Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh dissect the U.S. women's soccer team's 13-0 World Cup victory over Thailand, arguing the gender pay gap stems from economics rather than sexism. They contend that countries with less gender equality often produce more successful teams due to scarcity, whereas the U.S. offers better family options, lowering participation rates. Citing Hope Solo and comparing tennis or MMA revenue models, they assert the lack of a sustainable women's league results from insufficient market demand and viewership, not intentional male suppression or fund hoarding. Ultimately, the discussion reframes the pay disparity as a structural market failure rather than systemic misogyny. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Marketing Female Athletes00:14:52
What's up everybody and welcome to Flagrant Tooth Patreon episode.
You know, it's no easy buckets, analysis by assholes, water cooler commentary for your sports needs.
I'm Andrew Schultz.
I'm here with Akash Singh.
Real Life Cas.
Yes, sir.
We got Alex Media in the building.
Ed and is not here with us today, but will be back soon.
I want to start this episode by ending a discussion once and for all.
Recently, the U.S. women's soccer team beat Thailand's 13-13 zip.
13-zip.
And is this the World Cup?
What is this?
The World Cup.
So it's the Women's World Cup that the country has to offer.
Right.
So they beat them 13-0, and immediately the pay gap conversation starts again.
And they're like, why isn't the women's team getting paid as much as the men's team?
They're so good.
This, that, the other.
Okay.
First of all, let's address a couple of things.
You beat Thailand 13-0.
Okay.
Thailand's elite athletes are jerking off English tourists.
They're not playing on the soccer team.
Okay.
Second of all, lesbians are illegal in Thailand, so you can't have a good soccer team.
Third of all, you beat Thailand.
Okay.
Who's the greatest athlete to come out of Thailand?
M. Bison?
Dalzim.
I was about to say Dalzim.
That's India.
But both of us named Street Fighter characters.
So we mean fictional, whatever.
We both got our own.
Fictional Street Fighter characters are the only thing.
I think Dalzim was Indian.
That we could name.
It's okay.
It's out there.
Same weather.
Same thing.
Whatever.
Point is this.
Same weather.
Every time the U.S. national team comes along, there's this discussion about why women aren't getting paid the same as men or this, that, the other.
Okay.
Here's the thing.
And here's the reality.
You know, Wendy's and McDonald's both sell hamburgers.
They both sell French fries.
They both sell milkshakes.
Right.
That doesn't mean that they should make the same amount of money.
Right.
One of them generates way more income than the other.
And it's simple as that.
There have been multiple female soccer teams that have sprouted up, like professional leagues.
Right.
Right?
Where are they now?
I don't even know what they're called.
They're not around anymore.
Yeah.
Right?
This isn't like a sexism thing.
Like, they're really just not around anymore, right?
Because they couldn't sustain it.
I mean, Nike's trying.
Nike's doing the big rollout for them, which is what they're supposed to do.
Listen, economically.
Let me ask you this.
Nike, get your money.
Yeah.
Get your money.
Nike money.
Real quick.
So it's like, I guess what I'm trying to say is it's not like they haven't tried to give women the opportunity to have a professional league.
They have.
Matter of fact, like the businessmen and women behind it said, whoa, look at all the success of the women's national team.
What if we could have a female soccer league?
Let's try it.
Failed.
Let's try it again.
The fuck.
The ballers of ballers, not women's team.
Mia Ham.
All of them.
Fucking the shit that took her shirt off and did the fucking game-winning goal and shit like that.
They were national heroes at that point.
So they launched the league after that, and it was just like, the U.S. women, as far as I know, get good ratings.
It's not like the WNBA where it's like, we pretend to give a fuck.
So to be a little bit better than that, it's a little bit better.
I'm not going to be a fairly fair.
It's not unfair.
You're being unfair to everyone.
How?
You're trying to make them watch the WNBA, and that's a punishment.
Yo, it's a good league, bro.
It's not fair to anybody.
It's not the NBA, but it's a good league.
