Will the Women's World Cup supercharge football's growth in Australia?

Well written, that could have been an article. As someone else wrote in another article - while a lot of our country care about sports that the rest of the world doesn’t care about, it is hard for football (and other world games) to gain the traction they need/deserve.

And reality is Adam Goodes would have kept playing football, the sport he now plays and is part of administration in, if a football team was available in the area he grew up in. Who knows where he may have ended up if he was able to continue to pursue football. And the next Sam Kerrs will be inspired by someone who can represent their country in a World Cup, at the Olympics, in international competitions, travel the world to play games and be a world recognised person. Lucky for Sam there were those age restrictions, otherwise she’d be well known in WA and southern Australia only.

no it will not even with the fantastic numbers being achieved. not until this game is embraced by the media and the love is transfused into the heart of australians the game will always rank where it currently sits :football:

FA put out a release saying that NSD will start in 2024 but ill believe it when i see it on the pitch I've heard a Rumor and stress that this is a Rumor that along with Melbourne Knights at least 7 other clubs will also not submit proposals due to the cost, which is rumoured to be 500K that isn't refundable, those 7 Rumoured Clubs being as follows. NSW: APIA Leichhardt, Marconi, Sydney Olympic Vic: Heidelberg United, South Melbourne QLD: Gold Coast Knights ACT: Canberra Croatia

Milo, it is you who has NFI. Mate, don't even talk about the micky mouse league that is AFLW. Gets way more publicity than it deserves. Of course there are more girls playing footy now than before AFLW started. It's because it's coming off such a low base which was almost zero, lol. As for Kerr, some nutcase AFL reporter asked her if she wants to switch to AFLW and her answer was "yes I like AFL because I grew up with it but why would I want to forfeit playing for my country in World Cups and Olympics or playing for clubs anywhere in the world, and start playing AFL". That my friend pretty much sums it up.

Hysterical 'the average age of attendees (at) AFL about 82 years... ' Clearly you have absolutely NFI lad. AFL already had a record 4 million through the gate by mid season 2023. So based on 'average age' that must be a significant percentage that are into their late 80s, 90s and over. Really?? Reality is since AFLW more kids than ever before including girls are attending and playing the indigenous game. If you cant back up your rubbish, leave it out. Also reality is even Sam Kerr would have been playing AFL now (that she played as a girl), following in her father and brother's footsteps had age restrictions at the time not kicked in. Thankfully thousands more girls now see a pathway to AFL which didnt exist back then so the next Sam Kerrs will be playing for Freo or WCE. Cheers!

That's only natural, what else did you expect. The same happens in other countries and I mean "football countries".

What exactly are they unhappy about? I predicted a while ago that hardly any of these existing NPL clubs can afford the cost of participating in an NSD and are expecting someone else to pay the bills.

Was at the "Brisbane" stadium last night for the Matildas game. Over 49K through the turnstiles and a great turnout with a poor result for the green and gold. Not my point however. Not being Australian, i look at this from an outsiders perspective and it seems that every code has complete and utter disdain for one another at the highest levels. I stress this in advance for the minutiae warriors who do so love these boards, I am writing my opinion here. I would have liked to write this as a piece itself, but i don't have all the facts to hand and have no internal relationships with any code to allow me to gain further knowlegde. so with that said....Apologies in advance. The Matildas were playing arguably their biggest ever game on home soil with a chance to progress to the second round of a world cup that is being hosted here (and NZ). Many other countries (my own former home of Scotland included) would have a game of that magnitude as the only thing going on so that the whole country has the opportunity to attend / watch in homes-bars-purpose built venues for such an occasion. But it seems National pride in the football (Soccer) team and the country's performance on the world stage is so off the radar of some, that the NRL decides to not only schedule a game for their women's competition on the same night...they hold it in the same city 4km away. Women's sport has worked so hard to just get to where it is now and has the opportunities to allow it to grow even further, yet there are still some who treat others sporting codes as a threat. It would have been bad enough having a men's game being played ( both NRL and AFL rounds kick off tonight instead, well done there at least) but to have another women's game being played in a different sport in the same place at the same time, taking eyes away from one or the other through inability to attend one or the other for sports fans or taking TV viewers away from one or the other is at best negligent and at worst ignorant. Being a local derby between the Broncos and the Titans it also would also have affected the attendances as well perhaps with a number of fans already committed to one or other events and unable to support their chosen teams (assuming that there are maybe, just maybe, some people who enjoy watching more than one sport). Is the sporting calendar really that chocked that they couldn't have moved the NRLW game to another day or at the very very least another state. Maybe I'm the one in the wrong and no one really does care that much. in which case, I apologise for making this so long and you have probably stopped reading by now. Come on sport.....you can do much better than this.

