The 2023 Women’s World Cup will rocket 23 American players into unprecedented visibility, presenting windows for iconic, legacy-making moments – like Brandi Chastain’s shirtless celebration after her winning penalty kick in 1999, and Megan Rapinoe’s victory pose after a goal in 2019. Perhaps the soaring awareness of these women will also catalyze a long-overdue reckoning with the wealth disparities between male and female athletes.
The increased spotlight on the USWNT team is already apparent. On the morning of 21 June, head coach Vlatko Andonovski called each of his 23 squad members to officially tell them they’d been selected for the roster. An AT&T-sponsored crew filmed Andonovski’s calls and footage circulated quickly. US president Joe Biden and his wife Jill joined in the amplification of the national team roster. “For nearly 40 years the US women’s national team has optimized what it means to be champions,” Biden said. “From lifting trophies to fighting for gender equity.”
A host of celebrities followed on TikTok. Lil Wayne congratulated Crystal Dunn on her selection for the team while Megan Thee Stallion announced Megan Rapinoe’s name. Taylor Swift shouted out forward Alex Morgan. “Congratulations, you guys,” Swift said. “I will be watching.”
Historically, women’s sports suffer from a remarkable lack of visibility, commanding an estimated 4% to 10% of the broader US sports media coverage. This lack of exposure contributes to the massive wealth gap between male and female athletes of all levels: from role players and reserves to those at the top.
The US women’s national team has long fronted the movement toward pay equity in soccer, with their notable 2016 lawsuit, spearheaded by Rapinoe, Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo and Becky Sauerbrunn. In May 2022, the women’s team reached an agreement with the US Soccer Federation that resulted in equal pay with the men’s team and $22m in back pay for the women’s team players. But outside of international play, significant barriers still stand between the wealth creation potential of female athletes and their male counterparts, including reduced coverage, club salary caps, a lack of profit sharing opportunities, and smaller endorsement deals.
Just how large is the wealth gap between leading male and female international soccer players?
As of March 2023, the salaries and net worth of the top three female international players are as follows:
Samantha Kerr, Australia: $513,000 annual salary, with an estimated net worth of $4.5m
Alex Morgan, USA: $450,000 annual salary, with an estimated net worth of $3m
Megan Rapinoe, USA: $447,000 annual salary, with an estimated net worth of more than $5.7m
Those figures are impressive, but contrast them with their male counterparts:
Kylian Mbappe, France: $72m annual salary, plus an estimated $18m annually in endorsements from Nike, Oakley, Dior, et al; his net worth at 24 years old is estimated at $180m
Lionel Messi, Argentina: earned more than $130m for the 2022/23 season, with an estimated net worth of more than $660m; reportedly turned down a $1.6bn dollar offer to play for a Saudi Arabian team and just signed a deal with Inter Miami for $60m annually that includes a sign-on bonus and partial team ownership
Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal: $60m annual salary, plus an estimated $45m in endorsements, with an estimated net worth of $500m
Mbappe’s salary is over 140 times that of Kerr, the leading female soccer player. Messi’s estimated net worth is 132 times that of Megan Rapinoe’s. Christian Pulisic, one of the leading players on the US men’s team, earns an annual salary of $7.8m – more than the entire estimated net worth of any leading female player.
This salary and net worth disparity is not unique to female soccer players. The average male NBA player (average annual salary: $5.3m) makes 40 times the amount of an average WNBA player ($130,000). Serena Williams, with a net worth of $260m, is one of the only female athletes to break the $100m mark – but of note, Roger Federer’s net worth is nearly twice hers, at $550m.
Arguments about salary disparities often center around audience reach, but that gap can’t be reasonably closed until media executives take chances on increased coverage. In 2019, European executives were so reticent to spend money on broadcasting the Women’s World Cup that Fifa threatened to black out coverage entirely. However, the 2019 final exceeded expectations with over 1bn viewers; experts predict the 2023 World Cup viewership will exceed 2bn. Ticket sales are already breaking records. People want to watch women play.
“Look,” former USWNT goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris told me over Zoom in June. “It isn’t equal. Women still don’t get paid life-changing money. We know we have to balance our primary career with a secondary career. This is a harsh reality of women’s sports. We have a shelf life. What if you have an injury? A health issue? You have to have a backup plan.”
Harris notes that there’s a $1.8m to $2m salary cap for NWSL teams. That money must pay 26 female players – while some men will make $200 to $500k a week.
“I’d guess 70% of our female players make much less playing soccer than actually using their degrees and getting a job. Their passion for the sport fuels them to stay in soccer. I lost money playing at the end. I had to make a decision: what’s best for my family? It didn’t make sense anymore.” Harris now serves as the creative director for Gotham FC, where her wife, defender and former USWNT member Ali Krieger, is playing her final year of professional soccer.
Thanks to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the 2023 minimum salary in the NWSL is $36,400, up from $22k in 2021. In 2022, the players’ union reported that 75% of its players made less than $33,000. These figures are significantly less than the MLS, where male senior players make a minimum of $84,000 and reserve players can expect $65,500. Of note, NWSL matches shown on broadcast channels have managed to substantially outdraw some MLS matches. A pre-season NWSL game between San Diego and Angel City drew 456,000 viewers, while an MLS matchup between the Portland Timbers and LA Galaxy drew 123,000 viewers that same weekend.
