“Super” game? Not for the cheerleaders

The big football event Sunday night is an incredibly lucrative one for many layers of people: Kendrick Lamar is making in the neighborhood of $1 million per performance; the average commercial costs an astonishing $8 million for 30 seconds of airtime; tickets to the game started to drop the day before the game, but were still going for an average of $6,645 (a steal compared to $9,365 last year), all in USD. Hotels and restaurants in New Orleans have been filled to capacity for days as people flood the city to take in the game. 

You know who isn’t making big bucks for their work on the biggest night of their year? Cheerleaders. 

A new report from marketing agency Socially Powerful says cheerleaders make about $150 USD per game. That’s right — One hundred and fifty American dollars, to be out on the field in skimpy outfits, dancing and jumping and smiling nonstop for the entertainment of the booze-soaked masses at home and in the stands. That means if they were attending the game, or had to buy a ticket to get in before working, they’d need to work and save for more than three seasons — around 54 games — to be able to pay for it. 

We hear about the big-time contracts NFL superstars pull in; the average salary for a cheerleader is around $22,500 per year, or 2.62% of the average median player salary of $860,000. 

By the way, the mascots, who are just as entertaining and have to wear bulky, hot, hard to maneuver costumes while itneracting with fans? They make about $60,000 on average. And they’re fully covered. 

Now, it’s true that with experience and longevity, cheerleaders can make more money. Rookie cheerleaders start at $100-200 per game, or $10-20 per hour for practice or special events, with a yearly salary of up to $15,000, depending how long their team’s season goes. A “veteran” cheerleader, with two or more years’ experience, can make up to $30,000 per year, averaging $200-400 per game; a senior cheerleader with four or more years’ experience, can bring in up to $500 per game and an average salary of $30,000-50,000, while the most high-level cheerleaders, considered captains or elite members of their team, can bring in $750 per game and an average salary of up to $75,000. 

The highest paid person on the field Sunday? Travis Kelce, aka Taylor Swift’s beloved, with an average expected salary of more than $17 million. That’s a jaw-dropping 22,700% more than the cheerleaders. 

The polo-shirt wearing waterboys that run along the sidelines? They’re bringing in $53,000 per year! 

By the way, this also applies to the storied legends of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, the ones with the reality show about their tryouts. They make about $500 per game, while their quarterback makes $3.5 million per game. For 60 minutes of work. 

While football players get all kinds of endorsement deals, sponsorships, lavish gifts thrown at them all the time. Cheerleaders, on the other hand, have to work second or third jobs and entirely different careers to support themselves for their work. For some, they’ve tapped into the well-paying career of influencer thanks to social media, with the more successful ones making thousands of dollars per paid post or being able to secure sponsorships for lending their image to a product or website.

Of course, this says nothing of what cheerleaders have to endure, from harassment and sexaual assault to being used ostensibly as sex workers, among the horrors detailed by women who sued the former owner of the now Washington Commanders team for their mistreatment.  The Buffalo Bills no longer have a squad and haven’t for a decade after the Buffalo Jills were disbanded in 2014 after a group of five former members sued the team. The women said the Jills were deemed “independent contractors” and, as a result, they didn’t need to be paid the state minimum wage, among other issues. The lawsuit, filed against the Bills and Cumulus Media, was resolved in 2022 after eight years, with the team and the network agreeing to pay a total of $7.5 million to the 50-plus cheerleaders involved in the suit. 

Keep all this in mind if the cameras flash to Taylor Swift in the press box. Not that she can single handedly fix it, but she certainly could use some of her massive power and influence to help advocate on behalf of the cheerleaders from those bleachers.