By Lori Ewing
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The current Women’s World Cup will be the best attended ever and is on course to smash the per-match record set in Canada in 2015, Football Australia chief executive James Johnson said on Friday.
He also reiterated that a successful Women’s World Cup could be a springboard to Australia hosting the men’s event.
“There have been more people attending matches than any Women’s World Cup,” Johnson told a press briefing to mark the end of the group stage in Australia and co-host New Zealand.
So far more than 1.2 million fans have passed through the turnstiles and organisers now expect that figure to rise to 1.9 million by the time the tournament ends on Aug. 20.
“Our (target) was to get to 1.5 million and we’ll go past that,” he said, adding that he had also “been hearing stories from all over the world” of record broadcast numbers.
This year’s expanded field of 32 teams means 64 games rather than the 52 played in Canada. However, average attendances in 2015 were around 26,000, compared with more than 30,000 so far this time.
And, as evidenced by the 40,000 fans who packed Sydney Football Stadium on Wednesday for France’s entertaining 6-3 group game win over Panama, the tournament seems to be capturing the imagination of neutrals in host countries where soccer has not traditionally enjoyed top billing.
And merchandise is selling fast.
Matildas jerseys, Johnson said, are outselling the Socceroos jersey from the FIFA men’s World Cup last year in Qatar two to one. Sam Kerr, the Chelsea striker who sat out Australia’s first-round games with a calf injury, is the top-selling jersey.
“We’re investing just as much money in the Matildas programme as we are the Socceroos programme. That’s something that’s really important for us,” he said.
Research has shown the Matildas trail only Australia’s men’s cricket and soccer teams in national popularity, and have passed both the country’s men’s rugby union and rugby league squads.
“So the (Matildas) brand is strong, it’s powerful,” Johnson said. “The brand is in every city and town across the country.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who attended Australia’s 4-0 rout of Olympic champions Canada in Melbourne, labelled the tournament the “best ever” World Cup during a visit to Canberra this week.
Johnson said a successful tournament would encourage Australia to consider bidding for the Club World Cup in 2029 “and then there’s the men’s World Cup in 2034 that we’re also going to look at.”
After a successful women’s tournament in 2015, Canada will be co-hosts with the United States and Mexico for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
Similarly, “Australia will no doubt host a men’s World Cup one day. And what better way to do that than on the back of the best-ever Women’s World Cup,” he added.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; editing by John Stonestreet)
