Yes the figures have been truly amazing. I have heard reports that a big % of the crowds are families, with lots of woman and children. Plus there seem to be quite a mix of ethnicities attending. Either tourists or kiwis or both. I haven’t been keeping up with the latest developments but what is the status of Auckland’s A-League team? It seems from the crowds in Auckland that there could be plenty’s of people who might ready to follow a pro team in Auckland if it’s presented properly.
Both APL & NZF have stated an Auckland bid (or bids) has been made, and an announcement is due in September. New club (if it happens) to have both ALM & ALW teams.
It all seems pretty positive, and the healthy crowds at Eden Park will give those involved yes some extra confidence it could be successful. Which is how you want to feel when considering parting with $25M odd.
Thanks for that. Sounds excellent. The woman’s team will give an extra boost to any up and coming kiwi woman wanting a pro career in football. More kiwi woman playing pro football can only be good for the future of the Ferns. Amazing how fast things change, now we have two pro woman’s team. Wouldn’t have believed that possible a few years ago.
Well Christchurch Stadium doesn't really have the stadium facilities to host a World Cup. Don't players have to get changed in a shipping container, and are there even corporate facilities?
Well Christchurch Stadium doesn't really have the stadium facilities to host a World Cup. Don't players have to get changed in a shipping container, and are there even corporate facilities?
The Cantabs (well their Council) should have started building their new inner city stadium about 5-6 years ago. Ready for this WWC & would have saved them $100M odd in ballooning construction costs. Hindsight. Nero fiddled while Rome burned
I'm sure it will replace EP, as the Nix's 2nd 'home' venue for 1-2 games each season, once an Auckland A League team is up & running. They should get 20,000+ for first few games there, as football folk from all parts go to check out the shiny new edifice. ChCh also now apparently with NZ's best entertainment CBD.
Well Christchurch Stadium doesn't really have the stadium facilities to host a World Cup. Don't players have to get changed in a shipping container, and are there even corporate facilities?
The Cantabs (well their Council) should have started building their new inner city stadium about 5-6 years ago. Ready for this WWC & would have saved them $100M odd in ballooning construction costs. Hindsight. Nero fiddle while Rome burned
I'm sure it will replace EP, as the Nix's 2nd 'home' venue for 1-2 games each season, once an Auckland A League team is up & running. They should get 20,000+ for first few games there, as football folk from all parts go to check out the shiny new edifice. ChCh also now apparently with NZ's best entertainment CBD.
Chch United have room to build a football stadium and plans to get to AL in the future. That will probably happen in the next 10 years considering the speed of development of their club side and the ambition of the owner and foresight to buy enough land to allow space for it.
New Zealand finish the group stages with an average crowd ~ 3,000 more than in France 2019.
Of the top 20 attended group matches across 2019 and 2023, 9 were in Aus, 7 in NZ and 4 in France.
Crowd average during knockout phase in 2019 was just 29,087 so almost certain that will get smashed by both host nations. Annotation 2023-08-04 083546.png23.62 KB
That's AWESOME!
Given we are in the ass end of the world that's seriously impressive as a lot were kiwis getting behind the event!
No doubt the success of this one will spur the next one to kick out numbers, but pretty stoked with NZ and Aussies effort to be honest.
Dunedin finds it hard to attract a crowd even for The Highlanders. Some of their crowds this season were pitiful.
A bit more ranking stats: The “surprises” from the group stage haven’t translated to R16 There were no upsets in this round, although #4 England were taken to pens by lesser fancied #40 Nigeria.
ELIMINATED 1 USA
12 Norway
13 Denmark
20 Switzerland
40 Nigeria
43 Jamaica
54 South Africa
72 Morocco
PROGRESSED
3 Sweden (v #1)
4 England (v #40)
5 France (v #72)
6 Spain (v #20)
9 Netherlands (v #54)
10 Australia (v #13)
11 Japan (v #12)
25 Columbia (v #43)
The outliers are USA (#1) were ousted on pens by Sweden (#3) the next highest team left, which shouldn’t be considered an “upset”. In all other cases the higher ranked team won.
