Equal pay for women's soccer or no Fed funding bill

[Javaman]

Pay in pro sports is not dependent on skill. It's dependent on how much money fans are willing to pay to see them / buy their shit.

I actually sat next to a WNBA team on a flight out of Phoenix last month. I asked one of the players about it, and she got real mad because people care about income inequality but dont give a shit about their games. The NBA is actually *losing* money by owning the WNBA.

If you want to see equal pay in professional sports the best thing you can do is support women's sports by actually attending their games and demonstrating interest. How many equal pay advocates follow the WNBA? Or follow the US women's soccer players when they're playing at their domestic clubs?

It's not enough to say you want them to be paid more all while not actually demonstrating interest in them (aside from highly publicized international play.)

Based on my own (subjective) viewing experience, women's soccer is every bit as entertaining as men's soccer. I tend to have the same opinion with regards to volleyball, too. In contrast, women's ice hockey is not as entertaining as men's ice hockey (IMO), based in part on a key difference in the rules between men's and women's hockey.

I don't follow other sports, like basketball, closely enough to have much of an opinion about their relative entertainment value.

That being said, I'm struggling to find a way a government could justify paying women less than men for doing the same thing. I mean, here's the perfect opportunity to take a stand against systemic sexism, and yet they don't.

Private leagues are in a different sphere, but are no doubt are plagued by the same issues of systemic sexism.