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    Spain’s Female Soccer Players Call Off Wage Dispute Strike

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    The breakthrough in the labor dispute, which has delayed the start of the season and has added to a turbulent period in Spanish soccer, was an agreement over minimum pay.Players in Spain’s women’s soccer league have called off a strike that delayed the opening of the season after reaching an agreement with the league over minimum salaries, a rare moment of harmony in what has been an acrimonious period in Spanish soccer.The agreement, confirmed early Thursday, would raise the minimum salary for players in the league to 21,000 euros, or about $22,500, from 16,000 euros this season, a significant increase but still far short of what their male counterparts make.The minimum is scheduled to rise to €23,500 for the 2025-2026 season, with the potential for an even higher benchmark “if enough profits are obtained from commercial assets,” such as sponsorship, according to a statement from the unions representing the players.Spanish soccer is in the midst of a turbulent moment, touched off by an unwanted kiss by Luis Rubiales, the nation’s top soccer official at the time, on Jennifer Hermoso, one of the national team’s top players. The episode occurred last month after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney, Australia.The furor over Mr. Rubiales’s conduct — both the kiss and what came after — has put a spotlight on the various inequities and accusations of misconduct in the Spanish game, with claims of deeply rooted discrimination and chauvinism. The episode has been described in some quarters as Spain’s #MeToo moment.The negotiations were “tough, intense and long,” Beatriz Álvarez, the president of Spain’s fledgling professional women’s league, said during a late-night news conference in announcing the agreement that clears the way for the season to begin on Friday, after matches last weekend were called off.Despite the raise, female players will still make far less than male players in Spain’s top division. According to A.F.E., the main soccer union in Spain, the minimum salary for first-division male players is 180,000 euros, although Ms. Alvarez said that as the women’s league increases its income, “the conditions of the players will improve.”The unions, in their statement, made clear that they were looking for more than just increased compensation, highlighting the need to continue to work not just for higher pay but also for better maternity conditions and “harassment protocol.”The A.F.E.’s chief lawyer, María José López, who was involved in the negotiations, said that “types of behavior that could be considered harassment, such as a pat on the backside or a kiss, need to be redefined, and sanctioning procedures made more agile.”That could be interpreted as a reference to Mr. Rubiales, who is expected to appear in court on Friday in connection with a criminal case that could lead to sexual assault charges, and to the developments surrounding him since the World Cup victory that have deeply unsettled Spanish soccer.After he refused to step down in response to widespread criticism of his kiss, current members of the national team and dozens of other players said they would not take the field for Spain unless significant changes were made in the leadership of the Spanish soccer federation.Mr. Rubiales eventually resigned on Sunday, and Jorge Vilda, who was accused by players last year of controlling behavior, was fired as the team’s coach this month.The team is scheduled to play its first match since the World Cup next week, against Sweden, and it is not clear whether the players will consider the departures of Mr. Rubiales and Mr. Vilda to be enough to bring them back into the fold.The answer to that question may come on Friday, when Montse Tomé, who was chosen to replace Mr. Vilda and is the first woman to lead the national team, will name her roster for the match next week. More

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      Spain’s Female Soccer Players Strike Over Wage Dispute

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      The season was scheduled to begin on Friday, but the players refused to play after talks with the league brought no agreement. The dispute comes amid a debate over sexism and soccer in Spain.Female soccer players in Spain are going on strike as the club season begins, a union representative said on Thursday, as a dispute over conduct by the head of the country’s soccer federation widened into a fight with their clubs over pay.Early this month, the women’s players’ union announced that if working conditions did not improve considerably before the start of the season on Friday, the women would not play the matches set to begin this weekend.The dispute is playing out amid broader upheaval in Spanish soccer, with the firing on Tuesday of the women’s national soccer coach, Jorge Vilda, whom players had criticized for his domineering management style, and the filing of a criminal complaint against Luis Rubiales, the head of the country’s soccer federation, by Jennifer Hermoso, a player on the national women’s team whom he forcibly kissed during a public celebration of the team’s World Cup final victory in Australia last month.Representatives of the Spanish women’s soccer league and unions failed to reach an agreement during meetings in Madrid this week, with pay being the biggest point of contention.Protesters holding red cards calling for the resignation of Luis Rubiales, the head of Spain’s soccer federation, in Barcelona this week.David Ramos/Getty ImagesThe players asked for three years of progressive increases to bring their minimum wage up to 30,000 euros (about $32,000) a year, but the league proposed an increase, over three years, to €25,000. The current minimum for female players in the country is €16,000, compared with €180,000 for their male counterparts, according to Spain’s chief player union, A.F.E.“The irresponsibility and lack of spirit and vision of the unions lead clubs and players to a strike that seriously damages the image of Spanish women’s football,” the women’s league said in a statement on Wednesday.Spain’s female soccer players have been demanding higher wages and better conditions for years. They reached their first collective bargaining agreement in 2020 and have since been pushing for the country’s soccer league to improve conditions. The players are seeking higher wages, contracts that continue during maternity leave, and access to the same nutritionists and physical therapists as the male players.The strike will affect games scheduled for Friday through Sunday and Sept. 15 to 17.Discussions are due to continue next week between the league and unions in the hopes of reaching an agreement. More