Let's not get off this.
We're on soccer right now because this is the big thing where they're going to fucking Congress and talking about why they need to make more money and the wage gap and all this nonsense.
Okay.
So you asked the question about, to be fair, they get good ratings, right?
They get good ratings for the same reason why, you know, if the U.S. is in the curling championships, it's going to get good ratings, right?
It's because we love the U.S.
We love the U.S. so much we'll watch women compete.
That is U.S. pride.
Okay?
We love the United States so much that if you put women athletes in the red, white, and blue, we're going to watch them because we want to see us win.
Now, to that point, the men don't win, so we can't really watch.
If the women win and we watch in this one specific case, do they have...
Do you take this to Congress and politicize it for all women?
No.
In this one specific case, do they have something?
The argument here, I think, is that there's this group of men in charge that are stealing all the money from U.S. women's soccer.
Like, what do they really think that's happening?
Do they think boatloads of money are coming in from this game in Thailand or wherever the fuck the game is, and that these men are keeping it in basements somewhere and not giving it to the...
You don't think they would want to pay women?
You don't think that they know that this conversation is happening every year and they're trying their hardest to find money to pay the women so they don't have to hear them tweet and bitch about it.
Some girl with fucking purple hair on the team taking a knee because they're not getting equal pay.
Like, do you think they want to deal with that?
I promise every World Cup they sit down and go, how can we pay these bitches more so that they don't complain?
Is there anything we could do?
Can we take some money from the men?
Can we take some money from football?
Can we take some money from the Pentagon?
Is there money in the Pentagon that we can give the U.S. women's national team so we don't have to deal with this stupid distraction?
I'll say this also in terms of fairness.
One of my greatest quote tweets ever was Hope Solo had some stupid ass picture with her saying like, since we only get 75% of what men make, I'm going to leave work four hours early and so should you.
And I quote tweeted, while we're talking about double standards, shouldn't you be in jail?
Oh, yeah, because she's an abuser.
Yeah, she's an abuser, bro.
So, look, it is a thing where even Jamila Hill was out.
It was like, you know, they're better than the men's team or something.
They are better than the men's team.
I just wish there was there.
Well, no, I don't understand.
They're not actually better than them.
I mean, not better as in, like, they can beat them because I honestly don't watch enough soccer to care.
No, they don't.
They have been more successful than the men's counterpart.
That's what I mean.
Because women's rights exist in 10 countries.
Yeah.
No, that's and that's.
That's literally the key to doing well in sports.
Like, you don't understand the reason you're doing well is because you have it so good here.
I mean, like, the countries you're beating you have no rights.
The reason you're doing well is because of sexism.
You're complaining about sexism in America.
Yeah.
Right?
Right.
The reason you're doing well is because we're the least sexist.
If Brazil was as unsexist as us, you'd be getting molly-whopped.
Easily.
This would be destroying.
The more sexist a country, the less the women are allowed to or championed in their sports endeavors, and therefore the less talent go there.
You know what the women in Thailand are doing?
Having kids.
You know what I mean?
That's literally what they're doing.
They're having families.
I'll be honest.
I don't care.
I wouldn't care.
No, I mean, like, because I see what you're saying.
Like, it's like.
People make it into this big sexism argument.
It's like a lot of people.
If it's a WNBA, I understand why it's bringing it into the WNBA.
No, no, no.
This only didn't make sense to me.
Like, if it's a WNBA, I get that because it's a pro league.
It's on national TV.
I get why people would want to get paid more.
But I don't see the soccer counterpart for a women's basketball.
David Starner is making this.
He's making an interesting argument, right?
Which is like, it's one thing to see yourself on TV all the time and like see the psychology of the psychology of shit.
Somebody got to be making money if I'm on TV.
There's got to be some sort of the wage.
Cognitive dissonance kicks in.
You're like, something's happening that I don't know about.
I need to get some kind of payment for this, right?