Columbia (#25) lowest ranked to progress but only had to overcome lowly ranked Jamaica (#43)
It’s not far off their lowest (46) and almost double their highest (23) The average low 30s historically- if I can use historically, some of these nations haven’t even been on the list for very long. I fully expect teams like them to climb over the next several years as more is invested in the women’s side of the game. And I fully expect the ferns to slide as nations with larger populations and/or football …infrastructure.. for want of a better word, get better. We are already at our lowest (26) where we have typically been around 20-22, with a highest of 16 briefly. Our current low ranking is slightly effected no doubt by not having competitive (tournament / qualifier) games which are worth more ranking points.
*Spot rankings can be a bit hit and miss due to how they are calculated
Womens world rankings are awful and should be paid little attention.
They are good at ranking sides in the top 20, and ranking sides within their own confederation. But beyond that, it's absolutely terrible (i.e. Morocco are ranked about 20 places below PNG, which is insane).
Bookies have England as favourites but we look probably the worst team remaining and were lucky to get through the round of 16. But on the other hand, only one goal conceded in 4 games which was a penalty and we have possibly the best goalie so won't be easy to score against even if the attacking talent is lacking. Mead was always going to be a massive loss there. I suppose winning and getting through is the main thing in these tournaments. Ask Germany and Brazil who looked spectacular early on what they'd have preferred.
Expect Colombia's skillful and pacey attackers will be too much for our slow defence but if we do get through its hard not to see us getting torn apart by France assuming they get past Australia.
The author of the 2nd article, probably should have read the first one prior. Also I remember before the WWC Infantino ranted against the media companies in Europe looking to only pay a pittance for TV rights to the WWC.
Until sponsors & media companies treat mens & womens sports the same, gender pay equity will be tough.
Surely some companies look at these impressive crowds and TV viewership numbers and take note. Be interesting to see if the Nix ALW side get any new sponsors on the back of the WWC. I remember Dome was really frustrated by the lack of sponsor suppport when the team was first formed.
With increased prizemoney, a record number of teams competing, and 1.5 million tickets sold, this is set to be the biggest and most attended Women's World Cup in history. The headline sponsors are Unilever, Budweiser and McDonald's - but sponsorship revenue is estimated at just 18% of the men's competition (Qatar) in 2022.
Well Christchurch Stadium doesn't really have the stadium facilities to host a World Cup. Don't players have to get changed in a shipping container, and are there even corporate facilities?
The Cantabs (well their Council) should have started building their new inner city stadium about 5-6 years ago. Ready for this WWC & would have saved them $100M odd in ballooning construction costs. Hindsight. Nero fiddle while Rome burned
I'm sure it will replace EP, as the Nix's 2nd 'home' venue for 1-2 games each season, once an Auckland A League team is up & running. They should get 20,000+ for first few games there, as football folk from all parts go to check out the shiny new edifice. ChCh also now apparently with NZ's best entertainment CBD.
Chch United have room to build a football stadium and plans to get to AL in the future. That will probably happen in the next 10 years considering the speed of development of their club side and the ambition of the owner and foresight to buy enough land to allow space for it.
I was chatting to Christchurch United supremo Slava Meyn recently and he told me that construction begins soon on a 10,000 - 15,000 seat stadium with a covered stand on the Yaldhurst site, with plans to have it ready in two year's time. This is much-needed - a stadium of similar size to replace the old QE II Stadium to host matches attracting crowds of up to 15,000 such as A-League, FIFA youth World Cups, All Whites and Football Ferns matches etc. The new Christchurch Te Kaha Arena which is now under construction and due to be completed in April 2026 will have a capacity of 30,000. Construction of the foundations has been completed and work on the grandstands has started in recent months, all ahead of schedule.
I'm sure Slava Meyn is a very astute businessman, but it seems a bit odd to go to the expense of building a 10,000-15,000 purpose rectangular stadium when ChCh is not far off having a state of the art sexy new rectangular roofed stadium right down town. ChCh only has 400,000 people.