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      Nigeria’s Players Have Enlisted Help to Ensure They Get Paid

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      The members of Nigeria’s Women’s World Cup team announced Tuesday that they had restarted a long-running battle with their country’s soccer federation over missing paychecks and bonuses. Some of the overdue pay claims, the team said, go back more than two years.To press their claims, the players have enlisted the help of soccer’s global players union, FIFPro.The bitter fight over money had shadowed Nigeria’s preparations for the World Cup, and reportedly led the team to discuss taking the unprecedented step of boycotting its opening game in Australia. Instead, the players set aside their grievances long enough to advance to the round of 16, where they were eliminated by England in a penalty kick shootout on Monday.On Tuesday, the team and the players issued a joint statement in which they said they would work together to press the Nigeria Football Federation “concerning bonus payments, camp allowances and expenses, some of which date back to 2021.”“During the World Cup, the players expressed the desire to remain focused on their performance without making public statements or facing other distractions,” the statement said. “However, the Super Falcons believe that it is now time for the Nigeria Football Federation to honor their commitments and pay the outstanding amounts.”Before the tournament, FIFPro had given its blessing to a new structure that guaranteed at least $30,000 in prize money to each player in the tournament, with even more due to players on teams that advanced out of the group stage. For a team like Nigeria, which was eliminated in the round of 16, that should mean payments of at least $60,000 per player.That money will be paid to national federations, though, rather than directly to players, according to FIFA, world soccer’s global governing body and the organizer of the World Cup. On the eve of the tournament, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, declined to guarantee that the players would get the bonus payments created for them.“We are an association of associations,” said FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino. “So any payments we do will be through the associations.”The Nigerian players, and their coach, the American Randy Waldrum, have implied that could be a problem. Waldrum told a podcast before the World Cup that the Nigerian federation was still months behind on payments of his own salary to coach the team, and he also said the federation had not delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by FIFA to Nigerian officials to pay for the team’s pre-World Cup preparations.“Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed about 14 months’ salary,” Waldrum said in July. “And then they paid seven months’ salary. We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago, when we played the summer series in the U.S.A. It’s a travesty.”Now the players are seeking not only that money, but much more.“The team is extremely frustrated that they have had to pursue the Nigeria Football Federation for these payments before and during the tournament and may have to continue doing so afterward,” the team’s statement with FIFPro said. “It is regrettable that players needed to challenge their own federation at such an important time in their careers.” More

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      in Soccer

      Even if U.S. Doesn’t Win the World Cup, Its Players Will Take Home the Most Prize Money

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      The Canadian women’s soccer team has been demanding that its soccer federation agree to equal pay and equal working conditions for the men’s and women’s national teams for over a year. Players from England are frustrated that their country’s federation won’t offer performance-related bonuses. And the Nigerian team discussed boycotting its opening game over money […] More

