Letter: Unequal pay for women is due to game attendance

Editor,

Rep. Jackie Speier in her Aug. 26 Daily Journal guest perspective makes good points about the value of women’s sports and female athletes being under paid. I would hasten to add though, it is unrealistic to expect women soccer players to make the same money as the men at this time. Three women’s pro soccer leagues have failed in the past few years, and attendance averages about 3,000 per game, whereas the men’s soccer attendance averages over 19,000. No amount of good intention regarding women’s sports can negate capitalism, and frankly I like that system better than communism. Women should be paid more when they consistently, generate the kind of game attendance men’s sports do. No one should advocate a feel-good measure mandating equal pay for women athletes for sports that clearly do not generate equal revenue. That is the worst kind of social engineering and flat won’t work in a capitalistic society.