The Chicago Sky, the Windy City’s WNBA team, has upset a whole lot of people after replacing its only two female announcers with, get ready, “two men who reportedly will receive higher salaries.” The Chicago Tribune reports Eric Collins and Stephen Bardo have been hired in place of Lisa Byington and Brooke Weisbrod.
Weisbrod, who has been with the Sky’s broadcast team since April of 2013, had this to say:
“By removing two women (from the broadcast team), what kind of message are you sending?” Weisbrod said. “You have young women fans who watch the Sky, and it has become their normal to see two women call the games. Now what?’
She also claimed to have learned that Collins and Bardo will be paid “50% more” than she and Byington. But Sky’s CEO, Adam Fox, thinks Weisbrod is making a whole lot of somethin’ out of a whole lot of nothin’, and that the team has a “history of women in high-profile roles.”
“We are an organization that has a long record of diversity and inclusion,” Fox said. “When you’re doing things this way, you have to make sure you bring in the best people you can. We have to do that regardless if the person is a man or woman.”
But that’s not all he said.
When asked if a WNBA team replacing two women announcers with two men was “counter-intuitive,” Fox thought for a moment.
“I guess you could say that if we didn’t have a record on inclusion and diversity,” Fox said. “It just happened that we went with the best broadcast team we could put together.”
Think a little longer, Mr. Fox.
Image via The Chicago Sky.
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