How to grow the W-League

The W-League is Australia’s premier women’s football competition. The ladies performing on the big stage deserve a big audience while showcasing their skills which have been honed from years of hard work and dedication.

I attended two W-League games on the weekend. Melbourne City’s exciting grand final replay against Canberra United in Fawkner on Saturday and Melbourne Victory’s thrilling 2-2 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday.

Despite both matches being played during the daytime in searing heat, the women on the field showed tremendous grit and determination to produce two games of great quality and excitement. The only disappointment was the small crowds in attendance at both games.

Only 605 people turned up at CB Smith Reserve on Saturday to watch City and around 500 at Lakeside Stadium on the Sunday for Victory. To be fair, the grandstand at CB Smith Reserve on one side of the ground was reasonably full, meaning the atmosphere was better than the average W-League game.

However, this needs to be improved upon to give the female game in Australia the reward it deserves.

Women’s football in Australia is now well and truly being put on the map, and judging by the latest statistics it is only heading further north!

So much so, that according to a survey conducted in 2014 by Roy Morgan Research, a higher proportion of Australian girls now play football (39%) than netball (37%) which is traditionally a more popular female sport.

In 2016 the number of registered female outdoor footballers was well over the 100,000 mark across the country. In Victoria alone in 2016, there was an 11.1% increase in female participation, which meant over 12,000 females played the beautiful game at an official level.

This doesn’t include the thousands more in the school playground and local parks. In the highly successful MiniRoos football program alone (kids aged 11 and under) there was a staggering increase of nearly 19% for girls participating in the program.

While these numbers are fantastic, we need to build a major bridge linking this exciting growth to making a success of the W-league. This success can only be measured by an increase in crowds and TV audiences which will give the ladies a thoroughly deserved fan-base.

The best way to do this is by improving the quality of football on offer and making the W-league game an attractive product. The huge increase in female interest in the sport should provide the perfect launching pad to fuel this success.

Things have taken a step forward this year with both the ABC and Fox Sports beaming one live game a week to fans across Australia. ESPN 3 even broadcasts this game live to the USA, a huge market and a country where women’s domestic football is thriving. This is a step forward but there is a long way to go.

The main reason football fans in Australia don’t go to W-League games is quite simple, traditionally it hasn’t been a major league in Australia meaning there is a lack of prestige when compared to the English Premier League or the AFL which are both steeped in history.

The other reason is realistically the W-league doesn’t even come close to the pace, skill and excitement of the men’s A-League, let alone the best football leagues in the world. This is a reality that needs to be addressed in order to find the right solution.

To fix the quality aspect there needs to be significant investment in the women’s game, from improved coaching to remunerating the best players so they can spend more time improving their craft.

In a survey conducted by the Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), over 100 W-League players across all nine clubs were asked about their remuneration. It was found that 25 per cent of players earn at most $500 for an entire season, while 85 per cent earn less than $5,000.

The average cost of playing in the W-League was around $2,200. While it is improving slightly (the W-league salary cap is $150,000 now), it is hardly a just reward for the work being put in by these dedicated athletes and hardly enough to encourage them to dedicate more time to providing a better-quality league. Incidentally, the AFL has a $5000 minimum salary for the inaugural AFL Women’s season in 2017.

It is unrealistic for the women to currently demand equal pay considering they don’t bring in anywhere near as much revenue as the men.

This can be blamed on the lack of investment in the women’s game but it is mainly due to the fact the men’s game is traditionally more appealing – simply because the elite level of men’s football is more skilful, faster and consequently more aesthetically pleasing to the eye of the average football fan.

It sounds harsh but it is a reality. Having said this, the women’s game is gradually improving and the W-League is definitely showing a higher level of football.

The best way to take advantage of this and enhance it further is to attract more fans. This will, in turn, bring in more money which will lead to more investment and remuneration – which will lead to better quality players which will bring in even more fans. The cycle will continue infinitely if we let it!

Back to the W-League game I attended on Saturday between Melbourne City and Canberra United. A large number of the fans that did turn up were due to young girls from Geelong being given the chance to be mascots for the W-League team and playing a game of their own at halftime.

This sort of fan engagement was fantastic and not only did we see the future of women’s football have an awe-inspiring day but many of the parents in the crowd were exposed to the W-League for the first time.

This example could be a huge key in making the W-League more appealing to fans. A simple business strategy of engaging your customers, in this case, potential football fans. Providing opportunities for young girls and their parents is only one aspect of it.

The next step is putting the game on at a reasonable time and in reasonable conditions. Playing a game in boiling hot summer conditions in the middle of the day is not going to be appealing to reluctant fans that have little interest as it is in the W-league.

Playing on a Friday or Saturday night when conditions are cooler and parents and their kids have fewer commitments would seem to be a far more appealing prospect.

The catch with this is that the A-League commands these primetime slots for commercial reasons. This provides food for thought. Why aren’t more W-League games played before or even after the A-League?

Melbourne Victory played Western Sydney on Saturday night in Sydney before 16,000 fans. Why then did the Victory women play the Wanderers women before 500 fans in Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon?

While many would say they want the W-League to stand on its own and not be a sideshow, the reality is playing games around the A-League might be just the opportunity for the W-league to showcase their stuff and attract more fans.

The TV cameras are already there so why not use them to televise more W-League games per week? Playing in a big stadium in front of 500 fans creates little atmosphere and attention, 16,000 fans are better.

If it isn’t possible for the W-League to be played around the A-League, then these games need to be played at smaller and more boutique venues which are fan friendly.

The catch with this is the quality of the pitch and facilities won’t be as good, however, a crowd of 605 at a boutique venue like CB Smith Reserve created a much better atmosphere than 500 at the 12,000 capacity Lakeside Stadium.

On Saturday, the access Melbourne City gave to the fans was superb. The young girls who turned up to be mascots were thrilled at being able to take photos and meet stars such as Matilda Teigan Allen and USA international Erika Tymrak, who would be fantastic role models for any aspiring young footballer.

This was only possible due to the fan friendly ground the game was played at. The pitch at Lakeside Stadium is physically further away from the fans and it is a much vaster stadium meaning the atmosphere and the cosy feeling of a small ground was significantly lacking.

Take the game to an intimate venue in the suburbs at a reasonable time and create a throbbing atmosphere which will make the game a more appealing product on TV. This will bring in more money and as mentioned above will lead to more investment and quality and so on.

In a nutshell, the W-League has a lot to offer in its own right. It is time to connect all the dots and realise its potential.