I'm not sure there is a surge in interest?

Sport started in this country with natural evolution from villages playing each other to factories and then an organised structured league. The press only reported it because large crowds attended.

Women's football is heavily promoted by the BBC Sky and other media with the reporting on a par with the men's games. However apart from world cup and European Championship the attendance figures for the average women's club game is shall we say average indeed.

A typical game is around 2000 people and how many of them have free tickets or put it another way are paying £50 - £100 for a ticket which is standard for the men's games.

I am not against it just bored that they are trying to push something onto the public which most of us don't care about. The cart is leading the horse.

Edited by Badger11 (06 Oct 2023 2.34pm)

Sorry the link blocked my looking at the graph I will take your word though.

You kinda made my point though. A few years ago the BBC published similar stats trumpeting big percentage increases. In real terms it meant an extra 200-300 supporters per game which as they are starting from a low base of course the percentage increase would be large.

The average game equates to an average National League men's game which of course does not get anywhere near the same coverage.

Perhaps in time the women's game will grow to significant numbers but as someone pointed out to me. "Women spend billions on fashion etc." If women were really that interested in sport then the WSL would be sold out every week and playing in Man United size stadiums.

In the good ole days the commentator's job was to identify the player on the ball and very little else and I wish that we could go back to those days

[Link]

It certainly seems like it.

It's also not just about at the professional end;

"Since October 2021, there's been a 17% increase in female affiliated players across all levels of the game, a 30% increase in female registered football teams, and a 15% increase in female youth teams – made up of girls aged between 5-18 years old."

I'm obviously not arguing it's anywhere near as big as the men's game, but I think 'surge of interest' is a very fair description.

I couldn't claim to be a fan of women's football, I've never watched much beyond the big England tournament games, but I don't get the issue people have with it.