Can Collegiate Athletes Now See Pro Softball as a Viable Career Option?
Very few female athletes playing softball at the collegiate level would ever consider a career in the sport a viable option.
There just doesn't appear to be enough interest or money in the sport.
Of course, the game of tennis is a whole different story. Lists of the top paid female athletes in the world are always filled with tennis players.
In fact, American tennis pro Serena Williams topped the Forbes list of the top paid female athletes in the world in 2016, earning an astronomical $28.9 million. Eight of the top ten on that list are actually all professional tennis players.
The only exceptions are mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, who have both made careers in otherwise male-dominated sports.
Williams' earnings in 2017 will likely take a big hit. She recently announced should would be stepping away from the game this season as she is pregnant. A move that will likely have a dramatic effect on the odds on who will win the upcoming French Open at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, as much as her personal income.
Of course, Williams will still be a favorite to bring in more income than anyone playing professional softball in the United States this year, even if she doesn't earn another dime. However, the sport of women's softball, and the money players are earning playing it, does appear to be on the rise.
National Pro Fastpitch is a six-team pro women's softball league that has been around in one form or another since tennis legend Billie Jean King help found it back in 1976. These days, the teams play a 50-game regular season with 18-player rosters working within a $150,000 salary cap. Players rarely earn more than $20,000 a season, with the exception of one.
Monica Abbott signed a massive $1 million contract with the league's latest expansion team last year, and appears to be setting a precedent that the best softball players in the game can make a go of it as a career.
Abbott was a college softball legend, setting all kinds of pitching records with the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers softball team from 2004 to 2007. She went on to play for the US in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and broke into professional softball playing in Japan.
She won the NPF title with the Chicago Bandits in 2015 before signing the $1 million contract with the expansion Houston Scrap Yard Dawgs in the off season.
To fit the numbers in under the league's salary cap, Abbott's $1 million deal is structured to pay her a base of $20,000 a year for six seasons. It's also filled with easy to reach attendance bonuses which begin to kick in when just 100 people turn up for a game, at home or on the road.
No matter how you look at it, the contract is probably the biggest ever paid by an American sports franchise to a female athlete in any sport.
When she signed, Abbott said she hopes the contract represents an opportunity for young players in softball. She said she sees it as an opportunity for other athletes, college girls coming into the league and those just taking up the sport to be a professional softball players, and not have to have another career or another job just to support it.
It may not be tennis money just yet, but for female athletes in this team sport, it is a start.
