The challenge for Women’s Super League will be to maintain buzz generated by World Cup

The ninth season of the Women’s Super League will open the same way as the first, with a televised derby, smashed attendance records, and much fanfare about a new era.

With more than 20,000 paying spectators at Saturday’s first Manchester derby of the professional era, and 40,000 free tickets claimed for Sunday’s Chelsea-Tottenham derby at Stamford Bridge, the surge of interest prompted by the Lionesses’ run to the World Cup semi-finals appears to have translated into the domestic arena. There is also a first title sponsor, Barclays, a new streaming service which will ensure every match is visible, and an unprecedented TV deal with overseas markets.

What, however, will be the reality on a wet night at Walton Hall Park or Stoke Gifford? Then the crowd is likely to be numbered in hundreds, not thousands.

For all the talk of tipping points and great leaps forward turning women’s football into a mainstream sport following decades of neglect is an incremental process. The weekend’s big events are taster sessions not the new normal.

‘We’ve got to keep the crowds coming’

“We looked at this as an opportunity to capture a whole new audience,” said Emma Hayes, Chelsea’s head coach, explaining why the club have given tickets away. “Let’s fill the stadium, then make sure the strategy beyond that game is in place so they will return.”

When the WSL launched, in April 2011, the set-piece opening game was a London derby between Chelsea and Arsenal that drew 2,510 paying spectators to Tooting & Mitcham’s ground. The match was dire, being played on a bumpy end-of-season non-league pitch, and won with a scrappy set-piece, but the crowd, around 20 times the average for a women’s league game was acclaimed.

“We have to use tonight as the springboard for the women’s game to take off,” said Laura Harvey, then Arsenal manager. Harvey, now coaching Utah Royals in the US, added: “We’ve also got to keep the crowds coming.”

That has proved a struggle. Eight years on media interest has mushroomed and the Lionesses are in the national conversation, but few WSL matches attract 2,500 with last season’s average less than 1,000.

Getting ‘bums on seats’ is top of the agenda at the FA with a ‘women’s football weekend’ in November seeking to replicate the success of Non-League Day. There is also recognition among coaches that the football has to be good to watch.

Spectacular progress

Joe Montemurro, coach to champions Arsenal, said: “We are really in an amazing time in women’s football. When you look at the game, the quality of football, the big clubs investing, it is a product you can now put on television and get viewers. We need to make sure every game is of the highest quality because that will attract more fans.”

More unpredictability would help too. Between them Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City have won every cup for seven years and finished the WSL’s top three for four seasons.

That could change soon. With Manchester United and Tottenham promoted the men’s ‘big six’ are all in the WSL. The league’s attractiveness to overseas players – in part due to being Europe’s only full-time league– means better quality at all clubs. But while Hayes said her team will be ‘challenged’ in every game the big three lost just one of 48 matches played against the rest last season.

What’s success, other than winning trophies? mused Hayes this week. She name-checked sell-out crowds every week, more professional teams paying higher wages, increased media coverage, better commercial deals, an FA Cup final sell-out at Wembley, and a GB women’s football gold medal at the Olympics next summer.

It is quite a wish-list and it will not happen overnight. Clicking her fingers Hayes admitted, “you don’t go from 2,500 to 42,000 every week just like that”. Nevertheless, from 2,500 at Tooting to 42,000 at Stamford Bridge is spectacular progress in eight years.

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