Well, the tournament is over, but it's impact isn't. So there is one more thread to rumble quietly on for a while yet - how can this be built on? Because for once the "legacy project" feels like it is an extremely important consideration, as this was a breakthrough event in terms of public interest in the Women's game... in England at least.
The big tests are the obvious ones - the prominence afford to the next domestic/European season and the World Cup coming up in 12 months time.
For the clubs, there are suddenly a bunch of names with widespread public recognition they can use to sell the game - cf. Manchester United being able to push their side with images of Earps, Toone and Russo. Back in 2019/29 the average attendance at WSL games had pushed up to ~3,400, helped to a large extent by holding derby games and key clashes at the Men's 1st XI stadiums - that explains why Spurs topped the attendance table with an average of ~8,600. Given that a number of the clubs have already announced they will be holding those plum fixtures at the big grounds again, the aim has to be to at least match that final average, and definitely to do better than the ~2,200 per game that watched in person in 2021/22.
And then we get to next summer, and the World Cup, which is again not competing against a Men's equivalent tournament (in Europe at least). The timing of that is fortuitous, but one has to make use of a lucky break... Chloe Kelly is available to provide demonstrations of just such. But was the penetration of this summer in part because the tournament was in England? If things fall back again next summer it will be telling.
A corollary to this point is the anecdotal evidence that Ray provided of Euro2022 not having the same impact in France. How is the English experience of this summer, where the Women's tournament was treated more similarly to an equivalent Men's event than has ever been the case before, translatable to other countries where this is not yet happening.
The big tests are the obvious ones - the prominence afford to the next domestic/European season and the World Cup coming up in 12 months time.
For the clubs, there are suddenly a bunch of names with widespread public recognition they can use to sell the game - cf. Manchester United being able to push their side with images of Earps, Toone and Russo. Back in 2019/29 the average attendance at WSL games had pushed up to ~3,400, helped to a large extent by holding derby games and key clashes at the Men's 1st XI stadiums - that explains why Spurs topped the attendance table with an average of ~8,600. Given that a number of the clubs have already announced they will be holding those plum fixtures at the big grounds again, the aim has to be to at least match that final average, and definitely to do better than the ~2,200 per game that watched in person in 2021/22.
And then we get to next summer, and the World Cup, which is again not competing against a Men's equivalent tournament (in Europe at least). The timing of that is fortuitous, but one has to make use of a lucky break... Chloe Kelly is available to provide demonstrations of just such. But was the penetration of this summer in part because the tournament was in England? If things fall back again next summer it will be telling.
A corollary to this point is the anecdotal evidence that Ray provided of Euro2022 not having the same impact in France. How is the English experience of this summer, where the Women's tournament was treated more similarly to an equivalent Men's event than has ever been the case before, translatable to other countries where this is not yet happening.
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