If a ChCh A League club did ever get off the ground, I'm sure the shiny new downtown stadium would offer pretty good ground rental terms. Stadiums to make money, need as many tenants as possible. Fans would prefer to be under a roof, when the north easterly or a southerly howls through the Garden City.
What are they going to do with the temp current Addington ground, which from memory seats about 18,000?
QE II (oval not rectangular) was a multi purpose facility with it's athletic track, and also adjacent swimming, diving pools etc. Held music concerts in the summer.
One thing I do remember previously was Meyn being a fan of cheaper 'kitset' type stadium designs. I remember pre Covid he was quoting some cheap designs I think in Russia which only cost like $20-30M and had a capacity of around 15,000. That was pre covid construction figures.
I'm sure Slava Meyn is a very astute businessman, but it seems a bit odd to go to the expense of building a 10,000-15,000 purpose rectangular stadium when ChCh is not far off having a state of the art sexy new rectangular roofed stadium right down town. ChCh only has 400,000 people.
If a ChCh A League club did ever get off the ground, I'm sure the shiny new downtown stadium would offer pretty good ground rental terms. Stadiums to make money, need as many tenants as possible. Fans would prefer to be under a roof, when the north easterly or a southerly howls through the Garden City.
What are they going to do with the temp current Addington ground, which from memory seats about 18,000?
QE II (oval not rectangular) was a multi purpose facility with it's athletic track, and also adjacent swimming, diving pools etc. Held music concerts in the summer.
One thing I do remember previously was Meyn being a fan of cheaper 'kitset' type stadium designs. I remember pre Covid he was quoting some cheap designs I think in Russia which only cost like $20-30M and had a capacity of around 15,000. That was pre covid construction figures.
As I said before, Christchurch will benefit from a stadium of similar capacity to the old QE II stadium - the new Te Kaha stadium at 30,000 capacity will be too big for most football, just as the Phoenix owners have found Sky Stadium too big for the crowds they attract and went through a spell of looking at possible options of building a 15,000 seat rectangular stadium. Other sports in Canterbury would be keen to utilise a stadium of that capacity too, with the Te Kaha stadium too big and expensive to hire. The current Addington Stadium is only made from scaffolding which has a limited life and will simply be dismantled when the Te Kaha stadium is ready in 2026. Population of Christchurch City is projected to be 450,000 - 500,000 by 2048 Surrounding districts of Selwyn and Waimakariri (which have teams in Chch club football) will be 200,000 to 250,000 by 2048 (some of the fatest population growth currently seen in NZ - increasing faster than projected under even a high-growth scenario). So our sports facilites need to cater for a community of 650,000 to 750,000 in 25 years time. The location at the Christchurch Football Centre in Yaldhurst is only an 18 minute drive from the fastest-growing population area of Rolleston in Selwyn and also close to Chch suburbs Prebbleton, Wigram and Halswell which are seeing rapid population growth. Location in relation to Rolleston, the city etc.: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Christchurch+Football+Academy+Yaldhurst+Road,+Yaldhurst,+Christchurch/Rolleston/@-43.5375045,172.4266898,12z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x6d31f50579417de3:0xd0b86c62b70c9076!2m2!1d172.5269755!2d-43.5176797!1m5!1m1!1s0x6d2e1a0aee478e2b:0x500ef868479aa20!2m2!1d172.3839715!2d-43.5967589!3e0?entry=ttu There is no benefit having a roof in the summer for A-League matches. The current Christchurch Football Centre has two artificial pitches with back-to-back stands seating a few hundred for each pitch - but crucially no cover whatsoever. So it makes sense to just build a bigger stadium on the nearby land with a covered stand and retain the existing two pitches for training and lower league / junior football. There is enough land out there to build multiple stadia and facilities. Plus, like QE II Stadium, Slava's new facility will be a community project, incorporating a swimming facility and facilities for other sports. The City Council will be a partner and see it as filling a much-needed gap.
