I thought this link summed up the day and following women's sport really well
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360998573/hear-us-roar-time-its-not-echo-female-uprising Hear us Roar - this time it’s not an echo but a female uprising
When the Phoenix run out for their A-League semifinal second leg against Brisbane Roar in Porirua today, it will be as much cultural revolution as it is football.
To sell out the 6000-seat stadium for a week-in-week-out women’s competition game is unheard of. It is a semifinal but a club match, not an international.
And it is more than three times their largest attendance at Porirua Park, and a record “by far” for a stand-alone Phoenix women’s home game.
Such magic might invoke a rousing rendition of the 1970s Helen Reddy feminist anthem I Am Woman, were it not for the line “hear me roar”, Brisbane might like that.
Whatever, it’s a watershed moment for women’s sport, senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology Mel Johnston tells the Sunday Star-Times.
“Just being there and having a team like the Phoenix is inspirational,” she says.
“It’s so inclusive, family-friendly, welcoming - there's a different kind of atmosphere because it's been a hard-won battle to get a women's team.”
Women’s sport should be judged on its own strengths, rather than as an adjunct to the men’s game with its long traditions and big head start, she argues.
Women’s sport has long been measured against men, in a myopic way: the crowds aren’t as big, and the players not as fast. But how about the unexamined ways in which women’s sport tops men’s?
Women’s football events foster community, accessibility, and lower disruption. Men’s games show intense rivalry and higher anti‑social behaviour.
Success in women's sport is currently measured by growth, engagement, and the type of fan, rather than just matching the men's attendance record.
“We need to be comparing the women's game with the women's game as opposed to the women's game with the men's game,” she says.
It’s not just about bums on seats, but a whole range of varied experiences that appeal to a different type of sports fan - to women and children, who can feel out of place in a more aggressive male-dominated crowd.
“It's the experience, the atmosphere and all that kind of thing, more than just the core sporting product. The men's game and women's game are so different,” she says.
“Generally, a crowd within a women's sport event is more family-friendly and it's generally more uplifting, focusing on empowerment, celebration and so forth, which can be slightly different from men's events.
“If officials do it right like the Phoenix are, having women play in smaller stadiums, where they’re closer to the fans … it’s just a different atmosphere.
“Research shows that the level of anti-social behaviour and disruption is a lot less at women's sport events than it is at men's, so that can all be part of it as well.”
In the English Premier League, the difference is even more stark. At White Hart Lane for Spurs against West Ham, the crowd booed everything that moved.
Even Kyle Walker - an England international playing for Spurs - was not spared by his home crowd.
The stadium erupted in vitriol when a West Ham replacement came on. “He used to play for Arsenal,” a Spurs fan explained.
Across London in the women’s EPL it is the opposite.
Women’s champions Chelsea play in a cheerful atmosphere at Kingsmeadow - capacity 4850, tickets affordable. Sam Kerr the world superstar is so close fans can interact with her.
“That in general, is what we're seeing from a global perspective,” Johnston says.
“Men's sport events have been around for longer, with more investment in it. So, there's a lot of team loyalty for better or worse, tradition, a lot of club identity and history.
“So they come to a game with a lot of rivalries, which can also be that win-at-all-costs kind of culture, tribalness, intensity.”
Women’s sport doesn’t have that. They’re smaller, more flexible, athletes can engage with fans, families feel safe to attend.
New Zealand hosting the women's Rugby World Cup and winning had brought women's sport into the spotlight Johnston said, turning players into national figures, as is the case with the Black Fern Sevens. Unlike the Phoenix, those sides and netball's Silver Ferns are national teams.
Johnston wasn’t totally opposed to double headers, in which a women’s game is followed by a men’s game, or vice versa.
In the short-term it’s a great visibility tool to "piggyback" off the men's crowd. Longer term, the women's game needs to be a standalone product with its own "storytelling" and dedicated fan base, not one that is just waiting for the men's game to start.
Coach Bev Priestman’s team lost 2-1 to the Roar in leg one, leaving them needing a two-goal winning margin on Sunday to advance to their first grand final.
A one-goal margin to the hosts after extra time would mean a penalty shootout.
Women’s sport can be seen as the new “community sport", echoing the way it was for club and provincial sides before money and franchises took the players away to flash hotels.
“Women's sport has a different fan, so they need to be … marketed to differently,” she says.
In Australia, women’s AFL is taking off, with sellout crowds. Johnston credits the administrators with seeing the difference between what the genders seek from watching sport.
“They’ve been able to be more adaptable, as opposed to saying ‘this is how it's always been’.”
They have been wise to the changing expectations of fans, and what people want when they watch sport. “There’s a whole range of different groups of people and segments of people who attend these games.”
New Zealand has never been short of world-class sportswomen: Dame Lisa Carrington, Dame Lydia Ko, the power and passion of Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, and Olympic champion Dame Valerie Adams.
But there’s a shift now in how the value of sport is delivered and consumed - moving away from rigid, competitive traditions toward community-centric, social experiences.
It’s not all roses in the women’s sports garden. According to Sport NZ, the number of physical activities young women participate in drops by 29% starting at age 15, compared to only an 18% drop for young men.
By 17, the top three activities for young women are walking, running, and workouts. They aren't leaving sport; they are leaving "the system" (clubs and scheduled matches) for self-driven, flexible activities.
On the plus side, coverage of women’s sport in NZ news media jumped from 15% in 2020 to 27% in 2024/25.
Now local clubs can market themselves to a family-oriented audience rather than just the more “gidday mate” blokey traditional fan.
And now, back to the game: let the revolution begin, but not with a Roar.
