Impact not only on professional athletes. This is already being felt by North Texas teams
FRESCO, Texas – The U.S. men’s and women’s soccer teams will now receive equal pay after the conclusion of collective agreements valid until December 2028.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Football Federation announced agreements with both unions.
“It’s a truly historic moment,” Cindy Parlow Cohn said. “Becoming the first federation in the world to solve the massive and unpleasant task of equalizing the prize money of the World Cup, American football and our players have forever changed the game here at home, hoping to inspire change around the world.”
The impact of the deal was felt not only by professional athletes. Danny Vaughn is the coach of the Dallas FC Youth Academy and woke up from a push on the phone about the deal.
“I immediately send it to my teams and my parents and tell them it’s a great thing for change, and it’s great for girls to know their worth,” she said. “I’m from the generation of women who started this struggle.”
Agreements mean equal performance-based bonuses for all games and profit sharing of commercial sales and tickets.
Perhaps the most notable is the agreement – to unite the prize fund of the men’s and women’s World Cups and share it equally. The women have won four World Cups against none for the men’s team, but FIFA payouts vary significantly. According to FIFA, the payout for men in 2018 was $ 38 million for the winning team, and for the women’s team – only $ 4 million.
“The women’s national team program is the greatest dynasty in the sport, one might say,” Dallas FC president Dan Hunt said. “I am very happy. This is a great moment for American football. “
Hunt, who has two daughters, said the team’s youth academy is already filling all the areas they can find, and opportunities for work and pay from women are growing worldwide.
“They’re role models,” Hunt said of the women’s team. “You hope that your daughters will be able to reach the level that these women have reached, and now they are global icons and they represent themselves so well.”
The women’s union expects the new agreement to increase wages by about 35%, but the benefits go beyond childcare and childcare leave.
The icon of Vaughn is Joy Fawcett, who returned to training three weeks after giving birth.
“Now they’re more inclined, maybe not to put off babysitting, having something, because now they think,‘ My baby is in a safe place, and now I can lay out at all 110%, ’” she said.
Professionally, the average MLS player earns about six times more than the average in the women’s league, but Vaughn said she is progressing for the next generation.
“The biggest change is representation. Representation is very important, ”she said. “We’ve been saying for a long time,‘ You know, work hard, do it, but maybe that’s not enough, ’but now it’s manifesting. Yes, we are. “
