04/19/24
February 22, 2007
Equal pay for equal play: : the All England Club announced plans to offer equal prize money across the board for men and women at this year's Wimbledon tournament. Of the four Grand Slams, the Australian Open and US Open also offer equal prize money; the French Open offered equal prizes to the men's and women's champions in 2006, but does not offer equal prize money throughout the tournament.
posted by lil_brown_bat to tennis at 08:25 AM - 18 comments
Nah - if we're going to get into that mess, I think you have to respect the fact that the women's matches tend to be more popular than the men's. So if more people are tuning in to watch the women, then there is an arguement to be made that they should be paid more. But I think this is the better solution. Forget the number of sets crap. Besides, no one who is wholly advocating an extremely radical shift in tennis (making womens' matches five-setters) because of a moderate shift in actual dollars (only a few hundred thousand) is really thinking hard about it, I feel.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 09:51 AM on February 22, 2007
Nice move, but the "equal play" notion seems a little strange to me. Payouts are market driven, based on sponsors, attendance and television. Tennis is one of the only professional sports where the women frequently draw higher TV ratings than the men. Should they have equal prize money if that trend leads to women's matches drawing significantly higher TV ratings than men?
posted by rcade at 11:16 AM on February 22, 2007
...I think you have to respect the fact that the women's matches tend to be more popular than the men's... If the men's matches are all that unpopular, then just let them play best-of-three. Since matches will then be shorter, the organizers could let in a few more competitors, and thus could tack on some extra revenue opportunities by having more matches. As far as ratings go, maybe the guys are all watching other things (golf, football, baseball) while the women watch tennis. Just look at who watches figure skating while the guys are watching the NFL.
posted by Howard_T at 12:33 PM on February 22, 2007
I hate this. What a slap in the face to the men. Make the women play best of 5 and its all good. But this is just a complete load of crap. How about a new slogan, equal work for equal pay.
posted by Drallig9399 at 01:31 PM on February 22, 2007
I think the men should play the same number of sets as the woman if they are paid the same.
posted by Knuckles at 02:05 PM on February 22, 2007
You two don't watch a lot of tennis, methinks. It's like Gary Bettman up in here.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 02:06 PM on February 22, 2007
A slap in the face to the men? At first I didn't know whether to read that as intended humour or not. Now I'm crouching over my desk with my fingers rubbing my temples, trying to figure out where to start.
posted by fabulon7 at 03:39 PM on February 22, 2007
If there's one thing I love, it's people who don't play a game deciding how to re-engineer it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:46 PM on February 22, 2007
You should hear my ideas about Chutes and Ladders.
posted by yerfatma at 04:50 PM on February 22, 2007
About time that the All England Club stepped into the modern age. It was primitive to pay women less to begin with. I have paid more attention to the matches on the women's side for years now, becuase the balance of competition on their side is better and matches are more exciting to watch.
posted by Cave_Man at 04:52 PM on February 22, 2007
You should hear my ideas about Chutes and Ladders. For starters, lets go back to the original name, Snakes and Ladders, who was the twit who changed it to Chutes to avoid scaring the kids? Or was it so we wouldn't offend snakes?
posted by tommybiden at 06:09 PM on February 22, 2007
I think serpents can be interpreted metaphorically. Like a vine.
posted by yerfatma at 07:47 PM on February 22, 2007
Nice post, llb. Your postings of tennis here has piqued my interest in the sport. I was just a flash by with the remote kind of person before. Now I watch. Thank you.
posted by steelergirl at 09:38 PM on February 22, 2007
Oops! I meant lbb!
posted by steelergirl at 09:39 PM on February 22, 2007
It's about time they did this. Clapclapclapclapclap.
posted by worldcup2002 at 09:41 PM on February 22, 2007
Clapclapclapclapclap. Quiet Please.
posted by SummersEve at 08:38 AM on February 23, 2007
If we follow the line of reason that the fair compensation for play is market driven, what's wrong with cutting the men back to best of 3 sets so it will be equal effort for equal pay and we can get them off the court sooner and watch the women's matches.
posted by 1959Giants at 02:54 PM on February 23, 2007
I have no problem with that as the women's matches are often more entertaining to watch. But isn't it reasonable to expect equal work for equal pay, i.e., women should play best of 5 sets? Equal should mean equal.