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      in Golf

      Women’s Golf, and Its Players, Sees Rise in Money

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      Prize money has been growing, and players are landing sponsors. “Elevating purses continues to elevate everyone,” said the L.P.G.A. commissioner.When second-year L.P.G.A. player Allisen Corpuz tapped in her final putt on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links this month, she won the United States Women’s Open with a memorable final round, overtaking the leader and holding off a surging challenger in Charley Hull.Corpuz also cashed a $2 million first-place check, which was more than double what Annika Sorenstam won for all three of her U.S. Women’s Open victories combined.Despite losing ProMedica, the health care company, as presenting sponsor for the Open, the United States Golf Association increased the total prize purse by $1 million to $11 million this year.It’s part of a broader move in women’s professional golf to increase sponsorship for tournaments as well as for individual golfers. Over the past few years, purses have risen at tournaments, new sponsors have sought out golfers and even players who are not at the top of their careers have reaped the benefits.“Elevating purses continues to elevate everyone,” said Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the L.P.G.A. commissioner.At the tour level, the L.P.G.A. has been increasing prize money for players up and down the tour ranking. This year, the total purse for 36 official events is more than $100 million. Ten years ago, that number was $49 million, but even in 2021 it was around $70 million.Charley Hull, who made a charge at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, has cultivated support from a significant number of sponsors over the years.Harry How/Getty ImagesLast year, 27 L.P.G.A. players earned $1 million in prize money (up from 15 the year before). That number still pales in comparison with the men’s PGA Tour, where, last year, 126 players earned more than $1 million. (Only 125 players have fully exempt status on the PGA Tour, meaning even players who couldn’t play every event or who qualified for all of the majors earned more than the top L.P.G.A. players.)Yet Samaan and other leaders are also focused on the individual players. The L.P.G.A. said that from 2021 to 2022, the No. 1 player in the world earned 22 percent more, but the 50th ranked player saw her earnings rise 44 percent. The 100th ranked player got a 30 percent raise, to $167,000 from $128,000.While the top players in any sport will always be compensated well, golf is unique in that many of the players in each tournament get cut and sometimes don’t get paid anything for the week.“We’re also looking to our partners and not just how to grow the purses, but also for help on the expense side,” Samaan said. “Some of the challenges our players face is half of them don’t get to play on the weekend each week. Some sponsors include miss cut payments. Some offer stipends or travel bonus to cover basic expenses.” But not all of them.Another factor driving increased interest — and money — in women’s golf is the desire among companies to sponsor both men and women. Whereas a journeyman player on the PGA Tour has rarely wanted for a sponsor, women, even those just below the top ranks, have often struggled.Many companies, as part of broader efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion, are looking to add female players. Early to this was KPMG, which broke ground — and set a new standard — by continuing to pay Stacy Lewis under her sponsorship contract when she had her daughter in 2018.Stacy Lewis holding her daughter after finishing the Drive On Championship in March. She was among the first players to continue being paid under her sponsorship contract while out on maternity leave.Darryl Webb/Associated PressPreviously, golfers had to play a certain number of events in order to receive all of their sponsorship dollars. Instead, KPMG opted to do what it would have done for an employee who went on family leave. Many other sponsors have followed suit.Aon, the risk management consulting firm, now offers the same prize money to men and women for its yearlong Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which assesses a player’s overall score on a challenging hole at each week’s tournament.Lizette Salas, ranked 80th in the world and in her 12th year as a professional, is sponsored by Aon. She said the conversations she’s had with sponsors were radically different today from when she began.“In the beginning the conversations were short,” she said. “I was pretty much pitching myself, as opposed to an agent or manager doing it. Now as the investments become bigger, the conversation between player and sponsor has changed. It’s created a more personal relationship between the executives and the player. I’m a big person in diversity and inclusion. A lot of the companies I’m sponsored by have taken that big step in their companies, too. It’s refreshing.”Smaller companies have also gotten in on supporting L.P.G.A. players. Cozen O’Connor, a law firm based in Philadelphia, has sponsored players on the PGA Tour for several years. This year, it added Ally Ewing, who was the L.P.G.A. Rookie of the Year in 2016, finished 11th at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open and is ranked 36th in the world.“When we decided sponsoring players was part of our branding strategy, we wanted to make sure it was inclusive, said Michael Heller, executive chairman and chief executive of Cozen O’Connor. “We wanted it to represent our firm and our clients. It was important to add a female player.”The firm selected Ewing because of her story: battling through Type 1 diabetes, and succeeding at every level of the game.Law firms, like insurance and financial-service companies, are natural fits for the L.P.G.A., given the history in those industries of using golf for entertainment and marketing.Hull, the British golfer who made a charge at the U.S. Women’s Open, has a significant social media presence that has allowed her to cultivate support from a variety of sponsors, including traditional golf brands like TaylorMade, the financial adviser Hachiko Financial and a wellness supplement.“My early sponsors were brands that were already in golf and who were looking to activate their partnerships, like Ricoh around the Women’s British Open, or Omega around the Olympics,” Hull said. “Now I feel my sponsors are more personal to me, such as Drink Mojo which is a supplement I use, or Hachiko, who are helping to educate me on investment.”Hull said her sponsors have changed as she’s grown as a player, and she’s fine with that.“As I’ve grown up and matured, so have my sponsors, and that’s not always just on my behalf,” she said. “A sponsor might be looking for a specific type of person to fit their ambassador role, so as I get older I might grow out of the type of person they’re looking for.”Jessica Korda was the first female player to sign a deal with FootJoy to wear its apparel from head to toe.Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesThe top players — who have the ability to transcend the sport — have the most power in negotiating deals with their sponsors. Jessica Korda, who was ranked 14th in the world last year before a back injury, signed a deal with FootJoy to wear its apparel from head to toe. She was the first female player to sign such a deal with FootJoy.She particularly appreciates the sponsors who were with her when she started.“My rookie year [2011], I played in 14 or 15 events,” Korda said, and she made about $50,000. “So having a sponsor really, really helped to cover my cost. We don’t have health care. We have to pay a lot out of pocket. Expenses are quite high.”Korda, who has made $7.6 million on the golf course, said that she’s hopeful for players coming out of college now, in a different sponsorship environment.“It allows them to play with a bit less pressure and not go paycheck to paycheck. Having that comfort was huge for me back then. Now it’s aligning with brands I really enjoy.” More

