Looks like the women loss. From my brief reading...the women were offered the same pay structure as the men and declined the same. Turned out to have been a smart move as they’ve made more $$ than the men over the past two years due to their success. However, in terms of the lawsuit, the decision and subsequent results were a loser. Correct ?
It just re-states what I was telling everyone over the last few years. The equal pay argument is at best disingenuous if not bordering on an extortion racket designed to generate publicity fees for high profile players and trickle down interest in the sport amongst women and girls. People that follow the sport closely behind the scenes know this has been the case since the mid-90s when Mia was making more than all the male players combined off the pitch and more than everyone save a hand full on it.
Important points for non-lawyers: Each side hired the best legal talent available. Some of the best labor lawyers in the world. Both sides filed what is called a motion for summary judgment. That means the material facts are not in dispute and the party making the motion is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. If the other party disputes the facts , then the case must go to trial for the jury to resolve the dispute about what is fact and what isn’t (and inevitably hear the pleas to their emotions and prejudices).
What that means is that an army of lawyers working for the women, some making more than $1,000 an hour, Ivy League educated, with decades of experience, looked at all the accounting, all the evidence, and could not locate a single material fact that they could dispute about how much the men and women were actually paid. Such motions are routine and they are routinely denied because (common sense alert) if the parties can’t dispute the facts, they wouldn’t be filing law suits in the first place. The women couldn’t. This was a junk lawsuit in the first place.
So the women thought they could file the lawsuit and embarrass USSF into an unfavorable labor agreement in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. They have done that before, this time they actually filed the suit. And they thought they could bully USSF was the threat of a jury trial if that didn’t work. Well they didn’t get their agreement and they aren’t going to get their trial on the important issues. Good for USSF’s long time lawyer, who is female.
It was only partial summary judgment. They may still get their trial on first class airfare and per diem, but those issues were solved going forward before the suit was filed and the jury, if there is one, will hear that. They will also hear that the women were losing money during that period and the disparate treatment wasn’t for all players, just the millionaire men in Europe who were given first class airfare in part to entice them to come back from Europe and no women were playing in Europe at the time. I don’t know what a jury would do about a lawsuit that says women on the Wheatie’s box were discriminated against because the failing business they were employed by wouldn’t fly them first class from Florida to Chicago, but that same business did fly a millionaire player nobody on the jury recognizes named Landon Donovan from England to LA for a game because he sold tickets and the TV folks demanded him and he wouldn’t come without the first class fare. So my sense is they will settle that claim.
The only other claim is the complaint about per diem: that not only were men paid more but they got more per diem. Nobody wants to try a case over $100.00 a day. And the reason the per diem was lower was because the union agreed to it because the women wanted catered meals and practice fuel in the locker room and the men didn’t. So good luck winning a lawsuit over whether you are treated unfairly because you demanded catering.
So no winners here except the lawyers. The women will appeal to save face. I doubt it will ever make it to an appellate decision. Even if it does, at best the only thing that can happen is that the court will say there a facts in disputes and send it down. But there’s no way this case goes to trial.
So it’s over. And you the fan lost. And all that money that could have been used to build the game is wasted. It’s a lesson I learned 25 years ago. I’ve tuned out the rhetoric then. You should now.