According to Eni Aluko:- People have fallen for women’s football. We must ensure it’s a long-term relationship But inspite of high viewing figures has anyone? Can the club game actually attract significant numbers to attend games? Eni asks just this: There is a risk women’s football becomes the most popular spectator sport that fans tune into every four years but are not interested in parting with their money to watch the same players on their doorstep. Who will be the fans that would watch Womens football in an already saturated market place? I watched a couple of England games during this WWC and whilst it was better than I had seen before, it still didn't make me think I'd even bother if it was free and I was already at the ground having watch the male team. More likely I would have headed to the pub to disect the match, maybe watch the next PL/Championship game there and head home after a few more. In the longer term if schools push football more rather than the traditional girls sports (At least in my day we played Football, Cricket, Basketball and were occationally forced to play hockey, the girls played Netball and Hockey but rarely anything else) then maybe a ground up following might be built, but I don't see where a significant market is in the next 10 or even 20 years. My other half grew up a United fan, has never watched them play live and was one of the more sporty types of girls due to being the only child of a Rugby and football mad father. But, wasn't at all bothered with the WWC and would continue to follow mens football before even considering Womens. Father of daughters I would assume will be encouraging of their child, but are they really going to switch a season ticket at their mens side for womens footy out of support? Take up the whole weekend watching multiple games? And lastly, even if encouraged to play and given more oportunity, would significantly more actually be bothered to do so? And would that lead to fandom of W football? Much as we want to pretend we are all absolutely equal somewhere between nurture and nature, we are very different between the sexes. How Mrs Melchett derives pleasure from visiting the same shops selling the same clothes that they were the previous month I am utterly at a loss, I think she would say the same of me wanting to spend the first part of the day having a drink discussing the pending match, the next part watching it and then the following part disecting it over a pint or 6. And she professes to like football! (She hates Cricket, Golf and most other sports except tennis) For Womens football to thrive it needs a consistent audience. Will it be men? I don't think so Will it be women? Maybe, but I don't see how it ever gets close to the mens game, I'm just not convinced women are wired to like sitting and watching sports the way blokes are. (I realise that for the main I have spoken with sweeping generalisations and that much as there are Women who love Football both watching and playing the W domestic league doesn't bare this out. Also not all blokes are sports fans clearly but so many are and show borderline obsessive behaviour that it is easy to see why Rupert and all the sponsors are throwing money around like its going out of fashion. Bah! Bah!
Part of the problem Women's Football faces is the week-long TV/Media coverage of the Men's game. Just like nobody seeks out League 2 games when there's a Champion's League fixture, equally any coverage of Women's football has a similar issue. Currently, the Premier League schedules Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon football, with multiple games staggered over the weekend, then there's Champion's League, Europa League, and cup games on Tues/Wed/Thurs. There's no opportunity to attract the casual fan because there's already more familiar football on. Scheduling the majority of WSL games for Sat 3pm is foolhardy, as your audience is already at grounds up and down the country supporting teams they've supported for decades - or indoctrinating their children in a similar fashion. The number of football fans who have that time spare to go to another club is vanishingly small. It's why I think it's unhelpful that the WSL is now a winter not summer league (although fitting around tournament schedules probably necessitated this). Two suggestions to solve this: Reclaim a day from the Prem, and insist no Men's football is played on a Monday night. Instead, make sure several WSL games each week are scheduled for Mondays, enough to give Sky/BT/Amazon/Free-to-air a game each. Remove the "Saturday 3pm blackout" for Women's football. Give broadcasters the chance to broadcast a WSL game in this slot, as an alternative to the current "watch people watch football" that dominates this slot. It'd be good to combine this with double-headers at big stadia. 13:00 Men's games, then anybody who wants to stay for the WSL game can, in addition to very cheap tickets for the WSL game being available. (Other way around would be ideal as ground fill a lot slower than they empty, meaning you'd naturally capture a segment of the Men's audience who get in the ground early. But then you have the issue of clearing the stadium of people with cheap WSL-only tickets before the Men's game.) For NCFC, I think I'm correct in saying the Ladies side haven't been officially linked to the Men's setup all that long? It looks like changes are underfoot with their online presence so it's hard to find much details, but it looks like they current train in Long Stratton and groundshare with Norwich United, at a ground with a 100 seated capacity. It seems very disappointing/unlikely that as a Premier League club our facilities are so busy that the Ladies side don't have access to the same facilities as even our U9s. Given NCFC Ladies are presumably Amateur/Semi-Pro(?), there's must be an evening or evenings at Colney where our facilities are under-utilised, and they could come in. Equally, the new stand built at Colney for supporters of academy games has a 200+ capacity. It would be good to see them brought "home" to play as a proper part of the NCFC family, and again you could arrange double-headers with U23 games to boost the potential audience.
Some reasonable ideas, instead of trying to claim a day back from the PL, why not Thursday's? Ok so there is the crappy UEFA league, but who watches that anyway? The issue would for me still remain though who is going to watch it live or on TV what ever day? Free to air will be unlikely to pay particularly well but if you could get ITV or ITV2 on board at least the league could grow as advertising revenue and viewer numbers grow. As far as Norwich are concerned, Whilst them being brought in to Colney is a reasonable idea, I don't think our coaches are exactly part timers so you would still need dedicated staff. Those staff of course could learn from the mens set up and as you say benefit from the facilities if well planned around the mens schedules (I imagine these are planned with a precision that would put Honda to shame) As for audience, being proactive in getting kids there would be the best way in my book. Doing something like free to u15s would be a good idea, a small fee for adults and revenue from drinks and snacks would have to suffice during a growth phase. To start with with low numbers and minimal visiting fans at least policing costs could be kept negligible. Bah!
There is a woman's version of the Emirates cup at Arsenal . Dortmund ladies Arsenal ladies and others I think. Even though i couldn't name a single player and the standard is not great the ticket prices are the same as previous years where PSG Barca AC Milan etc have attended. Unless they drop the ticket prices or give them away there will be lots of empty seats.
I went to watch Norwich V 1p5wich Ladies a few months ago and it was £2 to get in, so quite reasonable.
But having watched it, have you been back? Will you go back? Could you be a source of regular funds and support, or was it just cause it was the binners and a dose of curiosity? Its regular, paying supporters they need. Though even one offs are better than us nevers and likely never wills Bah!
Yes General, I will go back, as my granddaughter is really into playing football and we're just waiting to hear of e she's good enough to get into the Elite squad - my gut feeling is that she's not quite there, but will know by the end of July.
Fair enough but relatives of players is not an area that will truly kick attendances up. Would you still go if she drops out? Bah!
Ha General - you've got me there. Actually - I might, as long as admittance prices were reasonable and no more than say £5 even for important games. It will be interesting to see if attendances hold up say 12 months from now.
MFW doing their bit to try and help raise the profile. I do fear that the standard in the 4th tier might not warrent a crowd and suspect even my heavily hungover Sunday league teams of yesteryear would still give them a pasting. I would need to see them to find out but even with them being part of the Norwich family, life is just too busy for me to consider 2 hours there. Bah!
Just heard that my younger granddaughter has been selected for the NCFC Girls' Academy! #proudgrandad Getting back to the thread title. If it wasn't that my granddaughter loves playing so much, I'm not sure I world have got into watching it.