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      in Tennis

      Women’s Tennis Tour Approves Deal for Pay Equity by 2033

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      The WTA Tour approved a plan to achieve pay equity at its biggest tournaments. But it won’t be fully implemented until 2033.The women’s professional tennis tour took another step on Tuesday toward closing the gender pay gap, as players and tournament officials committed to bringing their prize money in line with the men for the most significant tournaments, though the shift won’t be complete for 10 years.The move came after months of negotiations within the WTA Tour, which includes tournament organizers, as well as years of complaints from players and foot-dragging by tournament officials who for decades have paid female professionals a fraction of what they pay the men even in tournaments where they play the same best-of-three-sets format.In Rome, in May, the men competed for $8.5 million while the women competed for $3.9 million. The Western & Southern Open, the main tuneup for the U.S. Open, paid men $6.28 million while women competed for $2.53 million. The National Bank Open in Canada offered the men $5.9 million last year, compared with $2.53 million for the women.“More and more players have been getting restless with this,” said Jessica Pegula, the world’s fourth-ranked player and a member of the WTA Players’ Council. “Equal pay started with the Slams, and I think a lot of people thought that meant every tournament.”Women and men have received equal prize money at all of the Grand Slam tournaments since 2007. As part of this deal, organizers of the next two tiers of tournaments — the 1000-level tournaments, which are the biggest competitions outside of the Grand Slams, and the 500-level tournaments — have committed to pay equity as well.All events featuring both men and women at those two levels will pay prize money equal to that on the men’s tour, the ATP, beginning in 2027. By 2033, all events at those two levels will offer the same prize money.Tour executives and tournament officials say the phased-in approach is essential for raising the additional revenue to fund the pay increases, but that has not sat well with all players.“I don’t know why it’s not equal right now,” Paula Badosa of Spain, who has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, said last month.Sloane Stephens, another Players’ Council member, said she understands the impatience of players who don’t want this benefit to kick in only after they have retired, but there are many existing contracts that prevent an immediate shift.“It may not be the fastest pathway, but we will get there,” she said. “If I wasn’t on the council, it would be hard for me to understand. This process takes time.”In an interview this spring, Steven Simon, the chief executive of the WTA Tour, said the time frame is necessary to allow the market to catch up with player sentiment, as the tour expands its marketing and renegotiates existing media contracts. Tournament organizers will also be able to take advantage of new rules that will make player attendance essentially mandatory at the biggest tournaments. Tournament organizers have long used the lack of a mandatory attendance requirement and a slight difference in the number of rankings points that players received as excuses for not providing equal pay. All of the tournaments with men and women will also now offer the same rankings points for both, making the competitions equal in every way and less confusing for fans.But while the pay equity deal offers an eventual solution to an old problem for tennis — and in all sports — it is hardly a panacea. With Wimbledon set to begin on Monday, women’s tennis continues to grapple with challenges.“I don’t know why it’s not equal right now,” Paula Badosa has said about the gap between men’s and women’s prize money at most tournaments.Ettore Ferrari/EPA, via ShutterstockMost immediately, the tour has yet to announce the location of its season-ending tour finals in November. That issue was supposed to have been settled after the tour announced earlier this year that it would end its 18-month suspension of operations in China over the country’s treatment of the former player Peng Shuai. In a social media post in 2021, Shuai accused a government official of sexually assaulting her, and tour officials were subsequently unable to contact her.Simon said its boycott proved ineffective. But when the tour released its fall calendar earlier this month, it gave no location for the finals, though it included several tournaments in China. Tour officials have said they intend to hold the event there, but negotiations are continuing with the Chinese over the details of its existing 10-year deal that guaranteed nearly $150 million in prize money.There is also the larger issue of whether the WTA Tour will be able to further unify with the men’s tour, a move that experts say is vital for maximizing the potential of pro tennis. And looming over all of this is what role, if any, Saudi Arabia may play in the sport.Saudi Arabia, whose LIV Golf circuit recently agreed to a merger with golf’s PGA Tour, already hosts a lucrative men’s exhibition event, but so far it has shown an inclination to grow its investments in tennis without the acrimony and litigation that accompanied its aggressive push into golf.Saudi Arabia is a leading candidate to become the host of the ATP’s Next Gen Finals, a season-ending 21-and-under tournament that has been held in Milan since its inception in 2017, according to people with knowledge of the bidding process. The proposal to stage the competition, beginning later this year, includes a plan to launch a similar women’s event.The WTA has yet to commit to that or to staging any competitions in Saudi Arabia, where women only recently gained the right to drive and where an abysmal human rights record includes the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Simon traveled to the kingdom earlier this year for talks with government officials, though it’s not clear whether the WTA’s idea of further unification with the ATP includes a new tournament in Saudi Arabia.For now, erasing the pay gap is the first step, though some players do not understand the slow pace of change.“I don’t see why we have to wait,” Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, who is ranked No. 6, said recently.In response, Simon has pointed to the deal the tour struck earlier this year with CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm, which bought 20 percent of a WTA commercial subsidiary for $150 million. Much of the investment will be used to enhance sales and marketing efforts at a time when many of its players remain unknown to casual sports fans.Doing that may require some work on the part of the tournaments that goes beyond giving women more money.“We have to build these personalities,” Simon said.Women in tennis have also been increasingly vocal in recent months about the disparate treatment they have received. At the French Open, organizers put a men’s match in the featured prime-time slot on nine of 10 nights.The mixed tournaments almost always conclude with the men’s final on the last Sunday — an implicit peak — with the women’s final played the day before. At the Italian Open in May, Elena Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina took the court at 11 p.m. local time in a largely empty stadium after rain and the men’s semifinals delayed their match for hours.After Tuesday’s announcement, at least the money will be equal — eventually.“It’s time for change,” Simon said. “The pathway is now there.” More

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      in Basket

      Brittney Griner Is Creating a New Normal, for Herself and the W.N.B.A.

