Abby Wambach - “Wolfpack” and Demanding Gender Equality On and Off the Field | The Daily Show

They do that because it's effective. No one wants to be the guy that talks bad about the women's league or national team. I've often felt like supporting them and then another diatribe like this comes out or another claiming their better than the men comes out and I hibernate from the women's games for a while again.

 

Oof, if I want to be charitable, I donate to a food bank, or help clean dishes at the Open Heart Kitchen.

I don't support teams because of charity, or because it's nice to do so. I do it because they are fun to watch. If they aren't enjoyable to watch, I support them less.

I don't think I need to be watching USL League One, let alone the USWNT/NWSL, just because I consume other soccer leagues or other sports.

And I think the vast majority of sports fans fall in with me. If they like watching the USWNT, they'll keep doing so. Right up until something they enjoy more is on. Just like every other marginal cost/benefit decision that people make on a daily basis.

 

They don't seem to understand that they had a multiple decade head start on the rest of the women in the world in soccer because of Title IX. The rest of the world has slowly caught up and now they're not so special anymore and some of them are bitter because of it. The cliques and hating on different players is also revolting. Reminds me of the the teenage girl social ostracism games so prevalent in middle school and high school (in fairness LeBron and others in male sports leagues have been notorious for this as well it's just less prevalent because guys tend to settle those issues with fights).

 

It's not jealousy that's the cause. It's their fundamental lack of understanding sports fans, coupled with massively inflated egos from beating on countries without massive resources devoted to Women's sports, coupled with an unwillingness to examine the financial underpinnings of their sport. And finally, all egged on by 3rd wave Feminist ideology, which has useful aversions to competition and Capitalism, and a self-serving definition of "equality".

 

I've never witnessed a group of women get together to watch a women's sports team. Or go to a women's league game. Or even mention they were going to watch a women's sports game. For any sport.

Meanwhile I can't make it to lunch without hearing guys talk about sports.

 

Never, ever met anyone of either gender that watches our woman's soccer matches on TV. Our group is large and extended group much larger and all are soccer fans. At some point the question is; is US soccer entertainment or something else (insert jokes here...). If it's entertainment as all sports really are, then it's up to the market to decide your compensation. If your're at the neighborhood comedy club with 5 drunks hooting at you then you get tips.....

If you're the US men playing for 10k in a 50k stadium, you get burgers if no one is watching on TV but in the men's case people are watching on TV. It's the product SUM sells, not the women's team.

 

I couldn't agree more. Abby, and anyone else that does these tv spots, could be using their platforms to attract more viewers. When Trevor said he doesn't know what times the games are on, for example. Instead, she just plugged her book, and claimed discrimination. Although, to be fair, her claims of discrimination are probably the only reason she got on the show to begin with. He probably wouldn't have put her on there if she only wanted to talk about the upcoming WWC or the NWSL.

 

After the ladies spanked Russia, the Russian manager of their women's team was asked: "Is women's soccer growing in Russia?"

His response "In Russia, women's soccer is nothing."

That's the ladies' competition. Sickens me to see them sh*tting on the men's performance, given the disparate levels of competition.

I'm cheering for France this WWC.

 

So much truth in that.

 

Here's the deal when it comes to Women's sports and men:

If your Wife/Girlfriend is into it, you watch or accompany her to a game once in awhile.

If you have a daughter who is into the sport, you bring her to a game for obvious reasons (bonding, women to look up to, etc..).

If it's a World Cup Final and the US is playing, AND there's nothing else on TV/going on in your life you'll tune in.

If neither of the above applies..............you're not watching.

 

Speak for yourself.

I anticipate I'll watch all the US games in the Women's World Cup.

 

You're the one that had the chutzpah to speak for all men...

 

If you didn't watch and enjoy the Women's World Cup Final in 2015 featuring Carli Lloyd's magnificent performance, I'm not sure you're a soccer fan. I watch many of the WNT games on TV.

Having said that, gender pay disparities in soccer is a complex issue. The men's and women's national teams have different pay structures. And the women's league (NWSL) isn't terribly popular. One thing is clear, FIFA's gender disparity is out of whack. Per Beau Dure's article, ( https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/21/uswnt-60-minutes-equal-pay-us-soccer-dispute )

1. International governing body Fifa awards World Cup bonus money on an exponentially different scale: $35m for the last men’s champions, $2m for the women’s.

Fix that problem first. It's not a US problem.

And as I google, ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE!
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifa-to-raise-womens-world-cup-prize-money-1.4831379

 

That's not FIFA gender disparity. It's again, the result of the consumer demand for women's sports and the WWC not being in the same universe as the men. It all goes back to revenue.

Men's WC in Russia generated 6 Billion in revenue with teams sharing $400M of revenue. 7%.

Women's WC in Canada brought in $73M with players sharing 13%.

Men's WC in South Africa brought in 4 Billion with 9% going to players.

The Women's WC this summer is expected to bring in $131M with players sharing $30M. 23%.

