Today’s guest author is Rick Burton of Syracuse University.
There’s a very funny comedian in Australia named Jimmy Rees, and during the worst of the COVID-19 times, he made funny comments on social media called “The other side of Australia.”
I thought about Rees during a recent three-state trip to Australia with a group of Syracuse University undergraduates taking a study-abroad course focused on sports, history and Australian culture. During nearly three weeks Down Under, we heard from coaches, historians and sports industry executives who gave an in-depth look at the Australian sports landscape.
At the end of the trip, I was thinking about calling the course “An Alternative to Gender Equality in Australia,” because we saw and heard about so many interesting initiatives that my American students at the time made them wonder about our progress in this direction. A reasonable (and attainable) goal in the U.S.
One eye-opener was the revelation that Aussie soccer professionals had made the decision to not just name the women’s league the “A-League W,” but would instead begin identifying the men’s competition as the “Men’s “A-League.” How innovative is it to think about the male version of the sport receiving binary treatment (as opposed to the characteristic known as the WNBA or the LPGA).
The second was to note that Australia, one of the few countries in the world with four forms of football (Aussie Rules, Rugby Union, Rugby League and Soccer), has fully developed all four “codes”. such that women can play these games professionally. In the United States, we still do not see any great efforts by the NFL or MLS to build female models under their corporate umbrella, which means that the development of women’s soccer in America is left to USA Rugby, US Soccer or the NCAA.
Another interesting case involved the ongoing development of the Women’s AFL, Australian rules that require 18 players on the field (for each team) and have no equivalent in the United States, especially not from the NFL. In fact, when we visited Melbourne, the AFL head office was still touting a salary plan that would almost double (+94%) women’s wages for the season starting in August. The AFL Women also added four new teams, which means jobs for around 120 players.
In addition, the expectation from Gillon McLachlan, the outgoing AFL CEO, was that more than 40 of the game’s leading players would earn more than $100,000 a year, and the total bankroll of contracted players would exceed AUS $25.6 million ($17.5 million). Even better, most AFLW players will be paying their football bills full-time by 2026.
The AFL’s payout comes in line with a deal reached in 2021 that boosted pay or women competing in Suncorp Super Netball, netball’s top competition, by more than 20%. Melbourne Vixens and West Coast Fever recently played to a packed house for the premier league, and many of the Australian players are heading to Birmingham, England, as gold medal favorites at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. (July 28-August 8).
“What we’re seeing is gender correction in sport,” said Jasmine Amis, media and marketing manager for the Cairns Taipans in the Australian National Basketball League. “We all have to acknowledge the hidden biases and exclusionary practices of the past, but in Australia we are tackling gender equality proactively, and it’s great to know our country is making progress when it comes to women’s sport.”
All of the above is not to suggest that America doesn’t get a lot of things right. Title IX, now in the midst of a well-deserved 50th anniversary celebration, has put America at the forefront when it comes to opening the doors to professional women—even though it’s a law that covers school attendance and not professional sports.
Aided by the work of athletes like Billie Jean King and leaders like Donna Lopiano and Val Ackerman, the United States made strides toward gender equality that still resonate. But in the absence of a similar alternative to the NFL (and the presence of NCAA guidelines that focused on men and football long after 1972… and still do), there is still a huge rise – and a lot of work to be done – for women athletes. seeking professional skills in this continent.
The WNBA, WTA, LPGA and NWSL (plus the great USWNT) are proof of success. But after seeing what is happening in Australia, especially through the AFL, A Leagues and NRL, is it reasonable to suggest that the US can do and do even more?
Burton is the David B. Falk Professor of Sports Management at Syracuse University and the SU College of Athletics Representative for the ACC and NCAA. He is a former chairman of the Australian National Basketball League and his new co-authored book, Business the NHL Way, will be published by the University of Toronto Press in October.
