That old saying, if they build it, the people will come, could not be truer, or in this case, if it’s on tv, we will watch. LockerRoom’s Suzanne McFadden reported on Sky Sport’s women’s sport commitment See the Possible, disproving, yet again, that old trope that no one watches women’s sport. This month, Sky Sport reported that in one week in March, women’s sport accounted for 67 percent of the total viewing hours in their top 50 live events. Plus 14 of the top 20 rating slots on Sky Box were women’s sport, which was also just under 40 percent of all the top 50 streams on Sky Sport Now. Women’s sport covered included cricket, rugby, netball, combat sport, football, league, golf, squash, and AFL. So even though there was high profile matches with the Cricket World Cup, Super Rugby Aupiki and the start of netball’s ANZ Premiership, there were lots of sports being watched. In addition to online viewers, it’s tipped that the Cricket World Cup final today in Christchurch is a sell out crowd, even without Aotearoa playing!
This comes as UEFA Women’s Champions League has been smashing attendance records – Paris set a new home attendance record with 27,262 at Paris Saint Germain’s quarter final match against Bayern Munich and 1/2 million views of DAZN’s live stream of the match. Impressive, although this was vastly surpassed by the other quarter final that day between Barcelona and Real Madrid, with 91,553 people at Camp Nou, a world record for attendance at a women’s football match. Plus 1 million views on DAZN’s live stream – free on YouTube. The final at Wembley Stadium on 1 August is set to break attendance records too, with tickets to the 90,000-capacity stadium selling out within an hour of going on sale. The record for a Euros match, men or women, is currently 79,115 and the attendance record for any football match is 89,874 so let’s see what 1 August brings.
While I love that Sky Sport is actively committed to showing more women’s sport (although I can’t see the See the Possible promoted on Sky Sport Now – I can browse categories like various sports, Olympics, the Cricket World Cup, competitions like the A-Leagues, but no women’s sport category – this would be a hugely helpful addition, make it easy for me to find women’s sport!) I also love that platforms like DAZN and Twitch are live streaming women’s football matches for free, making them accessible, especially with the number of Aotearoa wāhine playing in the U.S. football league.
Excellent news this week with the launch of Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa, the new professional women’s national basketball league. It’s the first professional league for women in Aotearoa, with paid contracts and five regional teams. The first game gets underway on 29 June and all matches will be live on Sky Sport. Even more women’s sport to watch!
For all the good news, there is still a reminder of how far we have to go. Stuff published an op ed this week outlining the urgent need to address a culture change. ICC admitted that the winners of the women’s Cricket World Cup receive only a third of what the men do. And Norway’s Football Federation president, Lise Klaveness, stood up at her first FIFA congress this week and said more needed to be done to help migrant workers in Qatar and to protect rights for the Rainbow communities ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup. The head of Qatar’s “Supreme Committee” (who names these committees) immediately responded saying her comments were “not football”, essentially telling her to sit down. However, Lise did not back down and her message is important. FIFA says diversity and inclusion is a priority, and in December 2020 it was stated that there would not be restrictions on pro-LGBTQI+ imagery, such as rainbow flags. However, there are now reports that rainbow flags could be confiscated from fans at the World Cup. That’s not putting inclusion into practice. As Lise said, “it’s our job to push further.” And there’s plenty to keep pushing about!
In herstory, women’s football officially made a come back after being banned in England in 1921, which was also adopted in Aotearoa, with the first leagues organised in Auckland and Wellington this week in 1972.
For all the headlines on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media this week, check out HerStory.
Alida Shanks 