Seeing the crowds in Bilbaou for the champions league final makes you realise just how much women’s football is going to blow up. It would be a missed opportunity to demolish Goodison when it could be converted into a women’s joint stadium. That would keep money coming into North Liverpool, and strengthen Merseyside’s position in the women’s game. Could also be used for big under 21 games for both teams. You could demolish two of the stands to reduce the footprint and have a larger campus.
This is the type of initiative that warrants public investment as it would help to stop the rot once Everton move out. It won’t happen but it should be considered.
This is a tough one, I partially agree with you.
However, I think it will be a number of years before we (or Everton) are able to fill Godison on a regular basis.
Our average attendance was only 4,668 last season. (accoirding to
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/womens-super-league/attendances).
I think women's football has a big job to do. No need to improve the quality of the players, they're good enough, and then games are just as entertaining as the men's games.
I think its the
Marketing that's lacking.
I can't count the number of times I spoke to someone who said "wow, that was a good game, I didn't know womens football was that competitive".
Once people watch 1 game, they'll probably come back again, but the marketing is soooo poor that blokes who don't have children don't want to come.
Please no-one take offense, I honestly and genuinely wish to offend absolutely no one.
The old image of only a few mums and their small kids watching, is not helpful if we want to boost our numbers, many men don't want to be the only bloke in that context.
Nor is the (sometimes excessive) LGBTQI+ logos and slogans everywhere. Its a fantastic cause, however people just want to watch football, not to participate in a political movement. None of us really care if 'player x 'is strait or gay, though we are happy to know that gay players feel safe.
Some of the recent photo shoots in which the women players had an almost equal footing to the men players was a step in the right direction. But maybe maybe have some men players in the same frame as the women players from time to time may help to raise the profile (as long as the women are not over-sexualized or used as eye candy).
Our womens team could be way bigger if only we marketed it well.
PS: I was at the Arsenal game at the start of the season, in a ~45,000 crowd. Next season Arsenal will be at the Emirates every home match, that can only happen with good marketing.
