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Speaker 1: So let's talk business, but we're talking the business of sport.

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Speaker 1: The world's top one hundred highest paid athletes have been revealed,

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Speaker 1: and they are all men. Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list,

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Speaker 1: the football player formerly from Portugal, now in the Saudi area.

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Speaker 1: He's earned He earned last year two hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: million US dollars. That's four hundred and fifty seven million

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Speaker 1: dollars in Kiwi dollars. That's half a billion for one

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Speaker 1: man to kick a ball. Works out about and thank

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Speaker 1: your answer for doing the calculation. Fifty two thousand an hour.

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Speaker 1: Not bad if you can earn it. The highest paid female, however,

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Speaker 1: was tennis star Cocoa Golf regular visitor to Auckland. She

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Speaker 1: earned seven point one million dollars less than the guy

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Speaker 1: who placed one hundredth fascinating. Tony Bruce is a sports

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Speaker 1: sociologist professor at Auckland University and led the Contemporary Study

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Speaker 1: of Women in Sports Media internationally and joins me. Now, hello, Tony, Hi,

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Speaker 1: So it's fascinating, really, isn't it? Just how much money

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Speaker 1: these guys earn, and also the disparity between what they're

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Speaker 1: paid and what they get in endorsements.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the endorsements is the thing that

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Speaker 2: makes a big difference between those who make the top

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Speaker 2: fifty list and those that don't, because you can see

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Speaker 2: I had a good look at the women's list, and

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Speaker 2: some of the women in that top list they're only

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Speaker 2: there because they get very good endorsements. And it's the

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Speaker 2: same with quite a lot of the men. So it's

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Speaker 2: the money coming in sort of in a way external

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Speaker 2: to the sport organization or the sport they play itself

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Speaker 2: that seems to make the difference. And who gets to

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Speaker 2: stand out.

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Speaker 1: I presume it's because they build a brand and the

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Speaker 1: brand is valuable to advertisers. So I know there's one

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Speaker 1: bloke in there who is making three to four times

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Speaker 1: more in endorsements and he actually gets paid to play

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Speaker 1: the sport.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting to look at who makes who makes

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Speaker 2: that list and who gets the endorsements, and often it's

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Speaker 2: a mix of personality, success and longevity, and so you

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Speaker 2: won't often find flash in the pan athletes who suddenly

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Speaker 2: burst onto the landscape and then disappear. If you look

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Speaker 2: at all the people that are at the top, they're

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Speaker 2: playing global sports that have long competitions, incredible media coverage,

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Speaker 2: a global audience, but also they've been playing that sport

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Speaker 2: for a very very long time.

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Speaker 1: But there's also a disparity in those brand sponsorships and

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Speaker 1: endorsements between men and women. And I have the case

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Speaker 1: here of Lydia Coe, who is very close to becoming

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Speaker 1: the top earning female golfer of all time over thirty

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Speaker 1: five million dollars US. However in endorsement, she only gets

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Speaker 1: one point five million dollars, so she's not getting the

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Speaker 1: endorsements the way the men do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's we're hoping or hopeful I should say

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Speaker 2: that that seems to be changing over the last of

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Speaker 2: the three or four years starting and we saw it

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand with the Women's Rugby World Cup and

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Speaker 2: the FEEFA World Cup and the Cricket World Cup that

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of media discussion and organizations discussing how

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Speaker 2: women's sport is different and how it actually offers opportunities

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Speaker 2: for endorsements. So we're seeing a lot of organizations discussing

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Speaker 2: putting more of that kind of endorsement money into women's sport.

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Speaker 2: But at the moment, it's like a drop in the

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Speaker 2: buck bucket compared to what the men are getting.

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Speaker 1: So let's get into the quagmile, which is why do

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Speaker 1: men get paid more than women? And there's lots of

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Speaker 1: crocodiles in this quagmile, I have to say. But what

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Speaker 1: people always say, the common answer is that male sport

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Speaker 1: has more viewers because it's better. What do you say

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Speaker 1: to that, I will.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to decide how to say that politely or

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Speaker 2: respond to it. Politely. I would say that that's rubbish.

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Speaker 2: But men's sport has, you know, hundreds of years of

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Speaker 2: history and of building generations of fans, and women's sport

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Speaker 2: doesn't have that kind of impact yet because women have

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Speaker 2: been playing for almost as long as men in many

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Speaker 2: different sports, but what they do hasn't been visible. And

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Speaker 2: so I did quite a bit of research during the

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two Women's Rugby World Cup, and the thing

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Speaker 2: that interested me the most was the number of older

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Speaker 2: men who kept telling me that they had fallen in

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Speaker 2: love with women's rugby because the players were fresh, they

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Speaker 2: were open, they were obviously playing for the love of

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Speaker 2: the game, and my feeling is that they they felt

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Speaker 2: like it was rugby of old before rugby professionalized, and

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Speaker 2: so we know that people are drawn to the honesty

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Speaker 2: and frankness and the different perspective on the world that

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Speaker 2: women players have. What that hasn't done? And obviously the

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Speaker 2: quality on the field is getting better and better and

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Speaker 2: better because they're getting opportunities to be full ti time

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Speaker 2: professional athletes. So there's opportunities there. But that opportunity to

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Speaker 2: be a full time professional athlete, except in sports like tennis,

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Speaker 2: for example, is very very new. And of course if

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Speaker 2: you look at the top women's list tennis, it's slitted

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Speaker 2: with tennis players because that's a sport that has had

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Speaker 2: time to build that history, build that audience, and it

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Speaker 2: gets more or least the same coverage as men. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and yet they don't get enough money.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, Coco GoF is number one hundred and seven

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Speaker 1: on this list and doesn't make the top one hundred,

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Speaker 1: and she's the top player making the most money.

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Speaker 2: So you know, I wouldn't mind being at number one

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Speaker 2: hundred and seven myself.

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Speaker 1: Okay, excellent, that's a complete interview.

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Speaker 2: Yeah it is, but it's it's a lot of it's historical.

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Speaker 2: So I think, what could.

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Speaker 1: It also be that men value sport more than women.

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Speaker 1: Men value watching sport so much more than than women,

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Speaker 1: and so the advertisers and the people paying the prize

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Speaker 1: money realize that there are more eyeballs on the men's sport.

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Speaker 2: I think that's definitely a possibility. I think because I've

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Speaker 2: been studying netball as well recently, and that is a

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Speaker 2: vociferous and passionate fan base for women's sport, but they're

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Speaker 2: not visible, and so fans for men's sport are much

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Speaker 2: more visible than female fans. So there is Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: think what you're what you're getting to is there's sort

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Speaker 2: of multiple aspects that all come together to mean that women,

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Speaker 2: top women athletes are fighting for the kind of attention

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Speaker 2: that top male athletes have almost taken for granted these days.

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Speaker 1: Okay, but they're catching up, which is what you've said

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Speaker 1: all the way through the interview. And we'll wait to

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Speaker 1: see and maybe the list will be different in the future.

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Speaker 1: And Tony Bruce, I think you've got a great thing

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Speaker 1: to have to study. I have to say it's a

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Speaker 1: lot better.

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Speaker 2: It brings me lots of pleasure.

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Speaker 1: I bet it does. I'm just going to watch some

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Speaker 1: sport for a while, don't worry. It's my research. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've tried that one before. It doesn't work so well,

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Speaker 1: it's still good. And then thank you for your time today.

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Speaker 1: That is Tony Bruce, who studies this stuff at Orcherd

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Speaker 1: University in the sociology department.

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