The Women’s Merseyside derby was watched by less than 10,000 fans at Goodison Park – but it is not as simple as pointing the finger of blame at the club.
The pre-match soundtrack ahead of this weekend’s Women’s Merseyside derby featured a well-received airing of the club’s resurgent anthem, ‘Spirit of the Blues’.
It is a shame, though, that more people did not respond to the song’s rallying cry to ‘get down to Goodison Park’, with just 9,457 fans turning out to watch Everton and Liverpool go toe-to-toe at the Grand Old Lady. The contrast to the gate at the same fixture last season – a club record of 22,161 – was stark, and it is fair to say the lack of atmosphere contributed to a game that, in the words of Reds boss Matt Beard, “didn’t feel like a derby”.
There is, however, some important mitigation for the decrease in ticket uptake. Last term, Everton sold just 57% of those 22,161 tickets, with the rest having been given away for free to various local schools and businesses. The ECHO understands that the plan this year was not to hand out complimentary tickets for fear of creating a culture where some supporters don’t feel obligated to pay to attend women’s games.
Certainly, it is hard to argue with that approach. Failing to attach a price to Women’s Super League (WSL) tickets only serves to devalue a product which, regardless of what the cynics say, deserves its moment in the spotlight. Of the 22 players who started the game on Sunday afternoon, 15 are full internationals. Many have represented their country at World Cups and European Championships and are elite athletes at the peak of their powers.
It’s also worth noting that women’s football is one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative sports in the world. Former Lioness Karen Carney – who chaired a a major review of the women’s game last year – predicted it could be a “billion pound industry” within the next decade.
It is only right, therefore, that clubs – particularly those who are navigating choppy financial waters – should try and cash in on their women’s teams as much as possible, and it is understood that, despite the disparity in crowd numbers, Everton generated a similar amount of revenue from Sunday’s game as they did in the Goodison derby last year.
“I’m happy for everybody who showed up, I hope they had a really good time,” Blues boss Brian Sorensen said in his post-match press conference. “Of course we want to grow the game as much as we can.
“I don’t have an answer as to why there wasn’t more (fans) because it’s Sunday, 1pm, there should be. I saw a lot of families in the stands. But I was just happy there was a good crowd and they created a good atmosphere and it was fun to play.”
The failure to consistently generate big crowds is a criticism that could be levelled at almost every team in the WSL. It is only Arsenal, who are responsible for the league’s top five attendances, who have demonstrated the ability to regularly sell out their corresponding Premier League stadium.
By the end of this season, the Gunners will have played more of their WSL home games at the Emirates than at Meadow Park: the home of Arsenal Women for more than three decades. They have sold more than 60,000 tickets in each of their last two matches in north London, but such success has not come overnight.
The conception of ‘Home Advantage Packs’ this season – entitling fans to tickets for five WSL matches at the Emirates for £50 – has proved a masterstroke, helping Arsenal to breed repeat custom and develop a staunch supporter base at each game. More than 12,000 of the packs have been sold, pointing to the fact that building a rapport with loyal fans can reap significant rewards.
Indeed, that is believed to be another reason behind Everton’s decision not to dish out complimentary tickets this term, with the club now able to identify the supporters who are interested in attending a women’s game. That gives them greater license to forge a relationship with those fans and encourage them to attend further WSL matches, whether that be at Goodison or at the Blues’ usual home, Walton Hall Park.
It is also important to highlight that, while Arsenal deserve enormous credit for the following they have been able to establish, they do hold a number of considerable advantages over many WSL clubs. While it may sound like an obvious argument, the fact they are based in London instantly makes their games more marketable, with the city’s population almost 20 times the size of Liverpool’s.
There is also a huge discrepancy in the social media reach of Arsenal and Everton Women. On Instagram, for example, the Gunners’ follower count of 1.9m dwarfs the Blues’ 120k and it is a similar story on Twitter (722.8k vs. 59.4k). However comprehensive your marketing strategy, it is harder to draw in big crowds if your content is only being consumed by a relatively small number of people.
And then there is the difference in the current landscapes of the two clubs to consider. Arsenal are currently top of the Premier League and through to the Champions League quarter-finals, while the women’s team have finished in the WSL’s top three in each of the last six seasons.
Everton, meanwhile, are 16th in the Premier League, with Sorensen’s side having won just one WSL home game all season. It is much easier to get bums on seats when there is a near-guarantee that your team will win. The understandable apathy that has started to consume much of the Blues’ supporter base in recent months will not have helped the women’s team’s cause this weekend.
“We sold out our allocation and I know we wanted more for our fans,” LFC boss Beard said, reflecting on Sunday’s attendance. “It’s great for us. Fans go to games when you’re winning and sometimes they don’t when you’re not.
