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Opinion

Would the W-League work in winter?

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Roar Rookie
10th August, 2021
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A winter W-League could work for W-League clubs that have their own 4,000 to 5,000 capacity stadium on their own grounds.

This could bring down the costs of renting other stadiums and could potentially create a club hub for all fans. The downside is that the W League games aren’t at the main stadium but no clubs in Australia own their own stadium yet.

We will start with the most successful W-League club with four championships.

Melbourne City (four championships)
Construction is underway at Casey so it can work for Melbourne City.

Sydney FC (three championships)
Sky Park is being built so that could work for Sydney FC.

Brisbane Roar (two Championships)
Brisbane are a bit nomadic at the moment but there are talks of a new facility at Peer Park.

Canberra United (two championships)
They play at McKellar Park so that could work for Canberra United.

Melbourne Victory (two championships)
Haven’t heard anything about a Training Facility for Melbourne Victory. However the government is spending $100 million on the Latrobe Centre for the Matildas so Victory could play out of there.

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Perth Glory
Doesn’t seem like Perth have a dedicated training Facility but they don’t have NRL playing on the grounds in winter so it could work.

Newcastle Jets
They are building a facility at Speers Point.

Central Coast Mariners
Already have a facility at the Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah.

Western Sydney Wanderers
They have a Training Centre but do they have a stadium?

Western United
No W-League team. No stadium… yet.

Macarthur
No W League Team. Training facilities will be built but no stadium?

After going through all this, not every club will have a 4000 to 5000 person stadium at the their Training Grounds so this may not entirely work cut the W-League teams without the stadium could rent stadiums for the games.

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Would a winter W-League attract more attendance now that the A-League is a summer sport? A lot of A-League fans don’t follow NPL clubs so maybe a percentage of these fans would go to the local W-League instead?

NRLW isn’t that popular and isn’t played in Western Australia or South Australia so there is less competition among other codes.

Ideally this would lead to a W-League where players can make a full time salary as the current salary is something like $20,000 which is completely unsustainable to live off for a year especially if you live somewhere like Sydney.

However if you are a women considering a football career then there is no other sport besides tennis where you can make massive dollars such as Sam Kerr on around $500,000 USD a year.

Winter can also lead to more rounds being played which increase the quality of the Matildas. Hopefully this leads to a FFA Cup for women’s football. The Women’s NPL and State Leagues are very strong so it would be great if there was a National Second Division.

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