I played in mostly empty 60+ thousand seat stadiums a few times during my American football career, and it was an awesome experience, even if we only had 3-4k people watching.
Manchester United Women 'in discussions' about playing a game at OT next season
- Thread starter Dudu
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I played in mostly empty 60+ thousand seat stadiums a few times during my American football career, and it was an awesome experience, even if we only had 3-4k people watching.
It would be nice to watch a Man United team play fearless football at OT for once.
That's impressive in one way but it's still a one-off with free tickets.
The BBC are honest enough to go on to say Atletico women average 600 people per game, not 6000, 600. Juve women table toppers just 450 people per game.
Considering how new the United women's team I think free entry to OT would be great and lets not get carried away with thee one off games in the continent. We get more people watching our new women's team in the second division than established womens teams of Atletico and Juve combined. That should say something.
I can see that might be a problem if they were routinely playing to a crowd of 2000 in a 75000 seater stadium. I don't think that's what we're looking at though. The idea would be to show the women's team to United fans in their natural habitat - and at a ground that people can get to by tram.
There won't be any real gain if we just play to the 2000 who already go, that's why it would need to be publicised, cheap/free tickets, things to get a crowd through the door who have probably never been to a women's game before, or indeed who've never been able to take the kids to Old Trafford. If you get ten thousand there and five thousand of them automatically jump up and cheer when United score - then next time a big game at Leigh comes up, a chunk of that crowd will know that going to watch the women play won't feel weird, it'll feel like watching a United team.
It's a marketing thing. I went to my first women's match not knowing how I'd react, but quickly discovered that not only did it not seem strange, I reacted to the team the same way I react to United. Once they go back to Leigh (or wherever) the fans start enjoying some of the advantages of the women's game - the easier parking, the cheaper prices, the fact it's easier for family groups or friends to sit together. The way that the little kids can get down to the front to meet Fred the Red, and the older ones can get autographs at the end. But for people to discover that, you've got to get past the first barrier.
Don't see any reason why they shouldn't. They are part of our club and should play there.
I think it does - I think it says United were pushing at an open door when we started the women's team. One of the side-effects of arriving late on the scene is that the women's team has no real history or fanbase of its own. It's a United crowd with a significant number who are also men's team matchgoers and Sky subscribers, which is a problem when the matches clash - something that the FA seem to have received no complaints about until United arrived and started whinging.
A lot of the other WSL1 clubs effectively grew up without seeing much of their parent team apart from an annual grant and discounts on club kits (Casey Stoney mentions that John Terry bought the Chelsea women's team a set of club tracksuits when he realised that the women had to pay for their own!) Some of the clubs took over existing women's teams and just changed their names/kits. City, like us, are an exception to the pattern - unlike us, their women play close to their main stadium.
Atletico have only played once at home since their big crowd at the Wanda - so we don't really know what lasting effects that match might have. Will it help them get bigger crowds for the next big game, back at their own ground etc. What we do know is that part of Atletico's marketing was based on Athletic getting 50000 for a woman's game a month or so earlier. They appealed to pride and tribal rivalries to go for the record, but some of that crowd will go home feeling like the women's team really is part of the club and next time they want a crowd to go to a Cup Final with them, they'll find it that much easier to sell the tickets.
Just to add another number to this bit of the story. Lyon played Chelsea today in the semi-final of the women's CL - 22,900 in the crowd. Lyon have a mini stadium at their training ground that they use for most of their home games, but they've played the occasional big match at the main stadium for a couple of years now and they've used the Stade de Gerland as another alternative for the bigger occasions.
Just bring in some of these women into our team instead. I am sure they would do better than the crap we are playing right now.
Athletic Bilbao's women play at a stadium built at the training facility. The men's second team play there as well. Would be nice if we had something like that rather than using another teams ground.
Just quoting myself but adding another twist.
Another team of women's football newbies - West Ham - are greeting the FA/PL scheduling with similar dismay. West Ham are in the Women's FA Cup Final (5:30 on the 4th May) but West Ham have a PL match at 3pm on the same day. Not only no chance of going to both games, not even a realistic chance of getting home and seeing the whole game on TV.West Ham asked for their PL game to be brought forward to 12:30 - and got turned down flat. Neither the FA nor the PL have yet got their heads round the complications involved if the clubs actually try to take the women's game seriously, and treat the women's team as part of the club. A match at OT will almost inevitably be a matter of luck and timing unless the FA deliberately schedules a match with City (say) for a weekend when the men's teams are away playing internationals.
They should let them play there, they're more than worthy more so than the men.