It's like you walk into a comedy show, you would have paid $50 and the shit is sold out.
There's 500 people here.
You're like, yo, what's good?
And then you talk to... the people who put on the show and they're like, actually, this is government funded and none of these people pay for the tickets.
And then you're like, oh, okay, fine.
Just give my little film.
The only reason why I can praise the WMA is because of the revenue share.
It's like, all right, if you're some lady who just signed a deal with Nike and you play for a team that's also owned by the NBA, it's like, all right, and I only making 70 grand a year or some shit like that.
Like, where's all this money getting distributed where we can't get something more?
Right.
For soccer, I don't know where that is.
It isn't there.
And here's the reality, right?
So it's like, and I hate how people chalk up to a sexist market because we can't even have a normal conversation.
100% is lazy, but it's like, guys, there are sports that people watch that women play.
Golf, tennis, MMA, wrestling.
Like, it's not that, it's not like people haven't figured out.
No, no, but I'm saying it's not like people haven't figured out how to market female athletes in certain places, right?
MMA, you see them headlining fight cards.
I'm a big boxing fan.
They have never found a way to get people into female boxing.
But for whatever reason, MMA, they figured it out.
Now, their shared money.
They almost ended up with Leila Lee for like a little bit.
It was close.
It was close.
And that was banking on the equity of my daddy, right?
So it's like, but even still, and the strategy is usually attractive woman, not a lot of clothing.
Right.
Right?
Tennis.
Attractive women, not a lot of clothing.
You watch the last WNBA commercials, like the first ones when the league was coming out.
Yeah.
They were all like sexy.
Hell yeah.
Like dressed in like fucking, like a fucking, like a lifetime movie commercial or something.
And I was like, can they play ball?
Like, are they hooping?
Well, that's the thing.
We want to see, unfortunately, women are not as big fans of sports as men.
That's just the reality of the matter.
And therefore, for any sport, you're going to rely on male viewership in order to make it happen.
And maybe golf, the reason why people watch it, regardless of gender, is because it doesn't, and I don't know enough about golf to make like an honest assessment, but it doesn't look like it relies on like raw athleticism.
Oh.
Right?
It's like more of a finesse.
Viewership?
Yeah, for a viewership.
Oh, here's the thing.
People don't even watch golf.
They watch Tiger.
Like when Tiger's not good, nobody's watching golf.
Fair enough.
But female golfers make a lot of money.
So I'm assuming.
I don't, yeah, I know.
Female tennis players, people.
And a lot of people like tennis better, female tennis better.
The game is more interesting to some.
They say.
Yeah, because there's not, the rallies are longer in female tennis, whereas men's serves are so dominant that it's like the points are shorter and whatever.
I personally still like, I like watching athletic freaks and them do these crazy things that I could never do.
So I'm always going to like men's sports.
I just hate that it comes into the sexism argument because the only reason there's a female league is because of sexism.
Right?
Like you can't use both of those arguments.
You can't say that someone's being sexist against you and deny the fact that the only reason we are separating the genders is because we don't view them equally.
If we viewed all people equally and we were just like, we want the best players, there would be no female soccer players.
They wouldn't exist.
The female U.S. women's national team played the under-15 team in Dallas.
The under 15 team in Dallas and got beaten 5-2.
That means the U.S. women's national team on an open free market is as talented as 13-year-old boys.
You have middle school talent.
How the fuck did they say yes to that game?
Say what?
Why would they say yes to that game?
Because they've been talking shit.
They'd be like, we deserve all this money.
And these little kids with fucking retainers walked in and watched them.
How'd they sound?
Say what?
How'd they sound?
It's an inside joke.
But I guess it's different because, like, for tennis, it's all like there's a cup, right?
It's like, there's a sponsor.
It's like the Mercedes-Benz fucking U.S. golf classic or whatever.
Like, this company is going to pay this money to this winner.
That makes sense, right?
Yep.
I don't see that for other sports.
Nike's trying their best.
