Essay Sample: Athletes Pay is Fair
It is justified that male athletes get paid more than female athletes. Do you ever wonder why male athletes get paid significantly more than the female athletes? People should be more open-minded in order to realize that the men's leagues make way more revenue, take more skill, and get more media recognition.
Men's leagues make more revenue than women's leagues. In men's leagues, the athletes tend to make significantly more money than the female leagues simply because the female leagues don't make enough revenue to compete. Daniel Akst explains ”the average WNBA team generates only about $5 million annually, while the typical NBA team grossed roughly $300 million last season.” The evidence shown proves that there's little to no competition in terms of revenue when it comes to male and female sports leagues. Female leagues do not make enough money to pay their athletes the same amount as the men's leagues do. Daniel Akst also includes that the average salary of a WNBA player is around $200,000. Next to the $7.7 million for NBA players. The first piece of evidence proves that men athletes get paid significantly more than females. The second piece explains that the female leagues don't have the money to pay their athletes the same amount of money as the men. With all of the evidence previously mentioned the point is across that the men's leagues make significantly more revenue than the females which is part of the cause of the lesser pay on the female side.
Men's leagues tend to take more skill based on the gameplay. Women's leagues do not take as much physical strength as men's leagues. John Blau states "women are not as strong and as dominant as men are." That piece of evidence was from a high school girls basketball player who admitted that boys basketball takes more strength than the girls. Women's leagues also don't require as much skill as men's leagues. John Blau also provides that girls' basketball players are not as skilled as the Boys’ basketball players. Again high school girls basketball players said that it takes more skill in men's leagues than in women's leagues and the previous pieces of evidence prove it.
Women tend to get way less recognition in mainstream media. The author, Kendra Beato Nordin, states ” the amount of media coverage of women’s sports on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and other TV highlight shows has stayed at about 2%.” This piece of evidence shows that even the most popular media sources do not cover women's sports nearly as much as men. Women get a fraction of the attention that men do. Kendra also says that female athletes receive about 4% of all sports recognition. This piece of evidence shows that throughout the entire sports world men take up 96% of the recognition. Taking account of all of the evidence previously mentioned it is clear that female athletes do not get anywhere near the amount of recognition as men.
People should be more open-minded in order to realize that the men's leagues make way more revenue, take more skill, and get more media recognition. Men's sports leagues make significantly more revenue than women's leagues leading to higher pay. Additionally, male athletes tend to be more skillful at their sport than women and the idea is even backed up by female athletes. Finally, male athletes get more than 95% of the media attention from all of the biggest sports entertainment companies. Even though they technically do the same thing it is not completely unfair that women athletes are significantly underpaid as male athletes due to the fact that they create less revenue, aren't as skilled, and don't get as much media recognition.
