Women's World Cup 2023 - Ozealand
So there are more weaker teams and more weaker fixtures.
Attendances will be diluted across the two host countries because of this.
Last time in France, the lowest attendance in the tournament was for the Ferns v Cameroon (8,009)
Lowest in other groups: 9354 (Sweden v Thailand), 11,058 (Norway v Nigeria), 11,814 (Spain v China), 12,016 (Italy v Jamaica), 13,188 (England v Scotland)
And all those matches involved European countries who didn't have to travel far to follow their teams. You couldn't really travel further to a World Cup than to NZ from most countries.
Plus the fact that our second most-populated city Christchurch isn't hosting any matches.
And France has over thirteen times our population.
So I would consider 4000 - 5000 at the least attractive matches acceptable considering our small population.
France predictably attracted 28,000 to 45,000 in their three group matches.
But the games in their group not featuring France only attracted 11,000 to 13,000.
Location and how many foreign fans were following their side affected attendances.
Games at the Parc des Princes, Paris not featuring France in the group stage attracted 20,000 to 45,000.
While matches at some stadia in the regions attracted only 8,000 to 12,000.
Nigeria's two group matches in France's group not featuring France were in Reims and Grenoble and attracted only just over 11,000.
Some games in the knockout phase were not well-attended.
Australia v Norway in the Rd. of 16 had only 12,229
The quarter-finals not featuring France attracted 21,000 to 25,000
Despite France not making the semis, they were both well attended in the women's football hotbed of Lyon (perennial French and European champs);
England v USA: 53,512
Netherlands v Sweden: 48,452
3rd / 4th play-off: England v Sweden (Nice): 20,316
Final: USA v Netherlands (Lyon): 57,900
_____________________________________________________________________
There will always be poorly attended matches featuring weaker footballing countries in every World Cup.
I'd be more interested to see how many attend NZ's matches, the stronger teams like USA, Netherlands and Spain and the knock-out matches.
Spain, Japan, Costa Rica and Zambia seems an attractive group to me.
But probably not many will go to Costa Rica v Zambia in Hamilton.
The USA has two attractive opponents in the Netherlands and Portugal so even Vietnam's games will have one good team.
But I don't know how many will go to Portugal v Vietnam in Hamilton.
Sweden, Italy, Argentina, South Africa will also have appeal in every match.
Plus a lot of South African expats will get behind their side.
And I noticed at the 2015 FIFA u-20 men's World Cup that African immigrants got behind African countries other than their own too.
Countries in NZ's group plus Australia here:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/women-s-world-cup-2023--guardian-experts--network?page=2
The article about the Ferns is written by Maree Mahony, the sister of my best mate Chris at Canterbury University in the 1980's.
Chris is a Liverpool fanatic who has resided in England for about 30 years now.
Maree's from Timaru originally and a former TVNZ reporter.
All other countries previewed here by reporters from around the world:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/women-s-world-cup-2023--guardian-experts--network
It's tough. Given the Ferns have a young side that is pretty far down the rankings I wouldn't be overly surprised if attendemces suck a bit.
The Netherlands USA match selling it as quickly as if did is a good sign the cake tin will be pumping.
The Ferns (unlike the AWs) are probably FIFA ranked too high in all honesty. And they ain't a young side at all.
NZHerald - Football Ferns 8, USA 8, Norway 1, Haiti 1
Newshub - Football Ferns 4, USA 4, Zambia 1, Spain 1
The Black Ferns rugby team played a 4 way tournament in Canada recently and their game against Canada had an attendance of 10,000. For a home match against the current world champs, that isn’t a big crowd. We will get proportional crowds to our population base. The sad thing is people will realise after the fact they should have gone and the tickets are sooo cheap. The fifa adverts should show more of the great goals and skills female players have, rather than images of the players that are famous- but not widely known in NZ. The perceived lower skill level is what seemly puts people off watching the games. They are uneducated.
So there are more weaker teams and more weaker fixtures.
Attendances will be diluted across the two host countries because of this.
Last time in France, the lowest attendance in the tournament was for the Ferns v Cameroon (8,009)
Lowest in other groups: 9354 (Sweden v Thailand), 11,058 (Norway v Nigeria), 11,814 (Spain v China), 12,016 (Italy v Jamaica), 13,188 (England v Scotland)
And all those matches involved European countries who didn't have to travel far to follow their teams. You couldn't really travel further to a World Cup than to NZ from most countries.
Plus the fact that our second most-populated city Christchurch isn't hosting any matches.
And France has over thirteen times our population.
So I would consider 4000 - 5000 at the least attractive matches acceptable considering our small population.
France predictably attracted 28,000 to 45,000 in their three group matches.
But the games in their group not featuring France only attracted 11,000 to 13,000.
Location and how many foreign fans were following their side affected attendances.
Games at the Parc des Princes, Paris not featuring France in the group stage attracted 20,000 to 45,000.
While matches at some stadia in the regions attracted only 8,000 to 12,000.