If you go anywhere in New York City, you will see big giant posters of all these women soccer players.
I'm so sexy, I haven't even noticed one yet.
Real talk?
I've been here?
I haven't seen one yet.
Literally anywhere in Midtown, like you'll see these fucking giant bands.
You'll be in Midtown every day.
Yeah.
Going a shit-ass jersey.
This is news to me that the Women's Soccer World Cup was going on.
Oh, God.
Real talk, I thought it was a qualifying match or something.
I swear I didn't know until this podcast.
I had no idea what was going on.
And you know what it is?
Maybe it's like the victim.
Maybe we're victims of a vacuum culture where it's like, I'm sure these female soccer players exist in a world where they are so wildly important because all their fans are tweeting them every single day.
The circles in which they operate know lots about soccer.
They're going to teach at camps.
They're going out to restaurants where everybody knows them.
Their whole world, everybody knows them.
So they're walking around like, holy shit, I'm really fucking famous.
I'm the real deal.
But the reality of the matter is, outside of the World Cup, which is once every four years, they don't make any money.
There's no revenue, right?
And while the Women's World Cup is very popular in the United States and other countries, it's not that popular in the third world places that love soccer, right?
So it's like, whereas in the regular World Cup, you could go to the fucking Nigeria, Ivory Coast, you could go to Thailand, you could go all these places, and the whole country shuts down.
Egypt ain't shutting down for some bitches to play soccer.
They play soccer in Asia.
That's what you know how fast they could move without their clits.
No clit agility right there, bro.
Jesus Christ.
So it's like, it's just annoying that they that we got to lie to ourselves every fucking four years about she wouldn't have known if it was going on unless except for like that influencer program.
They're doing like, fucking right, they brought like a bunch of like important, like female, like influencers.
Send them to France to go to the World Cup.
So they're tweeting about it.
Because I don't follow any social influencers yeah, like like Ravens out there, like Scotty Beams out there, like they're all watching.
So i'm like oh, the Women's Cup, all right, I get it.
So they get the, the girls that can move the needle for girls, and they're trying to.
Then that's smart, smart marketing market don't market to us, market to women.
Influencers Boost World Cup00:02:40
And the more women support it and you make money, the right.
Higher the ratings go, the more money there is to be made.
Simple as listen.
There's a reason why and this is why I hate that people bring up the sexism argument.
You know that female models make like 10 times more than male models.
Of course, like Giselle is making 10 times more, maybe even 100 times more.
Giselle makes more money than her husband.
Fact matter of fact, her husband got a model on the side and he still don't make as much real talk.
Giselle only models.
She makes more than her football husband, who also on the side, is a model the most Super Bowls ever in life and he needs a side hustle to catch up with his life.
Catch up with this.
All you gotta do is be beautiful and you'll be literally gotta say you're lucky that your games are on sunday or I would be too busy to come watch you.
That is facts.
It's like if she was in the NBA, they'd never see each other.
Never!
I ain't gonna no fucking games.
I'm the breadwinner in this family while my husband gets fucking CT drooling all over his 50s.
If they divorce, like it's like the reverse of Michael Jordan.
Oh, he's taking a half.
That's gonna be his ultimate championship.
If Tom Brady divorces Giselle and takes half, give him all the rings, bro.
Oh, God.
You gotta give him a ninth and a tenth one after that.
At least.
So this thing is like, I mean, like, female strippers make way more.
Female porn stars make way more.
It's like there's so many situations where the women make way more than the men in that.
It's just simple economics.
My thing is, like, when I hear that stuff, I'm like, do you think people do not like making money?
There's a way that we can take a sport and make more fucking money out of it.
Don't you think people would have done it?
Like, it's just supply and demand.
There's no, there's not enough people that support the sport as they support men's basketball, men's football, baseball, all the other shit.
It's just the numbers just ain't there.
They're not there.
And if they were there, you'd make money.
Way more money.
This is America, though.
Like, nobody is going to say no to more money just because you're a woman.
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