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      PHOENIX — Brittney Griner embarked on a four-day itinerary that would disrupt anyone’s circadian rhythm.First came the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, where she was decked out in a sharp, black suit that Saturday night. President Biden pointed to her in the audience and said, “Boy, I can hardly wait to see you back on the court.”Soon she was rushing to catch a flight, landing in Phoenix at 4 a.m. for the start of W.N.B.A. training camp with the Mercury. Then she hustled back east, to New York, for her first Met Gala. She wore a sleek tan suit, and her wife, Cherelle Griner, was in a strapless white gown, both custom outfits by Calvin Klein. They mingled with A-list celebrities that night, but Brittney needed to be back in Phoenix by Tuesday afternoon for more basketball and, she had hoped, a nap.The sparkling events, time-zone hopping and overall spectacle were overwhelming but perhaps also came as a kind of relief for Brittney Griner, who spent nearly 10 months detained in Russia and returned to the United States in December as a new symbol of hope. Ensnared in a geopolitical showdown between Washington and Moscow, Griner drew attention not only to herself and to the plight of other foreign detainees but also to the financial disparities facing women in sports that had brought her to Russia in the first place.On Friday, Griner will return to the court for her first official W.N.B.A. game in 579 days. The league is not the same now, in part because of her. The issues her detention spotlighted are not new and are unlikely to be easily resolved. But she has galvanized a potent fan base and sports work force who are both eager to welcome her home and to use this moment to promote change alongside her.“We have wanted change for a long time, but now we’re really starting to demand it,” Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said. “We’re just getting a little more impatient with that and realizing that it’s an issue where we don’t have the money yet, but pushing so that really, really soon we do have the resources to be treated like the athletes we are.”A modest crowd roared for Griner this month during a preseason game, her first action since she was released from Russia.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesWhy Brittney Griner Was in RussiaRussian customs officials detained Griner at an airport near Moscow in February 2022 after finding vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage as she returned to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional team that reportedly paid her at least $1 million. She was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony, but she was freed in a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer, in December. The U.S. State Department said that she had been wrongfully detained.The W.N.B.A., now in its 27th season, has long watched dozens of its players go overseas during each off-season in search of higher pay, though the league has been trying to offer them additional ways to make money stateside. The maximum salary in the W.N.B.A. is about $230,000, and was half as much just a few years ago. Top players like Griner, a seven-time All-Star center, can command hundreds of thousands more from international teams. Many people were not aware of this dynamic until Griner’s detention and expressed shock and frustration on social media and on television shows.“As much as I would love to, you know, pay my light bill for the love of the game, I can’t,” Griner said last month during her first news conference since she was freed.The Associated Press reported that 67 of the league’s 144 players still played internationally this off-season, indicative of the strong pull of the opportunity to make additional income. But in light of Griner’s detention and the war in Ukraine, players eschewed the historically lucrative Russian organizations for teams in countries like Italy and Turkey. About 90 players played internationally five years ago.Collier, 26, who has played for international teams in W.N.B.A. off-seasons, said younger players gain important experience overseas. But she said she doubted she would play abroad again after Griner’s experience and because she wants to spend more time with her daughter, who will turn 1 next Thursday.“I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home,” Griner said in December.Caitlin O’Hara/Reuters‘That’s How You Build Household Names’W.N.B.A. officials have attributed players’ modest salaries to its historically modest — and perhaps meager — revenue and media attention. Many W.N.B.A. players have become accustomed to entering the league with less media fanfare and to at times playing before far smaller audiences than they experienced in college.“I’ve been a part of it when I was in college and it was the hottest ticket in the country,” said Mercury guard Diana Taurasi, who starred at UConn before becoming the W.N.B.A.’s career leading scorer. She continued: “How do we make the hottest ticket in the country for the best basketball players in the world in the W.N.B.A.? That, to me, it only happens in women’s sports where the adolescents get more attention than the grown-ups.”Griner, who joined the Mercury in 2013, has been a star since she became known for dunking at Baylor. At her first news conference since returning, Griner pleaded with the unusual swell of reporters to come and cover games during the season, too.“The league is a league that needs celebrity,” said Candy Lee, a professor of journalism and integrated marketing communications at Northwestern. She added: “The league can take advantage of it. The Mercury can take advantage of it.”The surge in W.N.B.A. interest because of Griner has dovetailed with broader momentum for women’s sports in recent years. The N.C.A.A. Division I women’s basketball championship game last month shattered records with an average of 9.9 million viewers, according to ESPN.A whirlwind few days for Griner included the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner and the Met Gala, which she attended with her wife, Cherelle Griner.