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Is the W-league profitable?


TheStig
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Hi everyone

There is a lot of talk about losses owners are making on their clubs and low attendances.

I never see much discussion about W-league football finances though. I have noted the establishment of the league in recent seasons but it seems to me that there must be a huge amount of cross subsidisation going on between the mens and womens leagues.

Where is W- league football at financially? Can it stand on its own two feet and if it is making losses why do the owners still finance it? Wouldn't it make more financial sense to divert those scarce resources to promote the men's game or pay for men's marquees?

I know this sounds a bit ruthless but football is a business after all.

Stig

 

 

Edited by TheStig
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5 minutes ago, TheStig said:

Hi everyone

There is a lot of talk about losses owners are making on their clubs and low attendances.

I never see much discussion about W-league football finances though. I have noted the establishment of the league in recent seasons but it seems to me that there must be a huge amount of cross subsidisation going on between the mens and womens leagues.

Where is W- league football at financially? Can it stand on its own two feet and if it is making losses why do the owners still finance it? Wouldn't it make more financial sense to divert those scarce resources to promote the men's game or pay for men's marquees?

I know this sounds a bit ruthless but football is a business after all.

Stig

 

 

TBH I don't think any professional women's sport is profitable and cross-subsidisation occurs in all sports. It will take a while for the standard of the women's games to lift (let's face it - you are looking at a century of professional male sports) but also some innovative marketing for it to be able to stand on it's own feet.

As an aside way back in the late 90s there was a British pay tv operator (can't remember the name)  that decided that second division men's football was also profitable and so they secured the rights to the second and third divisions of the big four leagues in Europe. They went bust within three years.

 

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50 minutes ago, NewConvert said:

TBH I don't think any professional women's sport is profitable and cross-subsidisation occurs in all sports. It will take a while for the standard of the women's games to lift (let's face it - you are looking at a century of professional male sports) but also some innovative marketing for it to be able to stand on it's own feet.

As an aside way back in the late 90s there was a British pay tv operator (can't remember the name)  that decided that second division men's football was also profitable and so they secured the rights to the second and third divisions of the big four leagues in Europe. They went bust within three years.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/feb/25/broadcasting3 is probably what you were looking for?

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15 hours ago, TheStig said:

Hi everyone

There is a lot of talk about losses owners are making on their clubs and low attendances.

I never see much discussion about W-league football finances though. I have noted the establishment of the league in recent seasons but it seems to me that there must be a huge amount of cross subsidisation going on between the mens and womens leagues.

Where is W- league football at financially? Can it stand on its own two feet and if it is making losses why do the owners still finance it? Wouldn't it make more financial sense to divert those scarce resources to promote the men's game or pay for men's marquees?

I know this sounds a bit ruthless but football is a business after all.

Stig

This is a subject that is hard to deal with on a Football Forum.

IMO it's an issue being driven by the "gender equality" lobby rather than by common sense. In a country where men's football is a minority sport in the first place it doesn't seem to make business sense to integrate with management of women's football. But, if we don't do that, where is it going to go?

Boys and girls, men and women, should be provided with the same opportunities to participate and achieve in any field of human endeavour. However, whether that should lead to  exactly the same resources being put into it and the expectation of the same level of outcome is IMO a different matter. In our society we try to put our resources where they deliver the best outcome for the cost. We cut our coat according to the cloth.

I have watched a number of really high-level women's matches, and they are great entertainment; a high level of skill, played at a slightly lower pace than the men's game, and with less physicality produces a great spectacle. Our own City team of Fishlock, Little and Co. were great to watch, but from what I've seen on video our current W-League team is just nowhere near that level.

I don't have an answer, I don't have a solution. But I am certain that you don't make what's in the bottle edible just by changing the label.

Edited by jw1739
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12 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

This is a subject that is hard to deal with on a Football Forum.

IMO it's an issue being driven by the "gender equality" lobby rather than by common sense. In a country where men's football is a minority sport in the first place it doesn't seem to make business sense to integrate with management of women's football. But, if we don't do that, where is it going to go?

Boys and girls, men and women, should be provided with the same opportunities to participate and achieve in any field of human endeavour. However, whether that should lead to  exactly the same resources being put into it and the expectation of the same level of outcome is IMO a different matter. In our society we try to put our resources where they deliver the best outcome for the cost. We cut our coat according to the cloth.

I have watched a number of really high-level women's matches, and they are great entertainment; a high level of skill, played at a slightly lower pace than the men's game, and with less physicality produces a great spectacle. Our own City team of Fishlock, Little and Co. were great to watch, but from what I've seen on video our current W-League team is just nowhere near that level.

I don't have an answer, I don't have a solution. But I am certain that you don't make what's in the bottle edible just by changing the label.

As I mentioned earlier, professional sports take generations to develop to the level we are accustomed to. Do you think that Pele would make it today? Perhaps but not a certainty. And this is because there are training regimes, dietary regimes and all the things that we come to expect from professionalism. Few women's sport have had that luxury - basketball, netball, tennis, ????

It is not only an issue driven by gender equality - I would like my nieces to be able to achieve whatever they want - but also it was a reaction to the Taliban and Islamic State. At their height, there was no pushback from conservatives against greater expenditure in women's sport.

So I think that in another 15 to 20 years, women's sport will achieve the level of skill that will enable to stand up on it's own. At the moment we are working on the one percenters.

 

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