Name: Nazir Primus
Social Justice Group: Pay Gap for Women Athletes
Date of Fieldwork: February 25, 2022
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s): Leonard Armato Founder and CEO of Management Plus Enterprises
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :
On Friday, the 25th of February my group was honored to meet with Leonard Armato. Leonard Armato, a sports agent, and entrepreneur is most known for representing NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His career includes creating the Golden Boy and Dunkman sports marketing brands for Oscar De La Hoya and Shaq. Leonard studied law and founded Management Plus Enterprises to combine his interests in the legal field and sports media.
Leonard told us that when working in the sports industry he realized how much women were mistreated in sports. Ever since this realization, Leonard has been working hard to fix this issue. Leonard even created a volleyball league that brought men and women together under one roof, with equal prize money and equal media exposure on television. Leonard has said “I’ve spoken a lot about inequality in sports when it comes to gender. Men’s sports in our society are given so much more exposure, credibility than women. So with beach volleyball, when we made prize money equal for men and women and made TV time equal for men and women, I think that was a big step. In the Olympic Games, women’s beach volleyball gets a good audience and people love watching it.”
When interviewing Leonard he told us his experience when trying to make a change. He told us that when he made the suggestion about the beach volleyball league he received backlash. We learned that people in the sports industry can be very cruel towards women. It was important to speak to someone who worked in the sports industry and has experience with the issue we are studying and shared great information.