Leading up to the improved CBA, the NWSL players’ union championed a “No More Side Hustles” campaign. While the league offered a 60% salary increase, many women are still making a salary that would be considered “low income” in many US cities.
“Many of our best players are barely making $100k,” Harris explains. “Some players make $30k and they live in LA or New York City. Women have to work several jobs in that scenario: playing, coaching, advocacy, speaking. A lot of these women work around the clock.” For similar reasons, WNBA players often play in Europe in the off season to supplement their salaries.
Harris has concrete ideas about what progress looks like for professional female soccer players. She cites Angel City FC, which offers players a cut of ticket sales. She believes women’s salaries should be increased, and at bare minimum, become livable for the cities where players reside.
Harris also wants to see women’s sports elevated on prime time TV. “Recent NWSL championship games have been at 10am and 11am. No one’s going to watch that. Prime time is expensive, but the benefit is huge.” MSL matches are typically aired between 7.30pm and 10.30pm.
Harris thinks the NWSL is on the cusp of big cultural change. “We have sold out stadiums and increased sponsorship money. People are investing because it’s a good business move now – not charity.”
I spoke with Sarah Flynn, chief marketing officer of Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Boardroom, which owns a minority stake in Gotham FC. Flynn explained an approach for female athletes trying to build wealth. “First, in this era, a female athlete’s salary is rarely enough,” she said. “In order to create lasting wealth, athletes have to think in terms of investments and the creation of intellectual property.”
Flynn explained that brands are looking to connect with talent that is visible both on and off the field, and that for a while marketing executives tended to focus on a small pool of women considered “marketable”. But what is considered marketable is changing. “The first company that really embraces women playing angry – with real physicality and passion – is going to find success,” Flynn said.
“There’s an incorrect assumption that women aren’t out here doing enough to build wealth. Let me clear that up: they are. The opportunities need to change,” she explained.
“These World Cup moments can make stars,” Flynn said. “Fame opens doors. You maximize your moments, and ultimately try to build something that will outlast your time as a player on the field. There’s a real difference between being the face of something, and building it yourself.” Flynn noted Megan Rapinoe’s launch of a signature line with Nike and investment in Mendi, a CBD recovery company, as examples.
One of the most visible narratives of the 2023 Women’s World Cup will likely be Rapinoe’s pending retirement. The 2019 World Cup elevated her to icon status, as she won the Golden Boot for most goals scored while parrying online attacks from then-president Trump. “Megan should WIN first before she TALKS! Finish the job!” he tweeted. (Rapinoe continued to talk and the USWNT team won the World Cup.)
“Megan is unique in the athlete space - she understood the different stratosphere she was in. The president was tweeting at her by name. She understood the gravity, importance and opportunity of that moment,” Jessica Clarendon, COO of Rapinoe Ventures, told me one day over Zoom. After the 2019 World Cup, Rapinoe capitalized on her visibility by creating Rapinoe Ventures to oversee her investments and partnerships. As the original employee, Clarendon has kept an eye on the way sports, business and advocacy intersect for Rapinoe since 2019.
“Megan’s ethos is one that’s rooted in inclusivity,” Clarendon explained. “She believes we can actually move forward in a world that doesn’t leave people behind. Megan understands she’s cis, white, and conventionally palatable.This positions her to be in rooms where all people can’t go, and she’s focused on how to get others in.”
“You can build a solid, communal collective of women, non-binary folks, and other people serving the greater good,” Clarendon said. “Megan believes - as a lot of athletes in women’s sports believe - that social justice as part of business is simply good practice.” Rapinoe, for example, used her ongoing partnership with Nike to promote inclusive ideas about sports. Rapinoe’s partner, Sue Bird, alongside soccer star Alex Morgan and others, helped launch TOGETHXR - a media platform aimed at increasing coverage and representation of female athletes.
All three women I interviewed - Ashlyn Harris, Sarah Flynn, and Jessica Clarendon - pointed out that women are generally more thoughtful about their partnerships, social justice, and maintaining a “rising tide” mentality - opening doors for others as they succeed.
“If you watch what’s happening now in with the name, image and likeness (NIL) rules and the NCAA, women are going to make money,” Clarendon said, “but watch what they do with it.”
Cracking the wealth creation gap between male and female athletes is complex and multidimensional. It begins with better investments in player development and fair salaries. It continues as media and sports agents break with tradition and safe bets, and start to believe in the audiences female athletes can captivate - granting women more coverage, primetime game slots, and a broader range of endorsements. When we see female athletes invited as early investors to new ventures, regularly sharing in ticket sales, and making money in the ballpark of their male counterparts, equity may be closer at hand. For now, the wealth creation potential between male and female athletes is still a gaping chasm. This is also a missed opportunity - as women seem more inclined to create a more ethical blueprint for how to use wealth.
“A lot of us won’t see the benefit of our own advocacy,” Ashlyn Harris explained to me. “We want to make it better for those coming up behind us. I’d love for women’s sports to be in a place where women can focus.
“Can you imagine how good the women will be once they can just play?”
