Women's football and the legacy of victory

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Caporegime
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Looks like there are no recent or general women's football threads, so I thought I'd start one.

The Euro thread is the most recent that I can see and that's slipped way down.

Are people still watching and supporting the women's football leagues, or has interest tailed off now that the hype from the Euros has died down? It would be a shame to lose the opportunity to further women's football that the Euros presented so I hope the fans saying how great it was are also supporting the league games.
 
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Haven’t paid any attention to it since the euros and still get a little annoyed every time the BBC website doesn’t say articles are about the women’s game clearly.

Will probably watch them at the big tournaments in the future but probably nothing outside that.
 
fez said:
Haven’t paid any attention to it since the euros and still get a little annoyed every time the BBC website doesn’t say articles are about the women’s game clearly.

Will probably watch them at the big tournaments in the future but probably nothing outside that.
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Same, the women's champions League games have been on this week and I didn't care to watch.

I just don't have the interest.
 
I think attendance will grow, just not as much as folks hope/predict - The Liverpool Ladies team against Chelsea for example was 3006, their highest at Prenton Park since they moved there I belive
 
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The problem now is the same problem there always has been, outside of the big tournaments there just isn't the interest. The attendance mentioned in the post above proves the point. You may get an anomaly or two throughout the season but generally, attendances are tiny. I don't really see anyone anyone turning away from the men's game for it and there's plenty to watch there even if you only like the top division / European games. It's going o be a gradual process that needs to happen organically. Forcing it isn't helping at all as fez alluded to earlier.
 
Honestly.....while I really enjoyed the womens Euro's and I would like to support the womens game in some way I just dont have the time to actively follow/watch multiple football teams.
 
Why do we need to compare it to men's football? It almost certainly will never, at any point in time, rival men's football in terms of interest but there clearly a market for women's football and it's growing. Average attendances in the WSL were circa 3.5k and those attendances have grown this season - without checking I'd imagine those numbers are greater than the average attendances of boxing events, men's county cricket and lots of other main stream sports.

I have never watched more than 30 second clips of women's football nor do I have any interest in doing so in the future but I'm not sure why there's this negativity around it because it doesn't rival men's football. No other men's sports come close to rivaling football and as we've just seen, even the Queen's funeral can't draw in the same audience as men's football can.
 
I only watched the euros and I don’t think it will have a massive effect on the woman’s game. Most schools don’t offer the chance for girls to play football, that’s where most boys get their 1st taste of the game.
 
BaZ87 said:
Why do we need to compare it to men's football? It almost certainly will never, at any point in time, rival men's football in terms of interest but there clearly a market for women's football and it's growing. Average attendances in the WSL were circa 3.5k and those attendances have grown this season - without checking I'd imagine those numbers are greater than the average attendances of boxing events, men's county cricket and lots of other main stream sports.

I have never watched more than 30 second clips of women's football nor do I have any interest in doing so in the future but I'm not sure why there's this negativity around it because it doesn't rival men's football. No other men's sports come close to rivaling football and as we've just seen, even the Queen's funeral can't draw in the same audience as men's football can.
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Its not the same, but look at motorsport. Even though F1 isn't the best racing out there, it's still the incumbent 'pinnacle' of the sport so people watch it over much more exciting series.

Now I'm not saying women's football is better to watch than men's, its blatantly not, but part of the appeal of the Premier League is that whole periceved pinnacle thing. Even as a Forest fan, before this season I'd rarely watch a Championship game but watch all sorts of rubbish Prem games.
 
chroniclard said:
Honestly.....while I really enjoyed the womens Euro's and I would like to support the womens game in some way I just dont have the time to actively follow/watch multiple football teams.
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This, if I wanted to watch more football I'd watch another men's league more actively. I'll still watch the international tournaments but there is no chance I'll ever watch the club games.
 
I put the Liverpool vs Chelsea game on the other night, I’ve seen more quality down the local northern prem league.

At least they were both better than England tonight.
 
Not a single female in my entire extended family gave a crap about it, not even the final so doubt men are going to support it.

I watched bits of the semis / final (as they kept getting me with not actually labelling it as womens in the TV guide :) )and to be fair they are skilled but not for me.

I’d happily tune into womens tennis or womens mma but football, don’t care really.
 
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It doesn't really hold my attention tbh, the officials seem to be the biggest problem.

I prefer men's football. I prefer men's ice hockey. But then I prefer women's tennis and women's skiing.
 
i don’t hate it but I don’t like it either.

It is however starting to become annoying having the WSL podcasts forced on me. The ramble have at least put it on a separate feed but the beeb, the athletic etc keep issuing eps on women’s football. The feed is for men’s English football. Likewise I’m annoying when they start pushing European football, I’m just not interest in French football etc
 
I'd like it a lot more if they put all this women's football news on separate football pages. Nothing more annoying than sky/beeb forcing women's football down your throat when trying to read about the men's game, which let's face it is basically a different sport right now.
 
I started getting into women's football more about a year or so ago, my son went to an England match that was being played locally. I figured seeing England thrash North Macedonia would keep him engaged more than a dull 0:0 or whatever, even if it's a bit unrealistic expectation to be setting! If I've nothing better to do I'll put England games on TV and sometimes Arsenal although I don't go out of my way for it. But it's still not really front of mind, a good test would be how many managers can I name - basically England, Arsenal (can't spell it) and Chelsea. No idea who manages Man City for example. In fact I'd say that's the thing, with men's football I have a reasonable knowledge of other prem teams, european heavyweights, what managers there are etc. With women's football I basically just know about England/Arsenal plus a smattering of the top players at other clubs.

I do think it will boost engagement from girls though, my son has girl friends (note the space!) who are taking up football training etc, and obviously that won't immediately come to fruition, but if it is maintained then that bigger uptake will start to filter through as there is a bigger cohort of girls involved in football for a period of years, you'd expect the standard to be lifted by say 2030.
 
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I check in with how Arsenal women are doing but it’s usually a foregone conclusion unless they’re playing Chelsea, Man City or one of the big European teams. The quality has gotten better since the better teams have been able to have players train full-time but it’s still not high enough that I feel like I’m watching elite sport sport (which is the only sport I’m interested in watching unless there’s some personal interest like it’s a friend or person I know competing).
 
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