This is all according to Forbes.

And the correct response.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeoz...ween-men-and-women-is-justified/#3d2780716da4

 

"Gender disparity" is simply the term for differences, be they justified or not. You and the article make a sound point about the differences in revenue and it should not be ignored. I've made the same point elsewhere. I don't think pay should be **exclusively** tied to TV and gate revenue, but I do think it should **largely** be tied to them. The Women don't really have room to complain after this latest measure.

 

Everyone knows the real solution here is to make sports non-gender specific. Equality. There is no Men's soccer, no Women's soccer. I'd like a woman to say why that is unfair.

Short of that, the Fed should bifurcate. Have a Women's side with separate accounting, a Men's side with separate accounting. That will require breaking out the media/marketing in the next contract. But, that's no big deal. Come on Fed, Come on Women, just have two sets of books - one for the men, one for the women. It's that simple.

 

Do away with women’s sports and make them compete against men.

That’ll make UFC interesting for sure...

Equal rights, equal fights.

 

And betting on them (and Germany), nothings funnier than the futures bet on the WWC. The odds finally changed in the past month (France went from +450 to +350 in March if memory serves, Germany's still sitting at +450), but the US as a heavy favorite is just flat out absurd. They haven't played great soccer in what, four years? They've gotten cleaned out, or choked in three of the past four world cups, and the world is, again, catching up. Let the homers bet the US, I'll probably hedge a little bit, but I'm looking exclusively at other teams. When Vegas has WWC odds this delusional you need to jump before they wake up.

 

I did, and still have it saved to the DVR, never seen anything like it, it was like the opening of the US game against Portugal in '02, but cubed (I'm talking crazy start to games, totally against expectations). I honestly thought the Japanese goalie was just going to sit down and cry after she scored on that shot from like 3 towns over. Again, I saw that game live, saw the classic clutch performance against Brazil in '11 live as well. Great, great stuff, and it has been nice to see the women's game evolving into a more attractive style of play rather than just out physicaling (is that a word) and out athleting (is that a word as well?) opponents.

I think you're being kind with the NWSL. It might be doing better than the WUSA, not really sure, but again, I have never heard a single soul reference a game, ask for it to be put on, or seen it playing in any sports bar anywhere. I hope it can stay afloat, I'm not trying to ---- on the game and the opportunity, I badly want this to work for the little girls who dream of playing professional sports someday. I'm just sick and tired of hearing this b.s., when it's women themselves that are essentially to blame for the leagues folding over and over and over again and the lack of opportunities in this field. Want to improve it, demand that your fellow women support the <expletive> leagues. It's enough already. The Men's game dealt with this as well for decades but slowly but surely dealt with the folding leagues, and building and rebuilding plans for a league to succeed in the US until MLS finally turned the corner after almost collapsing sixteen or seventeen years ago. They didn't do it by begging for anyone's help, they did it by fighting, persisting and over time slowly building a better product until finally it has become self-sustaining 23 years after I saw Wynalda score the leagues very first goal live in San Jose against my DC United Squad.

It's a long hard road and women need to support this from the ground up for it to be viable. It's not enough to demand equal pay, you've got to get women and girls watching the games on tv, and paying for tickets to see the games live, otherwise yet another league is gonna fold, again, and we'll be forced to listen to this drivel cycle after cycle, in '23, '27 and beyond.

 

Julie Foudy declining MLS' offer to help start a women's league "We don't want the men piggy-backing on our success" !!!!

 

There is an interesting issue going on in Women's Track. A South African runner Caster Semenya has naturally-occurring high levels of testosterone. So high that it fell within the range of testosterone for men. The IAAF is requiring that she be put on hormones to lower her testosterone in order to fut within IAAF guidelines for Women athletes, or they will bar her from competing.

Her competition seems to support the IAAF, saying that they cannot win no matter how hard they train.

I'm a little torn on that one. She's not taking drugs, and biologically female. Then again, I'm not an Olympic athlete getting smoked by her in the 800 meters.

 

She was the original woman who turned me off the woman's team. Mia Hamm was class.

 

This kind of applies to numerous athletes over the years. Deal with it. You think LeBron James is fair today? Michael Jordan was fair in the eighties? Do you think Randy Moss was fair? Or Walter Payton? Or Joe Montana? Gretzky? Good lord that's ridiculous.

I get protesting trans athletes that compete as women after transitioning from being men, but this is just absurd.

 

Less-absurd than you are suggesting it is. There are no Olympic rules against being taller, or having longer arms, or better lungs, or stronger muscles, than your competition.

There ARE rules that govern how much testosterone you have in your body, for both men and women, because it's seen as an undue performance-enhancer. As far as I understand, if you had a man with abnormally-high testosterone levels, he'd be barred as well.

And it's presumably the same statutes that bar me (or any other man) from identifying as a woman and competing in women's competitions. I'd have to take some kinda hormone blockers at the least (there's no way to remove the innate physiological differences that would come from being a man, hormones or not).