Tennis

Well K, you have really given the opportunity for a big discussion with that last post. There is one successful sport that is cross gender, and it's tennis. In 2000 the average salaries of the top ten tennis athletes was 1: .67 men to woman (Woman's Sports Foundation). In 2006 Maria Sharapova made $3.8 million while Roger Federer brought in $8.3 million (Ask Men).

Now to throw you a comparison, so you understand how great these numbers are look at basketball: the WNBA maximum salary is $87,000 and Shaquille O'Neal's 2006 salary was $20 million.

One simple answer to why the WNBA salary is so low, is that the viewer rate in comparison to the NBA is laughable. The NBA has been around for much longer than the WNBA and it's been very successful. WNBA had a late start, and to be honest I don't see very much promotion for it.

So why is tennis different? I actually think it has a lot to do with that the men and women play at the same time. For the US Open both genders compete (not against each other), but you know what I mean. The advertisements all go out together incorporating both genders. This gets fans interested in everything going on, not just the men.

I think it's similar to the Olympics. Since everyone's competing together we wind up watching both male skiing and female, male gymnastics and female. We realize we like both, and start rooting for the collective US, not just the men's gymnastic team or vice versa.

Now in the article from Woman's Sports Foundation they think the reason we like female tennis players is because they're "like you and me...Tennis can be mastered by women through commitment, effort, and talent. It's not a sport where by the tallest, biggest, or strongest athlete has inherent advantages". Well I don't believe this, because female golf players are no more taller than any other woman, and they still have a hard time rivaling men's golf.

I truly believe it has to do with timing and the fact that tennis women now play at the same time as the men. It also has to do with being around longer. Sorry ladies, but men established their professional teams a while ago, it's still going to take a long time to rival. But doing it by saying the athletes are nice? That's just a cop-out, I think golf should find a better way. I agree with K.