While I would be willing to bet that women's tennis is just as popular as men's, women only play best of three sets while men play best of five.
Think of what this means for TV revenue. How much more commercial time can networks sell during men's matches?
Now think about this in the stadium itself. How much more spectator time do men's matches fill? How much more consession revenue is generated during this extra time?
I bet if you added up the extra revenue generated by the extra time spent on court on the men's side, you would find that the women's share of the prize money is overly generous.

I remember an op-ed by John McEnroe from a few years ago where he argued that women should get more prize money because of the greater interest in the women's game. I can't remember what statistics he used to decide that the women players were bringing in more money, or whether they still apply, but he seemed to be pretty confident in his conclusions.

A few years ago women's tennis was definitely more popular than men's (particularly when the William's sisters were unstoppable and Kournakova could draw a crowd just for showing up). I do not know which garners higher ratings these days. I am simply saying that all things being equal, men spend more time on the court than women.

Spot on, noname. If women really want equality why not play the men directly over five sets for the same prize? Isn't that equal?

It's also a travesty how Olympic long-distance runners don't get ten times as much prize money as sprinters - they're out there much longer. And what about those baseball player salaries? Soccer players should obviously be played more; look how hard they work over the course of a game, while baseball players are just standing there half the time. Sure, no one cares about American professional soccer, but compensation should be based only on how hard the athletes work, right?

What seems odd to me is that the prizes are so close in size (well, give or take thousands of dollars)that it seems like they are deliberately not paying the same amount, just to be stubborn.

I wouldn't say that. It's $60 thousand. That's a lot more than most people make in a year.

the15th - Olympic runners don't get prize money as far as I know.

The duration of matches was brought up not to say men should be paid more due to longer effort, rather that they should be paid more because they generate more revenue (in part by playing longer matches). Employers appreciate effort, but pay for results.

Here's another fun fact. I googled Wimbeldon ticket cost and came up with the following:

Mens & Mixed Doubles Finals, Ladies Finals - Open Stands - $1500 each

Mens Finals & Ladies Doubles Finals - Open Stands - $2350 each

That is $850 more for the men's finals (unless you are prepared to argue that the ladies doubles finals is the real draw on Sunday). There is a $1450 differense for each ticket in the reserved area! Add this to revenue I already pointed out in my previous post and this is getting pretty lopsided.

I googled Wimbeldon ticket cost and came up with the following:

http://www.tennistickets.com/wimbledon_tennis_tickets.html

Mens & Mixed Doubles Finals, LADIES FINALS - Open Stands - $1500 each

MENS FINALS & Ladies Doubles Finals - Open Stands - $2350 each

That is $850 more each for the men's finals (unless you are prepared to argue that the ladies doubles finals is the real draw on Sunday). There is a $1450 difference for each ticket in the reserved area! Add this to revenue I already pointed out in my previous posts and this is getting pretty lopsided.

Aye but....men die younger.
We cannot equalise a'thing.
I like to watch both sexes play tennis , slightly more so the men than the women and roughly by the same ratio that men get paid more than women.
I'm comfortable with that.

Why isn't women's tennis best 3 out of 5 sets?

This is a more basic issue than prize money. Women run every long-distance athletics event that men do in the Olympics, including the 10000m and the marathon. Women's professional soccer matches are 90 minutes. But women just can't make it through 5 sets of tennis. Come on...

Kudos to the Australian, French, and US Opens for paying the same prize money but why isn't there any push from within women's tennis (the higher ups at the WTA or individual players) to change this? Maybe Martina Navratilova has done so?

The answer isn't to have the women play the men, the answer is get women's tennis into '06. 2006, not 1906.

I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $26782. Isn't that crazy!