LETTER: On the WNBA and equal pay

In response to Matthew Moschella’s July 26 letter (“Pay gap), in which he criticized Victor Joecks’ recent column explaining the pay gap between WNBA and NBA players: Mr. Moschella entirely missed Mr. Joecks’ point. As a result, he interjected — as most liberals/progressives do — discrimination into the discussion.

It is really pretty simple and basic. Any business enterprise, including sports franchises, needs to have as large a customer base as possible to earn revenue to pay employees. A typical NBA exhibition game might draw 10,000 fans, while a regular-season WNBA game might, if they are lucky, draw 5,000 fans. People just aren’t that interested in the WNBA in comparison to the NBA.

That being the case, how is the business owner going to pay the same salary with such abysmal attendance? He will lose money, plain and simple, and go out of business. However, it is much easier using the discrimination card because it sparks headlines. It is easy and it is effective — except to those who have a reasonable amount of intelligence.

I strongly suggest Mr. Moschella go enroll in a basic economics course.