From someone who didn't watch one minute of the Women's World Cup. I think United should have a Women's team.
Manchester United Ladies Football Club.
- Thread starter Roman Bellic
- Start date
out of interest - what is the make up of the crowd at the womens matches you are involved in? are the vast majority female?
I actually have no idea who goes to watch the womens league games in England but I had a quick look and was amazed to find that you can get a season ticket (only 9 matches TBF) for about £30 (which wouldnt even pay for the average ticket for 1 game at OT)!
Im actually not sure that there is that much commercial benefit to be had from it though for a club like ours that is already the best known sports team in the world, I can totally understand why a club like Man City have invested in the womens game though as they are desperate to grow their fanbase in any way possible.
Last edited:
I am involved at a grassroots level so amateur clubs and schools. Small crowds for clubs if you can even call them crowds. 50-100 people at the games typically. For the schoolgirl stuff naturally more females than males but the crowds are still very small. The top NZ league for women is a completely amateur division. The supporters are basically family and friends so typically 50/50 gender ratio.
I went to some of the games in the recent U20 mens WC played here and the numbers of girls and women as watching fans was great, maybe 25%-30% of the crowd.
The point that i think is important is that its quite probably the fastest growing team sport for women in the world and the opportunities for selling female merchandise to female fans is huge. Also I dont expect men to decide they want to watch womens games, there is a different expectation with respect to quality. However there is going to be over the next 20 years a growing number of women who will go to watch womens games, nothing like the numbers of mens games but it will grow. All those thousands and thousands ( probably millions around the world) of girls and women who are taking up the sport now one day in the future will become spectators.
Its the trend and growth curve thats important. Man Utd need to wake up.
Bolded bit... as above, trend and growth curve. Girls like heroes too.
Just did a count of girls and womens teams in the local club season in the city I live in. 30 divisions across the ages with 8-10 teams per division. Compared to the men and boys which have roughly 130 divisions.
4 divisions of school teams with 10-12 teams per division.
10 years ago there was less than half that.
Thats 1 city in a small country where football is not the major sporting code.
Last edited:
I watched bits and pieces of the world cup. It was good.
I kind of liked the atmosphere, it was a bit warmer and less vicious than you see in mens football.
Same with that OG and the general tone around the english team.
Anyway, yeah,
A womens team would be good, the club has everything it needs to get one up and running except the desire which is pretty disappointing really.
It'd make it easier to brainwash my niece into supporting united too (nearly lost the nephew to liverpool recently, the horror!)
I kind of liked the atmosphere, it was a bit warmer and less vicious than you see in mens football.
Same with that OG and the general tone around the english team.
Anyway, yeah,
A womens team would be good, the club has everything it needs to get one up and running except the desire which is pretty disappointing really.
It'd make it easier to brainwash my niece into supporting united too (nearly lost the nephew to liverpool recently, the horror!)
Fair enough and quite clearly the womens game is growing, this world cup got decent coverage in UK for the first time - Id never watched a whole game of womens football before this.
On the question about whether it would be a commercial benefit to the club I remain unconvinced as there seems to be very little money in the womens game but perhaps that will change in the future. Plus United already attract shitloads of female fans so clearly they dont actually need a womens team to do that - would be interesting to know if a club like Arsenal with a high profile ladies team has a higher % of female fans, I doubt it personally.
More important to me anyway is the social aspect where our club seems to be missing out - even if it costs the club a few million a year to run a team then I think it is worth it.
There is something that can be done about it. However, the problem or the solution hinges on how the Glazers see women's football. If we have people who are open-minded, then reinstating a ladies team would be less of a problem. On the other hand should the Glazers not rate women's football, it would be near impossible to have a ladies team back unless people and shareholders put pressure on the Glazers to do something.
Like you said, it's an embarrassment.
I wouldnt expect a ladies team to run a profit right away, it would take a few years. I have been in business for 25 years now, my first 3 or 4 years were not profitable. You use the Arsenal ladies team as an example of whether or not they have increased their fan base significantly, maybe not but thats not the point really. With a womens team they have increased their opportunities to sell ladies related merchandise. I just texted the young woman i referenced in an earlier posting and asked her if she felt Utd should have a womans team and would she buy a womans star players shirt over a male star players shirt. Her answer to both questions was "hell yes".
The single biggest factor in opposition to a Utd womans team ( and none of the opposition to it has been in any way unfair or offensive) is that its males looking at it from a male point of view. I would bet a decent chunk of change that if you went to a game at Old Trafford and asked female fans at the game if Utd should have a team the answer would be yes from every girl/woman you asked. If you asked if they would by players shirts worn by women in a Utd womans team you would find lots would.
If we are indeed the biggest football club in the world its a bit embarrassing that we dont have a senior womans team when so many of our competition do.
BTW the whole commercial argument does get over played a bit. How many of our youth teams and reserve sides are run profitably?, its not their job.
The recent U20 world cup held here in NZ didnt make a profut so why do Fifa do it?. Next years womans U20 womans WC will be played in Papua New Guinea and there is no way that can be profitable.
There is a bigger picture in play, there is a growth trend with womens football that long term it would be foolish to ignore.
The money in the womans game wont come from gate takings and ticket sales, it will come from product merchandising. A mother who is a football fan might just be inclined to buy her daughter who has started playing the game a Man utd shirt with the female Man Utd star players name on her shirt.