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesW.N.B.A. teams will play a record 40 regular-season games this year, and the league signed a multiyear deal with Scripps to televise Friday night games on the network ION. Griner’s first two regular-season games, on Friday in Los Angeles and Sunday in Phoenix against Chicago, will be nationally televised by ESPN. Viewership during the 2022 regular season rose 16 percent over the previous year, according to the league, making it the most-watched season in 14 years.Flip on the N.B.A. playoffs and you’re likely to spot a W.N.B.A. player, like Candace Parker of the Las Vegas Aces or Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings, featured prominently in a commercial. Puma recently announced the second signature shoe for the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart. Griner, who became the first openly gay athlete signed to Nike in 2014, remains with the brand, a spokesman confirmed, but the company did not answer questions about whether it planned to market her this season.A few weeks before Griner was detained, W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the league had raised $75 million from investors that she planned to use for marketing and revamping the league’s business model.Collegiate stars like Angel Reese of Louisiana State, Paige Bueckers of UConn and Caitlin Clark of Iowa are poised to enter the league in the next few years, bringing their dynamic games, name recognition and national television exposure.“That’s why we’re putting so many marketing dollars behind some of our star players,” Engelbert said. She added: “That’s how you build household names.”Griner’s absence and images of her behind bars or in court weighed on her Phoenix teammates last year.Pool photo by Evgenia NovozheninaThe Travel DebateConcerns about Griner’s security while traveling since her detention have added to the fiery debate about travel in the W.N.B.A.Unlike in the N.B.A. or on many top men’s and women’s college teams, W.N.B.A. players fly on commercial airlines to games. It has long been a sore point for players, who have had to sleep in airports or rush to games because of delays. This year, it is widely believed that Griner will need to travel privately, though neither the Mercury nor the W.N.B.A. have disclosed her plans.“Would definitely like to make all those flights private,” Griner said. “That would be nice. Not just for me and my team, but for the whole league. We all deserve it. We work so hard. We do so much and it would be nice where we finally get to the point where we get to that point, too.”The W.N.B.A. has said that it cannot afford the tab of over $20 million a season for charter flights, even though some owners might be willing to provide them for their own teams. Charter flights are prohibited in the collective bargaining agreement between team owners and the players’ union as an unfair competitive advantage. The W.N.B.A. fined the Liberty $500,000 for secretly using charter flights to travel to some games during the 2021 season.In April, the league announced that it would have charter flights for teams playing on consecutive days during the regular season and for all playoff games. The W.N.B.A. had made exceptions in similar situations previously.“We’re going to chip away at this as we continue to build this model,” Engelbert said. “Because once you do it, you have to do it essentially for perpetuity, so we want to make sure we’re not putting the financial viability of the league at risk.”On Thursday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union announced a deal with Priority Pass to give players access to airport lounges, which could provide food, spa treatments and places to sleep. Nneka Ogwumike, the star Los Angeles forward who is president of the players’ union, said in a statement that she hoped other “partners” would see the deal as a “call to action.”In a statement, Terri Jackson, the union’s executive director, called the deal a “significant step in the right direction.”Players around the W.N.B.A. wrote to Griner and pushed for her release throughout 2022.Rebecca Noble for The New York Times‘She Impacts the World’Vince Kozar, the president of the Mercury, described an ominous cloud over the franchise last season at every practice, media session and game without Griner. Brief video clips that emerged of her in Russia showed her handcuffed or caged. The day Griner was sentenced, Mercury players came together and cried — then had to play a game. “You carried that weight of the uncertainty and the fear,” Kozar said.It finally, suddenly, parted upon Griner’s release in December. Kozar did not expect Griner to announce immediately whether she would again play in the W.N.B.A. But when she returned to the United States, she said she would play.Griner may have been the most plugged-in W.N.B.A. player last season. Players from around the league sent her letters, their only means of communicating with her. In letters with Kozar, Griner was not asking about the organization and its going-ons as much as informing him about them.“It was just a reminder that basketball was one of the things that had been taken away from her, this thing how she impacts the world that’s central to her identity, that so many of her relationships are built around,” Kozar said.Griner will lead the league in hugs this season. She scribbled autographs and posed for selfies in the tunnel of a preseason game against the Sparks in Phoenix last week. It was her first action since she’d returned. A modest crowd cheered louder than it seemed capable of during Griner’s pregame introduction. Mercury Coach Vanessa Nygaard said chills ran down her spine.Griner towered over everyone else on the court, securing her first bucket on a quick turnaround a minute into the first quarter. All right, here we go, Griner thought to herself. So much had seemed unfamiliar to her lately. Jet-setting for a living? That’s not her, she said with a laugh. But that first shot, she thought, that felt comfortable.Matt York/Associated Press More

