JUDGE WOMEN’S GAME ON THE FANS WHO PAY
THERE was a lot of fuss about the crowd at stamford bridge to watch Chelsea’s women play Tottenham on sunday but to give away 40,000 tickets and have only 24,564 turn up does not seem the greatest leap forward.
More impressive, surely, was the 3,041 who made the trip to Ashton Gate, and paid, to watch bristol City’s match with brighton. This was roughly six times the average crowd of last season and, as paying customers, the beginning of a committed fanbase.
some of the larger attendances may look impressive, but free admission is no indication of a sport’s popularity or growth. At bristol, where the match was linked to wider promotions including the opportunity to stay on and watch England’s European Championship qualifier with bulgaria, the increased interest was tangible. This seems a more sustainable development for the women’s game than just giving it away.
ENGLAND’S rugby players will earn £7million for winning the World Cup. Or, put another way, £200,000 a man. Divvied up like that, it doesn’t seem a lot. Alexis Sanchez banked that every four days in Manchester.
It is a bitter irony that an aerial television camera tracking the 11th stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race should inadvertently alert the authorities to the location of a large marijuana farm, hidden on a Catalan rooftop. A sport rife with scary performance- enhancing drugs, and they get everyone busted for the fun stuff.
HOW depressing to discover Gary Lineker is not massively into sex and prefers a nice dinner instead. If that bloke can’t pull, what chance have the rest of us got?