WSL hoping to turn Lionesses fever at Euros into huge boost for domestic game | OneFootball

Kitted out in an “Everyone is Watching the Lionesses” T-shirt before boarding a flight to Basel, the WSL Football chief executive, Nikki Doucet, describes England’s extraordinary progress to a third successive major final as another “ignition moment” for the sport, but the international game has long since been on fire.

While not everyone has been watching in an increasingly fractured television landscape, ITV’s peak audience of 10.2 million for England’s dramatic semi-final win over Italy on Tuesday was its biggest of the year, and with live coverage of Sunday’s final against Spain shared with the BBC, more broadcast records could tumble.

The challenge for Doucet and the clubs is to convert more of the millions captivated by women’s football every other summer into regular fans, who attend matches, watch games on TV and buy some of the increasingly wide-ranging merchandise springing up in stores across the country. With 84 WSL players involved at a European Championship from which every match has been broadcast live on terrestrial TV, the past few weeks have been a marketing department’s dream, particularly with new heroes emerging such as Michelle Agyemang.

“Women’s football is growing, period,” Doucet says. “If England win on Sunday there’s going to be another massive moment, but even if they don’t win everyone is still going to want to watch Michelle and Chloe [Kelly]. They’re still going to want to come and watch Hannah [Hampton]. They’re going to want to come and watch Olivia Smith now. And we haven’t talked about [the Australian star forward] Sam Kerr coming back [from injury] for Chelsea.

“There are more and more icons, more and more players that people want to come and watch, more and more stories that they know. This summer has been another ignition moment, and if England win it will be another massive moment of joy, but even if they don’t win, it’s still an incredible achievement. Winning is just another cherry on the cake, a cake that keeps growing.”

The Women’s Super League was able to use England’s historic success in winning the 2022 European Championship to grow the competition, with matchday attendances across the league increasing by 172% and TV viewing figures rising by 33% the following season, but are better placed now to take full advantage of Lioness fever.

From being the responsibility of a small department in the Football Association three years, club football is now run by WSL Football, an independent company led by Doucet, with a full-time staff of 60. A new fully professional WSL2, which includes a higher minimum wage provision, launches in September. Every game in the top two tiers will be broadcast live for the first time, either on Sky Sports, the BBC or YouTube.

“We’re the only country in the world that has two fully professional leagues,” Doucet says. “There’s a reason why 84 players in the Euros play in the Women’s Super League. I had a player tell me at the Euros, that the perception is you have to be an international player to play in the WSL. It’s the most competitive league in the world. And to be a great footballer you want to play in the best league.”

With new long-term domestic TV contracts for the WSL and FA Cup starting this season, and the biggest sponsorship deal in women’s sport with Barclays running for another three years, the immediate priority is increasing match-day attendances. Despite long-term growth trends the average WSL crowd fell by 10% last season, a drop Deloitte’s Sports Business Group attributed to “a lack of international football drawing attention to the domestic game”, which should not be a problem this year. Of greater concern was the fact TV viewing figures fell by 35%, with Chelsea’s success in running away with a sixth successive WSL title another mitigating factor.

As with their trailblazing success on the pitch in the 1990s and 2000s, Arsenal have led the way in commercialising women’s football. Before the 2022 Euros the club announced that six home games in the following season would be moved from their usual ground at Meadow Park to the Emirates Stadium, and began selling tickets on the weekend of England’s victory in the final against Germany, which led to 16,000 tickets being sold in 24 hours.

Arsenal attracted a then WSL record crowd of 47,367 for the north London derby in September 2022, after the Euros win, before achieving a sell-out of 60,160 against Manchester United in February of last year. The club have also gradually upped the number of matches played at the Emirates over the past three years, from six to eight to 13 last season, and all of their WSL fixtures and Champions League knockout games will take place there in the upcoming campaign. More than 15,000 season-tickets have now been sold – a huge leap from the 1,000 that were available at Meadow Park – and in another innovation half season-tickets will also be available for the first time. Other clubs are attempting to follow their lead, with Everton moving into Goodison Park, and Chelsea and Aston Villa planning to stage more matches at Stamford Bridge and Villa Park respectively.

The WSL has also taken steps to boost ticket sales, with next season’s fixtures announced on Friday to coincide with Euro final fever, and a regular noon Sunday kick-off slot agreed with the broadcasters to give fans more certainty.

“For the clubs matchday attendance and creating a fan experience that rivals going to a Euros is a priority,” Doucet says. “What Everton is going to do at Goodison Park is really exciting.”

For Adam Kelly, president of media rights at the sponsorship company IMG, the commercial value of women’s football is “nowhere near” its peak. IMG negotiated the North American Women’s Soccer League’s £45m-a-year US TV deal, which is worth three times that of the WSL, so his bullishness appears well founded.

“Women’s football has really gone to another level and is starting to realise its commercial potential,” Kelly says. “We feel there’s a lot more room for growth. Getting the attention of tens of millions of people in this market is hugely valuable. In a very unpredictable broadcast world one of the few certainties is that the final will bring more record figures. The task now is to convert attention into revenue. The best way to reach people is through broadcast, the way to convert them into customers is through an intense digital programme, and you create fans through a brilliant matchday atmosphere driven by ticket sales. The clubs have to do all three.

“There’s a huge upside to come as there’s a new audience out there. Many people enjoy watching women’s tennis in a different way to men’s tennis, but they’re equally valid. We’re nowhere near the peak.”

England’s players will be among the first to benefit from an anticipated growth in sponsorship deals, according to Marcel Knobil, founder of the consultancy firm Superbrands.

“Sponsors want reassurance they are associating with success, and with three successive finals this England team almost comes with a guarantee,” Knobil says. “The investment from sponsors such as EE, Nike, and Xero have already increased significantly in recent years, and reaching another final will see a further acceleration of revenues. The earnings, from salary and sponsorships, and purchase value of many of the team, especially the likes of Agyemang, Kelly and Hampton, will continue to rise.”

Header image: [Photograph: Nick Potts/PA]