And yet Melbourne has not hosted many World Cup matches. Only three group games and two knock-out matches (is hosting none past the round of 16). And none at the biggest stadia in Melbourne - all at the 27,706 capacity AAMI stadium familiar from the A-League. To me, it seems that football authorities in Oz were not expecting as much interest in the tournament as resulted. The opening match in Oz was switched from 40,583 capacity Sydney Football Stadium to the 75,784 capacity Stadium Australia in the months before the tournament after ticket sales proceeded much better than expected.
Smaller cities in Oz and NZ are hosting far more matches than Melbourne: Sydney has six group matches and five knock-out games. Wellington: seven group games and two knock-out. Auckland: six group games and three knock-out. Brisbane has four group matches and three knock-out. Adelaide has three group games and one knock-out. Five group games in Hamilton. Four group games in Perth. Four group games in Dunedin.
Crowds overall have been great (though Dunedin was realistically a bit small to host matches in such a big tournament). Hamilton, a city much smaller than Adelaide, but with a bigger stadium than Adelaide, attracted bigger crowds (up to 17,907) than Adelaide (12,000 - 13,557). Melbourne crowds would have surely packed-out a bigger venue, possibly challenging for the biggest crowds in the tournament.
Melbourne has that monster called AFL and I would guess that AFL would not make the MCG available.Very insular organisation but probably justified given the crowds that it attracts
Melbourne has that monster called AFL and I would guess that AFL would not make the MCG available.Very insular organisation but probably justified given the crowds that it attracts
You wouldn’t play football at the MCG. Stands are way to far from the action. Marvel stadium maybe. 50k +/- no worse than Wellington stadium for distance from the field.
Melbourne has that monster called AFL and I would guess that AFL would not make the MCG available.Very insular organisation but probably justified given the crowds that it attracts
You wouldn’t play football at the MCG. Stands are way to far from the action. Marvel stadium maybe. 50k +/- no worse than Wellington stadium for distance from the field.
With your user name I wondered if you were around Welly and did and orange Parade?
Melbourne has that monster called AFL and I would guess that AFL would not make the MCG available.Very insular organisation but probably justified given the crowds that it attracts
Correct its all about the AFL. To be fair FIFA requiring Aussie Rules to be shut out of Marvel (Docklands) and the MCG for 7 weeks, was always going to be unworkable.
FYI - Matildas got 50,000 to Docklands for their pre WWC warmup!
The MCG and Marvel Stadium were off limits because of a longstanding regulation by world soccer’s governing body FIFA that a World Cup venue must be exclusively available for soccer for a period beginning two weeks before the tournament and ending a week afterwards, making seven weeks in all.
This would have dislodged the AFL from those grounds for seven weeks, as well as a Bledisloe Cup match on July 29 at which 70,000 are expected. Football Australia (FA) was not in a position to foot the bill for relocation and the AFL was not willing to disrupt its season.
Football Australia knew this, and negotiations between it, the AFL – which owns Marvel Stadium – and the MCG did not proceed much beyond the polite inquiries stage.
PS. On ChCh and it's stadiums. Good on Meyn for building more sports stadia for Canterbury. I understand facilities are still down on number from pre the 2011 quake. And good to know the Yaldhurst site like QEII is multi use, not just football.
But the ALM last season ran from first week in October to last week in April. That's longer than a typical ChCh summer. For sure for those colder night games fans would rather be under a roof. Anyway it's all moot until there is (if ever) a serious bid for an A League club in Canty. That might be a step too far even for the wealthy football fan Russian.
The author of the 2nd article, probably should have read the first one prior. Also I remember before the WWC Infantino ranted against the media companies in Europe looking to only pay a pittance for TV rights to the WWC.
Until sponsors & media companies treat mens & womens sports the same, gender pay equity will be tough.
Surely some companies look at these impressive crowds and TV viewership numbers and take note. Be interesting to see if the Nix ALW side get any new sponsors on the back of the WWC. I remember Dome was really frustrated by the lack of sponsor suppport when the team was first formed.
