Key Takeaways

• NBA's average annual revenue amounts to $9.2 billion; in contrast, the average annual revenue for WNBA is estimated to be $75 million.
• The United States Men's National Soccer Team's (USNMT) annual revenue for the official year 2020-21 was $273,702 and $11.9 million; in comparison, their counterparts, the women's national Team, earned $773,819 and $35.5 million.
• US men's golf pays an average salary of $1.25 million; in comparison, women's golf in the US only pays $48,993 for their female counterparts. Again the viewership is vastly different for both these teams.

Introduction

NBA vs. WNBA

• NBA's average annual revenue amounts to $9.2 billion; in contrast, the average annual revenue for WNBA is estimated to be $75 million, which is quite low, and a major reason for this colossal difference is viewership. NBA has a huge viewing audience, while WNBA has limited viewers.

Men’s Soccer vs. Women’s Soccer

• The United States Men's National Soccer Team's (USNMT) annual revenue for the official year 2020-21 was $273,702 and $11.9 million; in comparison, their counterparts, the women's national Team, earned $773,819 and $35.5 million. As per the data published by the United States Soccer Federation Inc, these revenues have been earned from events.
• The details of the budget spent individually on the men's and the women's teams can also be found here.  

Helpful Findings

PGA vs. LPGA

• US men's golf pays an average salary of $1.25 million; in comparison, women's golf in the US only pays $48,993 for their female counterparts. Again the viewership is vastly different for both these teams.
• A Golf Monthly article mentioned that men's first place prizes in comparison to women are substantially high for the three major tournaments conducted by the Golf Association, which include the Open, US Open, and PGA Championship; the prize money received by the male players is more than $1 million higher than women's.
• The pay gap has been increasing yearly, and in 2021, the difference reached $1.25 million from $900,000 in 2014.  

Men’s Tennis vs. Women’s Tennis

• US female tennis players average earnings amounted to $283,635, while the male players received an average of $335,946 in earnings; while it may not seem like there is a lot of difference; however, a huge difference exists.
• Let's consider a recent incident that clearly highlights the pay gap and supports the fact that a huge difference exists between the women's and the men's teams. A merger was being considered between the women's tennis association and the association of tennis professionals; however, it wasn't even taken into consideration by the men's team. The main reason behind this is that the current system allows both teams to earn and spend individually; a merger would make a significant change to this, where the earning and spending will be combined and since there is a major gap between the earnings of both teams, this is not a favorable deal for the ATP. Nick Krygios took to Twitter to comment on how this was totally not a good idea.

 

Source

 

• While recent revenue figures are not available in the public domain, the last available revenue data will suffice to highlight the gap between what the ATP earns in a year and what the WTA makes; in 2014, the ATP earned annual revenue of $107 million; however, the WTA could not even cross the $100 million mark and made only $70 million.

USA Men's Swimming vs. Women's Swimming

• According to OpenSource data, male swimmers in the US are paid way more than women swimmers; men receive more than 70% of Division I, 65% of Division II, and nearly 70% of Division III compensation.  

Men’s Figure Skating vs. Women’s Figure Skating

• As per the data available in the public domain, figure skating as a sport promotes equal pay and has been giving equal prize money to both its female and male athletes. Salary data or the data about the revenue earned from female and male teams are unavailable in the public domain.

Research Strategy