As the United States women’s soccer team embarks on its World Cup victory tour, the fight over equal pay is only intensifying. Last week U.S. Soccer released a fact sheet that claimed women’s national team players actually had earned more than their men’s counterparts over the past decade; a spokeswoman for the players disputed the federation’s math, calling U.S. Soccer’s calculations “utterly false.”

As the sides prepare to enter mediation over the gender discrimination lawsuit, the players and their union know how influential sponsors will be. “Sponsors are incredibly huge because they put a lot more pressure than we are able to on U.S. Soccer,” Alex Morgan, a team captain, said in an interview. “Especially the sponsors that are already partners with U.S. Soccer.”

Nike is not the only U.S. Soccer sponsor to embrace the players’ equality campaign, a broadly popular effort that inspired chants of “equal pay” from fans inside the stadium at the World Cup final and later at the team’s victory parade.

The campaign comes at a time when consumers want corporations to make public stands on social and political issues.

“More than ever, corporations are expected to reflect the values of their customers,” said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies corporations and civil rights. But he cautioned that, ultimately, corporate decisions are driven by money, not beliefs.

“I don’t think we would see businesses wading into the political thicket if they didn’t think it was in their interests,” Winkler said.

Just before the World Cup, for example, Visa announced a five-year sponsorship agreement with U.S. Soccer that was applauded by some soccer fans because Visa executives claimed more than half of the money would support women’s soccer. Sheerin Salimi, a Visa spokeswoman, said the split was written into the contract.