Women crowds don’t add up

THE Women’s FA Cup final was attended by 41,000 people, with 1.4 million watching on television. This is no surprise. As a nation, we have become very American in the way we embrace sport. If it’s a big event, or we believe it’s a big event, we go, we buy in, we consume. The 1994 men’s World Cup in the United States is still the best attended in FIFA’s history, because Americans thought it mattered to be there. It didn’t mean there was the same huge market for a domestic soccer league, however. Not for many decades, and not in the same numbers, even now. So to base the appetite for the women’s game on a marquee occasion is as flawed as believing there is a large audience for hockey or rowing, given the viewing figures when Great Britain competes in the Olympics. People get behind Team GB. That doesn’t mean they’ll be watching Leander race on the Thames any time soon, or turning out for East Grinstead. English cricket grounds are packed for big Test matches but the county game struggles to survive. Meaning the positives around the Wembley final must be balanced against the 715 who attended Aston Villa at home to Chelsea, or the 502 at Everton’s match with Brighton this season. Attendances in the Women’s Super League are actually going down. There are familiar complaints about marketing and promotion, but it is not as if the game is without profile these days. Television numbers are healthy but, for all the well-intentioned strategies, what if there simply isn’t the market for live attendance? It can happen. In 1996, a Labour peer, Lord Hollick, bought the Daily Express. He thought there was a gap in the middle market for a centre-left publication, to counter the Daily Mail. Turns out there wasn’t. The left turn alienated quite a few existing Express readers and it transpired Labour voters wouldn’t be seen dead reading a newspaper that was traditionally associated with the Conservatives, no matter its changed politics. The latest target for women’s football is average gates of 6,000 in the WSL. Yet, while the league was averaging a promising 3,000 in 2019-20, attendances have subsequently been in retreat. Wembley’s gate was encouraging but, sadly, may say more about our love for the big event than the women’s game.

● DID you see Sam Kerr dealing with a pitch invader during Chelsea versus Juventus? Is it too soon to make her the Footballer of the Year?