Monica Abbott $1 Million dollar contract

#2
#2
Congratulations to Monica! Well-deserved.

Actually, $1 million over a 6-year span for a professional athlete isn't all that much, but it's a groundbreaking contract for women's sports in general nevertheless. More to follow I hope. The franchise ownership seems determined to make the team viable and prosperous by making such a statement.

Scrap Yard Dawgs now have Monica, Maddi Shipman and Lexi Overstreet on their team roster. VolNation, that's the team we're gonna root for this summer and years to come. Go Lady Vols!!
 
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#4
#4
Vols4life said:
Congrats to her very deserving of it!!

Pitcher Monica Abbott signs $1 million contract with National Pro Fastpitch expansion team
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Informative article. One of the reported reasons Abbott came to Tennessee was so she could meet Pat Summitt. Pat's mission as coach was to empower her players. And towards the bottom of the article is this: "...it fits into Monica's mission, what we're doing out at the park, because it's empowering women. That's the statement Monica wants to make".
 
#5
#5
EZE said:
Still more than most entry level professionals make. 166K per year.
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The thing is she's NOT an "Entry Level" pro. She's the best pitcher in the world right now, one of the best ever at her position in history of the sport who's been dominant at the pro level for almost a decade. If she were a male pro athlete, how much money do you think she'd command with that kind of portfolio?

As Neil Armstrong said upon the lunar landing, "One small step for a (wo)man and one giant leap froward for (wo)mankind," :)
 
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#8
#8
I don't get the math ... her base salaray is $20K? The rest is made up by bonuses for attendance?? So she's gotta fill the park to get $147K each year?
 
#9
#9
VollyParton said:
I don't get the math ... her base salaray is $20K? The rest is made up by bonuses for attendance?? So she's gotta fill the park to get $147K each year?
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No I think the attendance only has to be 100 people and she will get her money...bottom line she will get paid!! It's about time too! Hopefully the NPF will continue to grow!
 
#11
#11
VollyParton said:
I don't get the math ... her base salaray is $20K? The rest is made up by bonuses for attendance?? So she's gotta fill the park to get $147K each year?
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It looks as though an NPF contract is definitely different from a conventional NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL/ETC contract; it's apparent that her incentive bonuses do not count against the salary cap which is set at (mere) $150,000. When the NPF grows more and players get paid more then the cap ceiling will obvioulsly set at a higher figure. Then maybe the signing bonuses and all the incentives will count against the cap as well, I reckon. That will be the sign of the growth of the pro softball. I hope the market (corporate sponsorship for one thing) will continue to be on the upward swing that one day my daughter can dream about doing the same thing as Monica Abbot and her followers. :)
 
#13
#13
The NPF will ultimately fail to ever be much more than it currently is. Continuous growth and expansion just isn't fesiable. There will never be a large enough fan base to sustain a high profit rate over an extended period of time. The league is just doomed to eventually crash and burn.
 
#14
#14
ainge10heisman said:
The NPF will ultimately fail to ever be much more than it currently is. Continuous growth and expansion just isn't fesiable. There will never be a large enough fan base to sustain a high profit rate over an extended period of time. The league is just doomed to eventually crash and burn.
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Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Richard Nixon, famously said "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop".

Now, if you can post the exact date and time the NPF will crash and burn, that information will be useful to many people.
 
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#15
#15
ainge10heisman said:
The NPF will ultimately fail to ever be much more than it currently is. Continuous growth and expansion just isn't fesiable. There will never be a large enough fan base to sustain a high profit rate over an extended period of time. The league is just doomed to eventually crash and burn.
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This. Unlike the wnba, they don't have a male league to subsidize it.
 
#16
#16
allvol123 said:
This. Unlike the wnba, they don't have a male league to subsidize it.
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One thing is very clear to me and others who follow the sport closely: the NPF WON'T fold like women's professional soccer league did. It won't crash and burn at all. It will continue to survive although somewhat tenuously. However, it's unclear at this point whether the NPF will be able to capture enough of the fan base at large so that it will thrive and become a 15- or 20-team league someday. That remains to be seen.

I personally believe that we'll be seeing a few more expansion teams over the next 10 years and the league will have about 10-12 teams by 2025. If softball is added to the 2020 Olympics as many people believe it will be, the inclusion will definitely help the growth of the sport even more. More people/fans will be interested in the NPF as a result and it can create some positive momentum for adding more teams to the NPF.

Even w/o the major help from MLB, the NPF can continue to grow and even thrive if the media coverage/TV exposure increases followed by a sponsorship from a major corporate player. That's the main thing really. I'd like to cite the successful example of the WTA. It's a totally separate organization from its male counterpart, the ATP. The future and fate of the WTA were sealed when it was able to sign a (lucrative) TV broadcast contract with CBS in early '70s. Soon after, a major corporate sponsorship (Colgate) followed. The WTA had a leading trailblazer in Billy Jean King and her cohorts back then paving the way for the current multi-millionaire players. (Does Maria Sharapova ring a bell?) The NPF has Monica Abbot and her peers leading the charge now. The WTA model can work for the NPF; ESPN or some major network will have to take a chance and put the NPF on air to draw more audience and lure an interest from Corporate America. I can see it happening. It's a pity that as far as I know all these (pro) softball players are such great role models for our young people/girls, and they do so many great things for their communities. The NPF players deserve a better future and healthier financial life.
 
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#17
#17
2Alum4EverVol said:
The thing is she's NOT an "Entry Level" pro. She's the best pitcher in the world right now, one of the best ever at her position in history of the sport who's been dominant at the pro level for almost a decade. If she were a male pro athlete, how much money do you think she'd command with that kind of portfolio?

As Neil Armstrong said upon the lunar landing, "One small step for a (wo)man and one giant leap froward for (wo)mankind," :)
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A male pro player in a sport/market (NHL, NBA, MLB ...) that large groups of people pay lots of $$$ to watch. Or, a male pro player in a sport/market that "nobody" cares about?
 
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#18
#18
I think that is awesome..do they have a TV deal?..would love to watch her pitch again
 
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#20
#20
livefaith said:
A male pro player in a sport/market (NHL, NBA, MLB ...) that large groups of people pay lots of $$$ to watch. Or, a male pro player in a sport/market that "nobody" cares about?
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I'm a male, and if I worked in an industry that "nobody" cared about to to the tune of $166k a year - I wouldn't care that nobody cared.

It's always interesting to me when a poster claims nobody cares about women's sports. I wonder why people bother posting if nobody cares?
 
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#21
#21
Some of the NPF games are shown on CBS college sports network and all the games are streamed live on the internet
 
#22
#22
VolnJC said:
I think that is awesome..do they have a TV deal?..would love to watch her pitch again
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Some one, organization, TV Network, etc must pour a lot of money into the program if it is to become a sport that captures the average sports fan. I like softball and used to play fast-pitch when I was young. It is a sport that requires a lot of athletic ability to play. I hope the league is successful and that it is included in the Olympics in future years.
 
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