Megan Rapinoe says cash, TV deal could help grow women’s soccer

Megan Rapinoe says cash, TV deal could help grow women’s soccer.

US Women’s soccer star, Megan Rapinoe, became the face of the sport … and really all women’s sports when she became vocal about the way the women in her sport were being paid. Athletes from around the world rallied behind her and her fight for equality isn’t over yet.

But now she’s focused not just on increasing paychecks, but increasing the league as a whole.

And that all starts with the new BBC and Sky deal recently announced in the UK.

“I say this all the time,” Rapinoe told FanSided. “People ask me all the time, ‘what do you think is going to help grow the league?’ and I say it every time … it’s money, cash, you know, money to be able to hire front office people that are very talented and at the level that the team needs. To hire ticket people to hire coaches, to set the technological infrastructure of the team to invest in GPS programs to invest in sports science people, all of that. I think that’s such a huge thing that’s lost in women’s sports that doesn’t really get talked about, men’s sports everybody watches everybody and everyone thinks it’s popular. Everybody loves it. Well, yes and billions of dollars investment.”

Rapinoe believes in order to build something to a bigger level, there needs to be a higher investment in that product.

“I can’t go 20 minutes in my day without seeing LeBron James or Tom Brady or you know, Kyrie Irving or whoever it is. All over the place. We see this stuff all the time. It is constantly in our face. We know when the games … So it’s like, you have to give people a groundwork actually to work with. I mean, you have to be Sherlock Holmes to find our game sometimes. But you don’t know when, you don’t know what station they’re on, you don’t know what time … it changes all the time.”

She says this constant change and lack of attention paid to women’s sports doesn’t just hurt the casual fans, but those who spend their hard-earned money on supporting women’s soccer.

“That’s really difficult,” she says of the constant lack of coverage. “Even for people who want to support, who buy the league passes, who spend their money to go to the game. If it’s not a set structure where it’s constantly in people’s minds and in people’s faces and easily accessible.”

Rapinoe believes the new TV deal could potentially accomplish this.

“To get the women on TV constantly and consistently,  to get their game out there, it’s just going to be incredible,” she said. “And the huge influx of cash as well, obviously. So the 75 percent split, with money going back into the club to invest in coaches who invest in players who invest in resources and training grounds and everything, I think is incredible.”

Megan Rapinoe spoke on behalf of Smirnoff in its ongoing commitment to the Black community and partnership with SideBarre, a fitness studio and Black women-owned small business. As part of the SideBarre partnership, Smirnoff will also pledge $50,000 to to Black Girl Ventures to support Black and Brown women-identifying business founders.