tennis

Djokovic supports equal prize money for men and women after controversy

15 Comments

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Djokovic faces the threat of losing millions in corporate sponsorship revenues. There is certainly no mystery behind why he did a sudden 180-degree turn on his position of gender equality in sports.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

I want to cut him some slack. He may have been speaking more from a personal perspective, than as a spokesman for the men players. He is the top player in the world, and probably personally draws more spectators than anyone else (except for possibly Federer and Nadal).

(You'd think his 97 million of career prize money is not insufficient.)

But I imagine a Serena match against decent opposition would draw more spectators than for a match between men ranked outside the top 10. She's really the only game in town as far as women's competition goes though.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

fxgai: "He may have been speaking more from a personal perspective, than as a spokesman for the men players."

Doesn't matter, since he is a spokesMAN for men on the issue once he brings in gender, which he did just before saying the disparity is justified. He is indeed the world's best player. But not all great celebrities have great personalities; that's just a fact. He made a stupid comment, and now in the backlash he is simply backtracking. I've lost a little respect for the man. THAT is personal.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

You've gotta love those complete turnaround seriously!

Apologies for misunderstanding what you meant djoko. Much clearer now.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

“they have to go through a lot of different things that we don’t have to go through, you know, the hormones and different stuff.”

You should probably just stop talking now, Dorkovic.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Men plat five sets but women only three.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Bigger crowds should equal higher prize money, it has nothing to do with gender. Adding gender into the conversation just confuses the issue. A direct correlation between spectator/commercial revenue and prize money makes perfect sense. Say for example you had a music festival, you don't pay all the bands the same out of some misguided idea of equality, the band that draws the biggest crowd is entitled to the biggest pay.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Djokovic said the men should be fighting to get more. My view is more from the sponsors, not at the expense of the women. It is up to the women to fight for more, from the same sponsors. It is not a zero sum game. If Rolex wants to increase their sponsorship amount for the men, it is up to the women to fight for their own increase. This is not a gender issue, it is a sponsorship issue.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Novac is just doing damage control after slipping out his real opinions, now $$ is dictating what he says.

“I just think America was the first country. The Europeans took the cue from America. Americans respected equality in a lot of life levels earlier than Europe did.”

As for Ms Evert, she also should watch what SHE says, the world is a rather large place & it aint all about the US!! Just saying!!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Yes, Evert's comments were a bit dodgy. Nole's home of Serbia, a part of former communist Yugoslavia, doesn't strike me as being behind the times in terms of gender equality. The communists for all their faults did have a penchant for gender equality (maybe just a preconception on my part though).

4 ( +4 / -0 )

To earn the same money shouldn't players be required to compete in the same event?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Come-on - everyone knows women need to boost their hormones to compete at the highest level!!! See - I said it! And couse I'm not a celebrity I don't have to apologize...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Exactly striker. It's probably not pc enough in today's world but hard cold numbers i.e audience, sponsors money etc have to be the metrics deciding who earn what. Gender, age etc are irrelevant.

If we push the absurd reasoning we have in tennis why not ask for revenue equality in all sports and disciplines then, how about paralympians, do they deserve less money than able bodied athletes and so on?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There are 6 or 7 tournaments a year that host both the WTA and the ATP at the same venue. The 4 majors, Indian Wells, Miami, and not sure but maybe one other 1000 level event in Europe. The debate about equal prize money is only relevant at these events where the prize money is,,well,, equal. Outside of these dual events the prize money for WTA only events is significantly lower than prize money for ATP events. Men's and Women's matches are usually staggered at the dual events and tickets are purchased by the half-day or full-day and one pays the same ticket price for all matches making the argument that the ATP sells more tickets and should get more prize money a little difficult. I think it is unfair that the women get the same prize money in all 4 grand slams since they do not play the best 3 out of 5 sets like the men. Equal pay for equal work, right? Not at the grand slams. Djokovic had a point only he mucked it up. Here's an example,,, Doubles is not as popular as singles and the prize money is less than half of singles in most cases (per team of course). Doubles prize money is based on popularity. I think this is where Djokovic was coming from but the it blew up with the hormone comment.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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