Former American tennis star John McEnroe was offered somewhere around $190,000 by the BBC for his stint at Wimbledon this year. This has raised eyebrows in the tennis world as it seems that the British media giant continues to be charmed by McEnroe’s stardom and years spent in the sport. But McEnroe’s charm did not work on Martina Navratilova as the latter slammed BBC by comparing her contract with his, back in 2018.
While it is true that this year, BBC cut McEnroe’s pay by an estimated 10% as compared to 2023, the amount is still massive for two weeks work at the grass court Grand Slam. Navratilova, who was once McEnroe’s colleague, claimed that for the same kind of work, she was paid a meagre 15,000 GBP (approx $17,000 in 2018).
On the other hand, McEnroe managed to bag $150,000 six years ago. Navratilova has a charisma of her own and her insights on the game have been like gold over the years. To top it all, she has played and achieved much more than McEnroe, with 59 Open Era titles to her name.
So Navratilova did not hesitate in calling out BBC publicly for not being fair with their remunerations. In an interview with Panorama (via ESPN), she was quoted as saying:
“It was a shock because John McEnroe makes at least £150,000.
“I get about £15,000 for Wimbledon and unless John McEnroe’s doing a whole bunch of stuff outside of Wimbledon he’s getting at least 10 times as much money.
“Not happy. It’s shocking. It’s still the good old boys network. The bottom line is that male voices are valued more than women’s voices.”
However, the network defended itself at the time by stating that McEnroe was the face of the broadcast alongside the now-retired Sue Barker. McEnroe made 30 appearances that season on television, while Navratilova just made 10.
Even if BBC was correct in their estimates, even then, paying McEnroe almost 10 times more the money was a shocker. They were instances of other women TV anchors or experts who were paid lesser than their male counterparts outside sports too, which is why the broadcaster saw a lot of resignations at the time.
Coming back to tennis, pay issues have been always been a challenge and is a topic debated upon till date. And this reflects on both the American superstars’ net worths.
While McEnroe is reported to have a net worth of over $100 million, Navratilova’s net worth in 2024 is reported to be over $25 million as per FanArch. While Navratilova was roped in for a lot of endorsements, McEnroe took up several projects in the entertainment industry. He narrated the 2020 Netflix series ‘Never Have I Ever’ and has guest-starred on several TV shows, including Frasier, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live.
