Opinions Surface About Equal Gender Prize Money

SAN DIEGO, California - The question of whether or not there should be equal prize money for male and female··winners at stand up paddle events continues to be a huge debate in the SUP world.··Recently supconnect has witnessed many conversations, particularly across social media, where a variety of opinions and possible solutions have been shared.·

Please note that the ideas and opinions mentioned below are not the opinions of Supconnect but rather a brief sample of some of the schools of thought that currently exist with regard to equal prize money payment for men and women in SUP competitions. 

To start off, some people feel that when it comes to prize money earned by SUP athletes, there is no question that men and women should receive an equal amount.  For example, a man might win $3000 for a first place finish and therefore the first place woman at the same event should also receive a $3000 check. 

Another opinion is that SUP competition prize money should not be equal for men and women because there are often a lot more men participating in SUP racing and therefore more prize money should be awarded to the male finishers.  For example, if the top man receives $2000 for first place, the first woman to cross the line might only receive $1000 because she had less competition overall.

A third opinion is that the money paid to SUP athletes at events (and in general) should be directly related to the total amount of money that male and female stand up paddle boarders bring to the industry as a whole.  If for example the industry is comprised of 48% female and 52% male paddlers then some make the argument that prize money should be split down the middle.  However, if hypothetically speaking the overall gender demographics indicate that there are many more men doing stand up paddle throughout the world, who are driving the majority of sales, then they should actually win/make more money.  On the other hand, if there are more female paddlers in the world, then they should receive more prize money.

Supconnect has also heard of a 4th opinion.  Some suggest that if there are more male participants in stand up paddle events, then race organizers should go ahead and pay the top men and women the same amount of prize money for the first few finishers,  however, they should also pay prize money to a deeper field of men.  For example both men and women might receive prize money for first through third place at $3000 for first, $2000 for second and $1000 for third.  However there might not be any money for women after third place but the men receive cash prizes for fourth, fifth and sixth place, etc.

It should be obvious after reading the four opinions mentioned above that there are a wide variety of thoughts and conclusions about SUP prize money for male and female stand up paddlers, many of which have not even begun to be expressed in this article.  However, perhaps this is a starting point and a web location where people can share an ongoing dialog about this topic.

So what do you think?··What can you add to this topic?··The ideas are very wide spread, but now is your chance to put in your two cents using the comments box below.

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