Martina Navratilova: evaluation

Transcript context

…Thank you George Mason for having us. Question going back to the big news today and recently about the pay gap and Wimbledon, my thought and, I guess, my question to you is, moving forward this year and from now on, will you not do any commentary either with BBC or here in the United States unless it’s guaranteed that the pay gap between you and someone like John McEnroe will be completely decreased? Again, it’s not about me and John McEnroe. It’s about what women should be getting paid compared to men. I think transparency is the biggest reason why we don’t have equal pay or closer to it, certainly because people don’t know what anybody else is making. I said I would work for BBC for free. That’s the only game in town. I really wanted to work. I wanted to speak to people in England. Wimbledon has been always broadcast by BBC ever since there was TV. It’s always been BBC, so it’s the only game in town. When they tell you this is all there is, you take it. I would probably work rather for free than get paid one-tenth, quite frankly, because it’s not about the money. It’s about what’s fair. I don’t have that problem with Tennis Channel. I don’t have a problem there. I think they’re very fair. Same with BT Sport, I also do some work with them. I haven’t, quite frankly, known that it was this disparate. I think it’s across the board for the other athletes whether it’s Lindsay Davenport compared to what Andy Roddick’s making or Tracy Austin compared to Tim Henman or whatever. However you want to put it, the pay gap is huge. It’s a lot bigger than we even thought, and it needs to stop. Maybe tennis will be another push forward in the right direction. It’s not about how much we’re getting paid. It’s about getting paid fairly compared to other people. Next question.…

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