The U.S. men's soccer team will have extra incentive to root for the U.S. women's team at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Because of an agreement between U.S. Soccer, the men's national team, and the women's national team, all prize money for the men's and women's World Cups are pooled and split between the two teams.
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"In this arrangement, the players on the 2022 [Men's World Cup] roster and on the 2023 [Women's World Cup] roster will be paid an equal percentage of the collective prize money paid by FIFA for the teams’ participation and performance in their respective World Cups," U.S. Soccer said in a press release announcing the deal in 2022.
The amount of money the U.S. women's team earns at the 2023 Women's World Cup will be combined with the $13 million the Men's team earned for advancing to the Round of 16 in the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup to be divided between both teams and U.S. Soccer. The U.S. Soccer Federation will receive 10% of the pooled money, and the remaining 90% will be divided between the men's and women's team.
The amount of money FIFA will award for the 2023 Women’s World Cup ranges from $1,560,000 for teams that do not advance past the group stage to $4,290,000 for the winner of the tournament. The prize pool for the 2023 tournament is $110 million, a massive increase when compared to the $30 million in 2019 and $15 million in 2015, but it's far below the $440 million pool for the 2022 men's World Cup.
Despite the women technically having to split their prize money with the men, they will overall benefit from the larger prize pool. The pay they will receive from the divided Men's prize money will already surpass the compensation they received for the 2015 or 2019 tournaments.
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The women's team has been significantly more successful than the men's team in soccer. Between the men's team's appearances at the World Cup in 2014 and the World Cup in 2022, the women's team won two World Cups (2015 and 2019) and a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics. In that same span, the U.S. men's team was eliminated in the round of 16 in 2014, failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, and was eliminated in the round of 16 in 2022.
The U.S. women's team is seeking to defend their title at the 2023 World Cup after having won the World Cup four previous times.