Women’s Tennis Prize Money
It was recently announced that women tennis players at Wimbledon next year will get the same prize money as the men. Why does it have to be so? There is inequality in sport everywhere, but this is not sexist. Athletes in most Olympic sports and many other international sports do not get anywhere near as much as tennis players, and most likely work just as hard, but it is just the way it is. It comes down to market demands, if people are paying to watch them play, to buy products etc, then there will be money in sponsorship and gate fees that can be passed on to the players in the form of payments and prize money. If women tennis players want to get paid more, they should entertain us more, increase the quality of their play, make reasons for people to come and watch, and give us value for money. I am not saying that they are all like this, but I see are too many fat, lazy, bitchy, rich kids which are not good for the image of females in sport. If you looked at most of the high-profile women’s sports, they don’t need a pay rise - they are getting paid too much already.
There was a time when the women’s game was a bigger draw..before professionals were allowed to compete at the majors. In that era, between (say) 1930’s and 1968, everybody knew the Mens’ champion was merely the best one that hadn’t turned pro and wasn’t the same standard as the best pros, and that the Womens’ champion was THE BEST. More recently, when the men became pure biff-bang-wallop, the womens’ game was more interesting. The rise of Federer has redressed that balance, so the mens’ game is again enjoyable for the first time since the early 80s. However, these are subjective rather than objective measurements, and the fact remains that the men have to work harder (best of 5 rather than best of 3). I’ve no problem with equal pay if the women up their matches to best of 5.