sunday's match, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it one of the highest-rated soccer telecasts ever - and the biggest U.S. audience for soccer since the women's team won the World Cup final in 2015.

They're an inspiration for young athletes, male and female, fueling the explosive growth of youth soccer programs in the United States. On Wednesday, they'll be feted with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Yet they're still paid less - a lot less - than the American men's team, which didn't even qualify for the World Cup in 2018 and won its last Olympic medal in 1904.

The men don't match the women at the gates either, despite higher ticket prices for men's games, bringing in $49.9 million in ticket revenue from 2016-2018.

For the U.S. women, the next match may be in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles. All 28 members of the team are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit accusing the U.S. Soccer Federation of discrimination. They want equal pay plus damages as well as comparable playing fields and travel arrangements.

The lawsuit says that if the men's and women's teams won each of the 20 “friendlies” - non-tournament games - they are contractually required to play, women's team members would receive a maximum of $99,000 each, while the men would get $263,200 apiece. The suit also says U.S. soccer paid $15,000 bonuses to women who made the team between 2013 and 2016, while men got $55,000 in 2014 and $68,750 in 2018.

And, according to the Washington Post, the U.S. women earned $3,000 less for each World Cup win than the men would have received for each World Cup loss, had they qualified for the 2018 tournament.

In its response to the lawsuit, the soccer federation contends that differences in pay are based on differences in revenue generated by the men's and women's teams. But two of the primary sources of revenue - sponsorships and TV broadcast rights - are sold jointly for the men's and women's teams, seemingly undercutting the federation's argument. And, as noted above, the women bring in more at the gate.

Pay equity isn't only a sports issue. Men and women ought to be paid equally for doing the same work. In the case of the U.S. Women's National Team, which has outperformed the men's team, they deserve to be paid more.

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