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      Canada’s Women Pick Up Equal Pay Fight Ahead of Game With U.S.

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      Canada’s team, a Women’s World Cup favorite, went on strike last week as its battle with the country’s soccer federation boiled over.ORLANDO, Fla. — As Canada’s women’s soccer team walked onto the field for a pretournament training session on Wednesday, the vibe was one of just another practice.A few players chatted. Some sang along with the music blaring from a portable speaker. A small group tossed around a football — an American one — and acted out dramatic sideline catches.At a glance, it would have been nearly impossible to tell that the team was opposed to playing at this week’s SheBelieves Cup, which it is. It would have been impossible to know that it did not want to represent the Canadian soccer federation — which it most certainly did not.The players’ red practice jerseys told the other, far more discordant story: In a show of silent but very public protest, the players had turned their shirts inside out. Doing so hid the Canada Soccer logo, and showed the players’ disdain for how they say the federation has treated them during their ongoing equal pay fight.The fight is not new. For more than a year, Canada’s women’s team players have demanded that their federation provide them with equal pay, equal treatment and equal working conditions with Canada’s men’s team. This week, with the players exhausted by months of failed negotiations and outraged by recent budget cuts, the simmering feud boiled over.The players went on strike. The federation responded with threats. Statements were issued. Raw feelings were aired.Labor Organizing and Union DrivesTesla: A group of workers at a Tesla factory in Buffalo have begun a campaign to form the first union at the auto and energy company, which has fiercely resisted efforts to organize its employees.Apple: After a yearlong investigation, the National Labor Relations Board determined that the tech giant’s strictly enforced culture of secrecy interferes with employees’ right to organize.N.Y.C. Nurses’ Strike: Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai in Manhattan ended a three-day strike after the hospitals agreed to add staffing and improve working conditions.Amazon: A federal labor official rejected the company’s attempt to overturn a union victory at a warehouse on Staten Island, removing a key obstacle to contract negotiations between the union and the company.“We feel as through our federation has let us down,” forward Janine Beckie said.Last week, the Canadian women said, they were dead-set on skipping the SheBelieves Cup, an important warm-up for this summer’s Women’s World Cup, which Canada — the reigning Olympic gold medalist in women’s soccer — will enter as a favorite.When they arrived for the tournament, in which they will play the United States (Thursday), Brazil (Sunday) and Japan (Wednesday), the players said some of those inequities they have become used to were glaring. There were fewer staff members than usual, they said. Fewer players in the camp, and fewer days in the ones to come. So the team refused to take the field.The strike, however, lasted only one day. A meeting with Canada Soccer went poorly; the federation, the team said, threatened to sue the players’ union and individual players for an illegal work stoppage. Saying they could not bear that risk, the players grudgingly returned to work, and committed to taking part in the tournament. It is doing so under protest, players said as they vowed to continue to find ways to amplify the issue with the public.Beckie and Christine Sinclair, the longtime team captain, said they could no longer represent the federation until the federation resolved its disputes with the team. Infuriated after Friday’s meeting with the federation, midfielder Sophie Schmidt said she resolved to retire on the spot, and asked the team’s coach, Bev Priestman, to arrange her flight home. Schmidt decided to stick around until the World Cup only after Sinclair talked her out of leaving.On Thursday night, Canada’s team will take the field knowing it has an ally in its opponent, a United States women’s team, and a blueprint in that team’s successful equal pay fight. The Americans spent years fighting their federation for equal treatment and equal pay, nearly a decade in which they managed court fights and legal filings while winning two World Cup titles. Though the United States team eventually lost its equal pay case in federal court, it emerged last year with a landmark agreement that might be the most player-friendly contract in women’s sports.But none of it was easy, the United States forward Alex Morgan said. Or fast.“Canada’s just getting started,” Morgan said Wednesday. “They know the long road ahead of them because we just went through that and I hope it’s a shorter road for them. We’ll do anything to publicize what they’re fighting for and why they should achieve that.”American stars like Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn said they had spoken with the Canadians and offered advice on strategies to achieve their goals. One key factor, Morgan and the other Americans said, is getting the public and sponsors involved in applying pressure on the federation to make changes.“I think they should use that as something that can be galvanizing and motivating for fans and players alike,” Rapinoe said.Priestman, the Canada coach caught between her players and her employer, said the team did not need any extra motivation. While the labor dispute might be erasing some of their focus heading into three crucial on-field tests, she said, the players are used to fighting for one another.“They’ll be together and make a stand together and they’ll work hard together,” Priestman said. “And I don’t doubt that.”She added, “I see a team fighting for each other, but also fighting for the next generation.”To make the public aware of that fight, the Canadians may wear their shirts inside-out again on Thursday, a public gesture previously employed by the American team during its equal pay fight. Other protests are under discussion, too, though Sinclair and the other team leaders declined to divulge any plans.Whatever they decide, the Americans said they would be proud to join in.“We are in full solidarity with them,” Sauerbrunn said. More

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      Griner’s Detention Showed the Strength and the Struggle in Women’s Sports

