How do you define ability? The offending quote was "requires a higher level of skill based on speed and strength." But the U.S. Women's Team are one of the best globally, and the U.S. Men's team is cannot consistently perform.
The male players may be faster and stronger, but only the women are bringing home championships. Furthermore, to one of your points, the women are also bringing in more revenue now. So I don't think it is unreasonable for the women to think their performance has earned more pay. They may be entitled brats, but they are bringing home championships and money to the organization.
Abolish “women’s teams” and allow women to compete in the united soccer league. Why have a women’s team? Is there a black team?
So if we had an under-13 team that won championships, they should be paid more than the National Team?
ML/NJ
Then they should negotiate more pay instead of suing over "gender discrimination."
They negotiated their own pay terms.
Let's keep something else in mind, folks. In nearly every other team sport, U.S. players earn almost nothing when they play for the national teams. For professional sports like basketball and hockey, the biggest consideration for those players is protecting themselves under their separate professional contracts in case of an injury. I believe the standard protocol is for the applicable U.S. national organization for that sport (USA Hockey, for example) to buy insurance coverage that compensates a professional team in the event one of that team's players gets injured while playing for the national team.
The reason these women are complaining about their compensation while playing for the national team is that their professional sports leagues -- to the extent they even exist -- are awful, and may even just meet semi-pro standards when it comes to how much they pay their players.