Soccer phenom Hope Solo is an outspoken advocate for the gender pay gap in sports. Along with her U.S. Soccer teammates she is advocating for equal pay in the league. Cheddar's Hope King spoke with the athlete about challenges facing women in sports, and how she is inspiring the next generation.
"Being the best in the world--the best soccer player in the world in my position--I still wasn't making a good enough living so I had to supplement my income," says Solo. "When you're the best in the world as a female I still am forced to make these choices that I don't want to have to make. It's a serious issue that present day athletes are facing every single day."
The gender pay gap in professional soccer is staggering. In 2016 male players won about $390,000 in bonuses for winning the World Cup, compared to $75,000 for female players according to a study by The New York Times.
"We have progressed, but at some point when it's simply not equal we can't keep talking about well it's better. Because better is not good enough," said Solo.
The basketball star, who has been DJing since the 80s, tells Cheddar that he initially decided to start spinning after attending a Public Enemy concert and meeting Chuck D and Terminator X. "I got enough money to go to the pawn shop, get some turntables and taught myself how to DJ." His "Summer of Shaq" tour began June 9 and runs through August 5.
The basketball superstar took over Cheddar's Slack channel to tell the team to "BE NICE" and "TAKE MONDAY OFF."
Facebook is in talks to launch a 13-episode series about the Portuguese soccer star for its Facebook Watch platform. It's reported Ronaldo could make $10 million from the series but it's unclear if Facebook's investment in original content would turn into viewers, says Taylor Lorenz, a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Tomorrow's match will pit five-time World Cup champion Brazil against Belgium, which Quartz reporter Mike Murphy says is "the most exciting team at the World Cup." The quarterfinal game kicks off at 2 pm ET on Friday.
Matthew Nordgren, a former Philadelphia Eagle and founder of the Arcadian Fund, drew inspiration from his father, also a former pro, to help weed start-ups grow into businesses of a "championship caliber," he tells Cheddar.
After signing a $154 million contract with the L.A. Lakers, some are wondering if the basketball legend has some ulterior motives in moving to the West Coast. “I think he’s primarily going to become a dominant producing force and maybe becomes an Oprah-type person, who launches his own channel,” Sean O’Connell, managing editor at Cinemablend tells Cheddar.
Russia's shocking win over Spain in the Round of 16 got the team one step closer to its first ever World Cup championship. But while there's still a lot of game left to be played, The Banter's Jeffrey Marcus says, regardless of the outcome, President Vladimir Putin has already achieved his goal.
While many soccer fans will be tuning into the round of 16 starting this weekend, some are still not over the ultimate loss — the United States not participating. However, Jeffery Marcus, publisher at the Banter, tells Cheddar he thinks that for the U.S. to have a solid chance at a 2022 World Cup, it's a matter of "finding better players and nurturing them."
The league launched an initiative aimed at empowering women and girls by partnering with organizations like Planned Parenthood and It's On Us. "This is basically encoded in our DNA and has been for the 22 years that we've been in existence," WNBA President Lisa Borders tells Cheddar.
Germany's hopes of a second straight World Cup came to an end Wednesday with a shocking loss to South Korea. While Germany is considered a perennial powerhouse, defending champions often get knocked out of the first rounds of the event, says Jeffrey Marcus, publisher of The Banter.