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      Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia on drug charges could be described through the lens of war and politics, with Griner, one of the world’s best basketball players, a casualty of an international struggle between superpowers.But in the nearly 10 months she was imprisoned until her release on Thursday, Griner became a symbol of much more: the inequities in men’s and women’s sports, the complexity of the fight for social justice, and especially the power of the W.N.B.A.’s players and their supporters, who steadily rallied for Griner’s freedom.“Women, when we’re advocating for something, when we want something to happen, we’ve got the strength of 10 men,” said Dawn Staley, the women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. She added, “I hope people are watching.”Griner was released from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States. Griner was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony in August, about six months after she was detained at an airport near Moscow when customs officials found vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage. A week later, Russia invaded Ukraine, heightening tensions between the United States and Russia.As the war in Ukraine complicated the White House’s negotiations for Griner’s release, the W.N.B.A. players’ union spearheaded a public campaign to free her. The players have earned a reputation for potent activism: In 2020, their support helped fuel the Rev. Raphael Warnock’s victory in a Georgia Senate race, and they dedicated their season to fighting systemic racism. This time, they leaned on President Biden to help one of their own.“We realized what power our voices have,” Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said. “Doing it for Brittney, I don’t think it was a burden for anyone.”Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, thanked the W.N.B.A.’s “fearless union,” in a statement celebrating Griner’s release.Disparities in SportsGriner, left, in 2021, alongside Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird. Griner has long been one of the W.N.B.A.’s top stars.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesThe spotlight of Griner’s detention brought questions about the modest W.N.B.A. salaries that push dozens of players to international teams in the off-season to make more money. Griner has been one of the W.N.B.A.’s biggest stars since the Phoenix Mercury drafted her No. 1 overall in 2013, and she won two gold medals with the U.S. women’s national team. Still, she was in Russia to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, which reportedly paid her at least $1 million, quadruple the maximum W.N.B.A. salary.“The players are going to do what they think is best for themselves,” W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said on Thursday, “but we definitely inform them all the time of the security risks of where they might be playing.”Dozens of American men still chose to play for Russian basketball teams during Griner’s detention, though most had little chance of making the N.B.A. But almost all American women stayed away. Many star W.N.B.A. players took pay cuts to compete for lower-paying teams in other European countries.Collier, who won the W.N.B.A. Rookie of the Year Award in 2019, said Griner’s “scary” ordeal had changed her mind about playing overseas again, even though staying home would cost her money and playing time. “For me, it’s not worth it,” she said.Since Engelbert became the commissioner in 2019, she has focused on adding sponsors and developing new ways for players to earn money, such as marketing deals with the W.N.B.A. But increasing the league’s profile and revenue has been a challenge in the face of a sports ecosystem that is mostly blind to female athletes because of its overwhelming focus on men’s sports.Big-name N.B.A. stars, such as LeBron James and Stephen Curry, leveraged that disparity and drew focus to Griner by publicly supporting her. But some critics wanted more vocal support for Griner from the N.B.A., which owns about 40 percent of the women’s league and has $10 billion in annual revenue. N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said he had talked to political figures behind the scenes, but said government officials had asked the league to be low-key so as not to inflame tensions with Russia.Silver said in a statement on Thursday that he was happy Griner was coming home after enduring “an unimaginable situation.”Some have wondered whether an N.B.A. player like James would have been held as long as Griner, or detained at all. Before this episode, many average N.B.A. players would have been better known by the public than Griner, even though she’s at the top of her sport. The W.N.B.A.’s games can be hard to find, with broadcasts spread across multiple channels, streaming services and social media sites. The league has been around for 26 seasons, compared with 77 for the N.B.A.“We have to build more household names in this league,” Engelbert said.Gay, Black, Female and ‘Voiceless’Nam Y. Huh/Associated PressTed S. Warren/Associated PressGriner’s case was never simple. Even though she was said to have been in possession of only trace amounts of hashish oil, a cannabis derivative, she faced drug smuggling charges that carried the potential for a 10-year sentence. The U.S. State Department said in May that she had been “wrongfully detained,” indicating that she should be considered a hostage.“She was voiceless,” said Staley, who coached Griner on one Olympic team. “She was in a place that she couldn’t fight for herself. She couldn’t speak up for herself.”And Griner faced additional risks as a gay Black woman imprisoned in a country known for harsh treatment of people like her. In 2014, she became the first openly gay athlete to sign a deal with Nike. L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights groups, including the National Black Justice Coalition, have stood behind her. The coalition called Griner an “icon” and a “symbol of hope” in a statement as it thanked Biden for making her a “top priority.”It didn’t always seem that way to her supporters. As the months went by and Griner’s name dipped in and out of headlines, fans filled social media websites with the hashtag #WeAreBG to plead for people to care. Some pointed to Griner’s race as a potential factor in the broader public’s ebbing concern, saying that the falloff mirrored the way missing white women often draw more attention than missing Black women.Kagawa Colas, Griner’s agent, thanked “Black women, the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community and civil rights leaders” in particular for standing with Griner.But even as Griner’s detention unified many athletes, fans and advocacy groups, it highlighted the unequal ways a push for justice could play out.“Brittney is going to have to endure the fact that we have people who are questioning why she’s home,” Staley said, referring to those who have criticized the government for not bringing home other wrongfully detained Americans. “Why did they choose her?”Experts have said that there are dozens of Americans held around the world, many of them classified as “wrongfully detained,” as Griner was. But often their families are their most vocal supporters, not legions of sports fans, famous athletes and other celebrities.Cherelle Griner, Brittney Griner’s wife, said in a news conference with Biden on Thursday that their family would work to help free other detained Americans. Kagawa Colas said in her statement that “bringing our people home is a moral issue” and listed 13 Americans detained around the world that Griner’s closest supporters would work to release.“Our eyes have been opened through this process to your struggle and, as we have always done, B.G. and our coalition of activist athletes will ensure that silence is no longer an option,” she said. More