Its an absolute no brainer to me, the long term benefits are clear, especially on the social side of the game.
Simple question for anyone who doesnt see any value, go ask any female football fan and especially a Utd fan you know if they think we should have a womans team.
A guy on twitter posted a response from the club recently. It said that they were reviewing their position on the women's team. Could probably mean that they review every season before making a decision.
Erm. No it doesn't. It makes no difference.
I think we will have a Womens team by 2018, SS are currently pushing the Sportswomen agenda and Women's football is more popular than ever now that the lionesses finished 3rd.
I think I'm in love with Lucy Bronze.
I think I'm in love with Lucy Bronze.
Mate, the Lucy Bronze eligible bachelor club has only 1 member. Me!
Also, good to see the Schutzstaffel campaigning for a good cause. They've really gone up in my estimation.
O, you meant Sky Sports?
What's wrong.
I think he was laughing at the BBC which has a different meaning in the porn world.
Well I agree that the commercial argument is overplayed, but it was actually you who mentioned it as a reason that United should start a ladies team and I didnt really see it as a very good reason! There might be a bit of extra merch sold on the back of a ladies team but I dont think it will be that significant in the grand scheme of our finances really - I am sure we already sell more merchandise to women than any club in the world. If there was any commercial angle to it then you can bet the Glazers would have been on it long ago, those guys dont miss any opportunity to make a profit.
BTW our youth system is profitable, we easily make back the costs from selling young players who dont make it and of course there is also the savings in the transfer market from players who make it to the first team. The value of the Class of 92 alone probably paid for the whole youth system for decades to come.
I totally agree that there is a bigger picture and that the womens game is growing etc - these are much better arguments than the commercial one, especially the social angle and the fact that we are one of only 2 PL clubs without a team is strange, especially when we do have girls in our youth acadamies already.
Im not a big expert on it all but have read a few things on the back of the WWC and one big issues is that womens game doesnt seem particularly well run in England. It is only last year that it has all been restructured with 2 divisions of 10 teams so it is quite early days and probably the club are monitoring it all to see if it is worth joining, if the womens game continues to grow then it is inevitable that we will join in at some point.
I do actually agree that we should have one. However, if this is a sport in it's own right, why do they have to have ladies versions of the men's teams? If they're wanting to build up the sport then should it not have it's own teams? Should it not have to struggle it's way from nothing like every other men's sport had to do at the beginning of it's existence rather than just being forced into existence and popularity? If a sport has to sponge off another to get any popularity then maybe that sport isn't very good.
So yeah, I agree from an equality point of view, but from a sporting point of view no, there should be separate teams creating their own history. It could actually be quite exciting to witness if it was done completely from scratch.
So yeah, I agree from an equality point of view, but from a sporting point of view no, there should be separate teams creating their own history. It could actually be quite exciting to witness if it was done completely from scratch.
The trouble with me using the commercial side of things was that i was using it as a method to try and get across the point that the important thing is the growth trend of womens football and the possibilities that could arise from that.
Its about getting in at the ground floor instead of as one of the late taggers on for when it does become bigger and more profitable imo.
Most people seem to agree it will become bigger at some point? Dont you?
Most people seem to agree it will become bigger at some point? Dont you?
I think it does. A huge part of our fan base can never even play for us.
Er, who is "they"? and how is women football a different sport to men when both play with the same rules? Also the clue is in the name: Manchester United Football Club. Thus, the club can have any version of a football team they want.
You say women should start new teams. Tell me, how many male professional football teams have been freshly formed( i.e not MK Dons) in the last 40+ years in the UK? Even my small local football club was established in the 1950s.
Does this thread need a poll?
A poll made up of overwhelmingly male voters... sure go for it.
Firstly, read my first sentence, I said I think United should have a women's team. If we're going the whole hog, this sport is called football, not Male Football, so both sexes should be playing together.
But you missed the point, I'm saying that if this sport is good enough in it's own right it shouldn't need to be hanging onto the men's teams (not that there's anything wrong with a club having both at all), but also shouldn't be held back by saying "well we can't have a team under that name so we won't bother making one", seems defeatist. Why not making it's own history? Wouldn't that make it all a bit more credible than just a team suddenly getting a load of support simply because of it's male counter-part without earning that support? I'm trying to suggest a way to make the sport more interesting and being able to stand on it's own.
I couldn't help but notice about people complaining about the wages too, and I'm sorry, but these people aren't living in the real world. The ladies clubs don't generate as much income, so they can't afford to pay the same wages as the men's, that's the biggest reason. if they were generating the same income then yes, the wages should be exactly the same, but it's clear the sport isn't popular enough for that yet.
Man Utd should have women's team, says sports minister
Manchester United should "rectify" their lack of a women's team, says Sports Minister Tracey Crouch.
United's Premier League rivals Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are represented in the Women's Super League.
United run junior female sides but disbanded their senior team in 2005.
"It is incredibly disappointing that one of the biggest clubs in the world doesn't have a ladies' football team," said Crouch.
"They have an excellent centre for girls but they don't translate that into a ladies' football team.
"At a time when there is phenomenal interest in women's football, it is right that they should try and rectify that as soon as possible."
WSL crowds have risen sharply following England's third-place finish at this summer's World Cup in Canada.
England and Chelsea striker Eniola Aluko said after the World Cup month that the absence of a United women's team is "puzzling".
United said they have no plans to re-introduce a women's team but the situation remains under review.