Oh I meant 20k members per team. Why be such a grouch about someone'srandom comment? Weird and a bit sad.

The big surge for soccer participation in Australia happened in the mid 200os courtesy of female participation growth that saw soccer get in ahead of the other football codes and cricket etc........challenging netball and basketball. Over the past decade other sports have cottoned on and seen their own surges. The potential for a 2nd soccer surge is curious. Why curious? Because the impact of Covid on ALL sports was a falling away in participation numbers. Pre Covid (2018 report) the female registered 'outdoor affiliated' participation was 113,207 (46K MiniRoos, 39K youth and 28K senior). | The 2020 report through covid showed a drop to 109K. The 2021 report report rebounded back and beyond to 130K The 2022 report (the most recent) .....still at 130K. (56K Miniroos, +10K on 2018; 42K youth, +3K on 2018; and 32K senior, +4K on 2018). The question is guess is - - is THAT the quantification of the surge?? The lead up to the event - the build up. What will be the legacy? IF the Matilda's win it.....well......now.....if they get through the group stage? The biggest kick in the guts might be the Matilda's bundled out in Group and we barely get to see Sam Kerr at all and that moment in time is gone. So......curious. What is the measure of success?? Also noting - overall participation for 2022 was 1.528million; back in 2018 it was promoted as 1.851million. The big drop in that time is the "ALeagues" (schools, community events and promotional experiences) down from 726K to 353K......will that have rebounded through 2023 on the back of the WC??......if so.......would that be 'success'???

Do you think the young girls giving up on football will take up rugby league?

I'll tell you this, Matildas get knocked out in the group stages and numbers will drop like when Barty retired from tennis. Every mens World Cup has had the same effect, great ratings until the Aussies are out and very little follow up.

Thanks Cristo, I attended the Canada v Nigeria game (22k attendees) and it was a hoot. I’ve watched heaps of games on Optus. It has, for the vast majority of the time been great to watch and marvel at the skills of the world’s female football players. Will it supercharge the game? Who knows? However, I’m just loving this once in a lifetime opportunity t see such a huge football tournament.

It as been a very enjoyable event so far, and really, that's the best way to approach it, just enjoy the event. Additional womens facilities have been built, and that should be applauded, but beyond that, especially as far as the professional game goes in Australia, I would not have high expectations on where the game is about to go. Pretty much all the APL clubs are broke, at least 3 licenses are for sale, while that number again are looking for more "investors" (to help fund mounting losses). And then there is the latest news on the highly anticipated 2nd "tier": The NSD will not commence in 2024. A number of clubs are not happy with Football Australia’s current proposal. Several high profile clubs will not be submitting proposals one of them being Melbourne Knights FC.

The interesting thing if you look at the new AFL campaign for the Giants it seemed to be centered on food and kids getting in free. In some commercials it was 2 dollars chips. That it also has what sounds like a Pacific Islander with a New Zealand accent is quite odd. There are a lot of Kiwis and Pacific islanders in Sydney but not as many as the English and others. We hear this endless whining about the cost of food, the easy way to get the A-league W bigger maybe be food and cheap family tickets. They have smaller stadiums they dont have pre arranged catering contracts like at the major stadiums, where the caterer has paid such a large fee to the stadium operators and the only way to make that money back is sell dog food at ten times the price.

And in relation to growing football in Australia, it depends what you are referring to. Football already has the most participants of any sport in Australia and that will grow further. They talk about a huge number of new girls choosing to play football after the World Cup, which wouldn’t be surprising at all. A number of our A Leagues W players are heading overseas to big European clubs, with decent contracts and are experiencing an international game. This will grow with more participants and more talent in the game. The world’s eyes are already on the A Leagues, as seen by the amount of players being signed by overseas clubs and this will also grow. But, the the viewing of the A Leagues W – maybe a bit? This will still be a long game. As more girls play football because of this World Cup and having new people to admire and aspire to be like then they may become A Leagues W supporters of the future. This will take a lot more time though.

Will it supercharge growth in football ? Probably if they can promote Kerr or Catlin and others on social media..At least the AFL might wake up to the fact they didn't invent womens sport.

Keep it going Mrl iill

I wonder how long it takes this guru to explain why he has a laughing emoji in relation to football numbers at this World Cup? I actually read the television viewing peaked at over 4 million for a period of time. I was at the Olympic Stadium game and it was full - more people than at the SOO game the week before. If he can’t explain the laughing emoji then he is another NRL guru troll.