Nigeria's two group matches in France's group not featuring France were in Reims and Grenoble and attracted only just over 11,000.
Some games in the knockout phase were not well-attended.
Australia v Norway in the Rd. of 16 had only 12,229
The quarter-finals not featuring France attracted 21,000 to 25,000
Despite France not making the semis, they were both well attended in the women's football hotbed of Lyon (perennial French and European champs);
England v USA: 53,512
Netherlands v Sweden: 48,452
3rd / 4th play-off: England v Sweden (Nice): 20,316
Final: USA v Netherlands (Lyon): 57,900
_____________________________________________________________________
There will always be poorly attended matches featuring weaker footballing countries in every World Cup.
I'd be more interested to see how many attend NZ's matches, the stronger teams like USA, Netherlands and Spain and the knock-out matches.
Spain, Japan, Costa Rica and Zambia seems an attractive group to me.
But probably not many will go to Costa Rica v Zambia in Hamilton.
The USA has two attractive opponents in the Netherlands and Portugal so even Vietnam's games will have one good team.
But I don't know how many will go to Portugal v Vietnam in Hamilton.
Sweden, Italy, Argentina, South Africa will also have appeal in every match.
Plus a lot of South African expats will get behind their side.
And I noticed at the 2015 FIFA u-20 men's World Cup that African immigrants got behind African countries other than their own too.
The Black Ferns rugby team played a 4 way tournament in Canada recently and their game against Canada had an attendance of 10,000. For a home match against the current world champs, that isn’t a big crowd. We will get proportional crowds to our population base. The sad thing is people will realise after the fact they should have gone and the tickets are sooo cheap. The fifa adverts should show more of the great goals and skills female players have, rather than images of the players that are famous- but not widely known in NZ. The perceived lower skill level is what seemly puts people off watching the games. They are uneducated.
https://twitter.com/AndrewBloch/status/1680493920172556288
So there are more weaker teams and more weaker fixtures.
Attendances will be diluted across the two host countries because of this.
Last time in France, the lowest attendance in the tournament was for the Ferns v Cameroon (8,009)
Lowest in other groups: 9354 (Sweden v Thailand), 11,058 (Norway v Nigeria), 11,814 (Spain v China), 12,016 (Italy v Jamaica), 13,188 (England v Scotland)
And all those matches involved European countries who didn't have to travel far to follow their teams. You couldn't really travel further to a World Cup than to NZ from most countries.
Plus the fact that our second most-populated city Christchurch isn't hosting any matches.
And France has over thirteen times our population.
So I would consider 4000 - 5000 at the least attractive matches acceptable considering our small population.
France predictably attracted 28,000 to 45,000 in their three group matches.
But the games in their group not featuring France only attracted 11,000 to 13,000.
Location and how many foreign fans were following their side affected attendances.
Games at the Parc des Princes, Paris not featuring France in the group stage attracted 20,000 to 45,000.
While matches at some stadia in the regions attracted only 8,000 to 12,000.
Nigeria's two group matches in France's group not featuring France were in Reims and Grenoble and attracted only just over 11,000.
Some games in the knockout phase were not well-attended.
Australia v Norway in the Rd. of 16 had only 12,229
The quarter-finals not featuring France attracted 21,000 to 25,000
Despite France not making the semis, they were both well attended in the women's football hotbed of Lyon (perennial French and European champs);
England v USA: 53,512
Netherlands v Sweden: 48,452
3rd / 4th play-off: England v Sweden (Nice): 20,316
Final: USA v Netherlands (Lyon): 57,900
_____________________________________________________________________
There will always be poorly attended matches featuring weaker footballing countries in every World Cup.
I'd be more interested to see how many attend NZ's matches, the stronger teams like USA, Netherlands and Spain and the knock-out matches.
Spain, Japan, Costa Rica and Zambia seems an attractive group to me.
But probably not many will go to Costa Rica v Zambia in Hamilton.
The USA has two attractive opponents in the Netherlands and Portugal so even Vietnam's games will have one good team.
But I don't know how many will go to Portugal v Vietnam in Hamilton.
Sweden, Italy, Argentina, South Africa will also have appeal in every match.
Plus a lot of South African expats will get behind their side.
And I noticed at the 2015 FIFA u-20 men's World Cup that African immigrants got behind African countries other than their own too.
The Black Ferns rugby team played a 4 way tournament in Canada recently and their game against Canada had an attendance of 10,000. For a home match against the current world champs, that isn’t a big crowd. We will get proportional crowds to our population base. The sad thing is people will realise after the fact they should have gone and the tickets are sooo cheap. The fifa adverts should show more of the great goals and skills female players have, rather than images of the players that are famous- but not widely known in NZ. The perceived lower skill level is what seemly puts people off watching the games. They are uneducated.
I feel like I'm missing something in this ticket sales thing, are the sales actually bad? I hate to talk about per capita but I think it really does matter in this instance and on that basis haven't we outsold Australia?
For a country that doesn't even care much about men's football I think we've done bloody well.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
Too true, we don't like committing to events. It's why season tickets aren't such a big thing here.
