Selling the women’s game
2015 WORLD CUP adds to buzz as financial support for soccer grows in Canada
In less than two years, 24 national teams will play 52 matches in six Canadian cities, attracting unprecedented international media coverage.
Canadian fans desperately want a Canada/U.S. final so Christine Sinclair and company can exact revenge on a U.S. squad that won a controversial semifinal match against Canada at the 2012 Olympics.
That potential storyline — along with Canada’s gutsy bronze-medal performance in London last year — should have corporate sponsors keen to get involved with the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and women’s soccer supporters hope that involvement leads to longer-term financial support of the women’s game in Canada.
Canadian Soccer Association general secretary Peter Montopoli said corporate interest in the women’s national team has clearly grown in the past year.
“We’ve sold additional sponsorships around the women’s team recently and certainly the success of the bronze medal helped us out in terms of the profile,” he said. “We’re talking to more companies and our roster of sponsors today is much greater than it was three or four years ago.”
Bell Canada signed on last month as the first of up to six “national supporters” of the 2015 tournament and Montopoli said “very aggressive” talks are underway now with several other potential Canadian sponsors.
Bell chief brand officer Wade Oosterman still marvels at the “palpable tension and excitement” surrounding the Canada/U.S. game at the Olympics and notes the two sides drew the largest soccer crowd ever (22,453) at BMO Field in Toronto last month when the U.S. beat Canada 3-0.
More than 25,000 filled BC Place when Canada and the U.S. met in the final of the CONCACAF women’s Olympic soccer qualifying tournament in January 2012.
“The signals are very clear that this is something that’s capturing the hearts and minds of people,” he said.
“It’s a very healthy sport and stands for all the things that Bell stands for, so it’s a natural fit.”
Corporate funding for women’s soccer in Canada can make a huge difference for a program that needs more financial support.
“You’re not the last dollar in $100 million that’s been raised already,” Oosterman said. “You’re providing the impetus for growth and establishment on a national basis — things that you’ll look back on over time with much more pride because you enabled the start of it.”
Vancouver city councillor Adriane Carr senses a “buzz” around the women’s game in Canada now and feels women i n business leadership roles can take a lead role in attracting more corporate support for women’s soccer.
“The World Cup gives us a chance to really make a shift and take a big step forward in the support for women’s soccer,” she said.
LifeLabs president Sue Paish, a soccer supporter who once led a business mentorship program for Vancouver White caps women players, said she’d be disappointed if only women and women’s businesses wanted to support the World Cup.
“I think there’s potentially a value proposition for a much broader base of community support,” she said.
“I can think of a very wide spectrum of organizations to whom a very compelling value proposition can be conveyed.”
Paish feels World Cup organizers have a great opportunity to make it a true na- tional event, in the same way the 2010 Olympics were seen as “Canada’s games.”
“This event has exactly the same opportunity to bring communities and families and businesses together around a world-class iconic sport,” she said.
“I really hope we capitalize on that.”
Sports management consultant Aileen McManamon is working with the Women’s Enterprise Centre of B.C. to create an economic development component to the 2015 World Cup, paving the way for women’s businesses to become suppliers for the event.
They hope to emulate the business success of the 2010 Olympics, when RBC partnered with the province to develop the 2010 Commerce Centre that marketed local businesses to the world.