I went out to the pub on Saturday to watch the ASB Classic final between Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic. It was nail biting stuff with Ivanovic winning the first set, Williams battling back for the second set and Ivanovic finally clinching victory in the third. It was a display of pure athleticism between two former number ones battling it out for supremacy.
After the match I headed up to the bar and got talking to one of the locals. He told me how impressed he was with the match. How their athletic ability was unrivalled. How they went to three sets and gave it their all. Then I shot a half volley at him – did he know that there is a US$200,000 (NZ$241,000) difference in prize money between the ASB Classic and the Heineken Open that starts this week? He thought I was joking. I was not. He said that was shocking and it was not fair.
Is it fair? It’s an interesting question. I’ve heard many reasons why women shouldn’t receive the same amount of prize money in tennis – they don’t get the crowds; they don’t get the same media coverage; they don’t play the same number of sets.
The reality is that both tournaments get close to equal crowd numbers and air time, and both men and women play to three sets.
So why is it that there is such a gap? Maybe it has something to do with the principal sponsors. It could be argued Heineken is a bigger, global brand, while the ASB is a New Zealand brand.
In actual fact, Heineken, while a popular brand, made a 2.9 billion euro (NZ$4.2 billion) profit in 2012 while ASB’s parent company, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia made a 2013 profit of A$U7.6 billion (NZ$8.3 billion).
So why are the women getting $200,000 less? It just doesn’t seem right does it?
Venus Williams was part of the ASB Classic this year, and I was keen to pick her brain further about financial equality in tennis. Alas, I didn’t get a chance this time. She was a driving force behind getting Wimbledon to give equal prize money. It was the last of the four Grand Slams to do so.
The US Open was the first to introduce equal prize money after the passing of Title XI back in the 1970s. It took the UK another 30-odd years to catch up. Here in New Zealand we still haven’t caught up.
Williams’ influence and her battle for equal prize money can be watched in Venus in ESPN’s Nine for XI series.
We need to start standing up and saying that this is not acceptable. We live in a society in which we advocate for equality and equity. This is not equal.
Some quick observations:
- On the topic of tennis, two major news organisations called former world number one Ana Ivanovic a “glamour girl” after she won. My question to them is will they be calling Heineken Open player Tommy Hass a “beautiful boy”?
- Keeping with prize money parity, the ICC announced what the prize money would be for the 2014 Twenty20 World Cup. The winning men’s team gets $1.1 million. The winning women’s side gets $65,000.
- Staying with cricket, Debbie Hockley, one of New Zealand’s greatest ever cricketers, was induced into the International Cricket Council’s hall of Fame last week in Sydney, alongside Australian Bob Simpson. She is only the second Kiwi cricketer to be inducted (behind Sir Richard Hadlee) and only the fourth woman. You’d think a New Zealander being inducted into the Hall of Fame would be a big deal. Nope. Instead many of the New Zealand media chose to run a story about the Australian male being inducted. Would we cover it if the likes of Daniel Vettori or Ross Taylor were being inducted? Thankfully, I’m glad to say that the good people at the Radio New Zealand newsroom saw the value in it and ran this piece:
- A big congrats to Corey Anderson for breaking the fastest ever One Day International century. 36 balls. Total legend. It is innings like that which make it worthwhile being a Blackcaps supporter!
- It was great to see a few hundred people through the gates at the Basin Reserve last week for the Blaze v Hearts one day games. We are so lucky to be able to see world class athletes for free in our own backyard.
- @skysport. Sort out your apostrophes. They are driving me crazy! If I had a dollar for every misused apostrophe during the cricket on Sky Sport I’d be able to afford a first class ticket to Europe by now!
- And finally, last week 3News ran their 2013 sports highlights package. Here are some stats from it: 84 unique edits featured men, 12 featured women (3 female athletes and 1 team) and 0 featured disabled athletes. Is that fair?