Frankly most aussies complaining are just salty they don't get to host the whole thing not realizing that with the AFL and NRL it would be literally impossible. I do agree however that a 50/50 split may have been overly ambitious. Maybe two or three groups would have been better for us.
Either way, I'd say the football community here in nz is showing their support very well. Marketing could've been better though.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
This is not the big issue it's being made out to be. Walk ups in NZ are a fraction of what they were 5-10 yrs ago. Recent events here as example; Ferns v USA, AWs v China, Warriors, 3-4% of attendees purchased at gate. We're talking a few hundred tickets, not thousands.
— Shane Harmon (@ShaneHarmon) July 12, 2023
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
To be fair that probably has more to do with us lacking a football league with actual fans in the first place.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
This is not the big issue it's being made out to be. Walk ups in NZ are a fraction of what they were 5-10 yrs ago. Recent events here as example; Ferns v USA, AWs v China, Warriors, 3-4% of attendees purchased at gate. We're talking a few hundred tickets, not thousands.
— Shane Harmon (@ShaneHarmon) July 12, 2023
I honestly didn't even know that.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
This is not the big issue it's being made out to be. Walk ups in NZ are a fraction of what they were 5-10 yrs ago. Recent events here as example; Ferns v USA, AWs v China, Warriors, 3-4% of attendees purchased at gate. We're talking a few hundred tickets, not thousands.
— Shane Harmon (@ShaneHarmon) July 12, 2023
You'd be lucky to see more than 10 people queueing at a ticket booth before a phoenix game.
But as to the culture issue - I don't think most Kiwis understand that there won't be walk-up sales for these games. You guys know this from Nix games, half the crowd are walk-ups if it's a nice day and they feel like it. It's not Kiwi culture to commit to things in advance.
This is not the big issue it's being made out to be. Walk ups in NZ are a fraction of what they were 5-10 yrs ago. Recent events here as example; Ferns v USA, AWs v China, Warriors, 3-4% of attendees purchased at gate. We're talking a few hundred tickets, not thousands.
— Shane Harmon (@ShaneHarmon) July 12, 2023
You'd be lucky to see more than 10 people queueing at a ticket booth before a phoenix game.
Bringing Ardern into it is a death knell
FFS maybe just play football and dont worry about who is gay,black, one legged, ginger or a dwarf. Celebrate football,not division,and not some desperate agenda.
Clare Wheeler, Indiah-Paige Riley & Angela Beard have all been capped by Australia and were all teammates at Fortuna Hjørring together
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) July 17, 2023
They're all going to the #FIFAWWC... but for three different countries
CW for Australia 🇦🇺
IR for New Zealand 🇳🇿
AB for Philippines 🇵🇭 pic.twitter.com/Ka7QHJFE0w
FFS maybe just play football and dont worry about who is gay,black, one legged, ginger or a dwarf. Celebrate football,not division,and not some desperate agenda.
Says the guy who couldn't resist making a dig at Jacinda Ardern for trying to do something nice. The people who say "no politics, no division" are really saying: "only one kind of politics - MINE! Only one kind of division - against the people I hate!" Fudge off.
Bringing Ardern into it is a death knell
If she helped get us the votes to win the hosting rights that is fine by me, hopefully her status will help get more spectators along to the games.
Semis will be USA vs Spain and England vs France. USA will win the final 3-2 after extra time against England.
As for NZ - I think 4 points (Norway loss, Philippines win, Switzerland draw), but it won't be enough to send us through.
For instance, here in Auckland we have USA v Vietnam at 1pm. Northern League playing the same day, kicking off 3pm. Assuming a lot of weekend warrior matches on throughout the day.
Surely it isn't an issue to blank of a Saturday when a WWC is hosted in that region? Aside from juniors - they play in the morning, so no real drama there?
For instance, here in Auckland we have USA v Vietnam at 1pm. Northern League playing the same day, kicking off 3pm. Assuming a lot of weekend warrior matches on throughout the day.
Surely it isn't an issue to blank of a Saturday when a WWC is hosted in that region? Aside from juniors - they play in the morning, so no real drama there?
This email sent out by WCR would seem to belie what you say:
Dear club members,
For instance, here in Auckland we have USA v Vietnam at 1pm. Northern League playing the same day, kicking off 3pm. Assuming a lot of weekend warrior matches on throughout the day.
Surely it isn't an issue to blank of a Saturday when a WWC is hosted in that region? Aside from juniors - they play in the morning, so no real drama there?
This email sent out by WCR would seem to belie what you say:
Dear club members,
Is it? Just saw Northern League was on so, with virtually no research, made a sweeping statement.
It may surprise you I am a white male.
It's worth noting, amongst all the ticket sales chat, that the existing record (for another 48 hours) for a *women's football match* in Aotearoa New Zealand is *16,162* – and it was set when North Korea beat the United States in the final of the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. https://t.co/1O2iG5Jxl2
— Andrew Voerman (@andrewvoerman) July 18, 2023