With increased prizemoney, a record number of teams competing, and 1.5 million tickets sold, this is set to be the biggest and most attended Women's World Cup in history. The headline sponsors are Unilever, Budweiser and McDonald's - but sponsorship revenue is estimated at just 18% of the men's competition (Qatar) in 2022.
That's cool as fudge. And stadium size has consistently been a barrier for some games which is a good problem to have given how many empty stadiums I have sat in here.
Seems to be a ton of tickets for tomorrow night on resale. Any worries about a disappointing crowd? Can't think why, unless there's a lot of USWNT fans dumping tickets...
Seems to be a ton of tickets for tomorrow night on resale. Any worries about a disappointing crowd? Can't think why, unless there's a lot of USWNT fans dumping tickets...
There are only 5 pages of resales which is about 100 tickets
Seems to be a ton of tickets for tomorrow night on resale. Any worries about a disappointing crowd? Can't think why, unless there's a lot of USWNT fans dumping tickets...
There are only 5 pages of resales which is about 100 tickets
Which is about 99 more than what was available for USA-Portugal and Sweden-Japan at any one time. Getting tickets for those was a battle of continuously pressing refresh. Viagogo for what its worth (and I don't know how you can sell tickets through there) has 385 when I recall seeing 200 when I peeked for the QF.
There is also still tickets for the SF from the main (ie not resale) site in Category 1
Do wonder if some of the resales are people upgrading to Cat 1 and selling on their priors. That's the boat I'm in, Cat 1 wasn't available to buy back in November when I got mine. Resale site is deffo efficient as my old ones sold within 6 minutes, albeit probably helped by the fact they were a pair together. A lot of the resales look to be individual seats. Not sure when I'll see my money back though, fine print suggested up to 30 days after the tournament. At that point they should be giving me interest!
And yet Melbourne has not hosted many World Cup matches. Only three group games and two knock-out matches (is hosting none past the round of 16). And none at the biggest stadia in Melbourne - all at the 27,706 capacity AAMI stadium familiar from the A-League. To me, it seems that football authorities in Oz were not expecting as much interest in the tournament as resulted. The opening match in Oz was switched from 40,583 capacity Sydney Football Stadium to the 75,784 capacity Stadium Australia in the months before the tournament after ticket sales proceeded much better than expected.
Smaller cities in Oz and NZ are hosting far more matches than Melbourne: Sydney has six group matches and five knock-out games. Wellington: seven group games and two knock-out. Auckland: six group games and three knock-out. Brisbane has four group matches and three knock-out. Adelaide has three group games and one knock-out. Five group games in Hamilton. Four group games in Perth. Four group games in Dunedin.
Crowds overall have been great (though Dunedin was realistically a bit small to host matches in such a big tournament). Hamilton, a city much smaller than Adelaide, but with a bigger stadium than Adelaide, attracted bigger crowds (up to 17,907) than Adelaide (12,000 - 13,557). Melbourne crowds would have surely packed-out a bigger venue, possibly challenging for the biggest crowds in the tournament.
It was interesting to see that the Hamilton and Dunedin crowds weren't that far off the Adelaide and Perth crowds. That surprised me given the size of those cities and just reinforces how good the NZ regional effort was.
I'm still overall blown away by how much this tournament has gripped the country. Massive crowds throughout, and even though it's merely anecdotal and may not reflect others, almost everyone I know seems to have followed it intently. There's about 3 people at my office who give a toss about footy, yet everyone was going to games and watching them on TV. I had brunch with my partner and in-laws on the weekend, who couldn't care less about sports. Felt like a fever dream listening to them discuss the fitness of Sam Kerr, Ilestedt's aerial prowess, and how good Bonmati has been for Spain. How bloody good
Now that Spain have made the final. Its interesting looking back at when they beat NZ in the semi final at U17 WWC 2018. They then went on to win that tournament. A bunch of those Spanish girls are now in current Spain team going to play a senior world cup final. Also interesting seeing the NZ line up. Quite a few slowly starting to carve out pro careers. A few will be in the Nix set up this season. https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/womens/u17womensworldcup/uruguay2018/match-center/300428472
