From visible to viable: The Cutback's new report outlines a blueprint for the next commercial phase of women’s football
New research from The Cutback lays bare the challenges facing women's football on the path towards financial sustainability
The Cutback has today launched a definitive, free-to-read report on the present and future of how women’s football is commercialised.
With women’s football entering a new era, The Cutback has evaluated the key challenges facing the women’s game as it seeks financial sustainability.
Read the full report.
Cutting through the noise across the sector, From visibility to viability: A blueprint for the next phase of women’s football features exclusive figures for sponsorship and media rights, as well as curated datasets on attendances from across the women’s club game. Alongside third-party data, The Cutback surveyed and interviewed around 50 executives and experts in women’s football from broadcast, leagues, clubs, agencies, sponsorship, governance and media.
The study asks whether women’s football is currently on the right path to achieve its goal of independence from the men’s game and the response from those interviewed and surveyed was clear:
Women’s football should stop looking to media rights income as a meaningful barometer of commercial success. There is more potential in growing sponsorship and matchday revenues.
Girls and women are playing football in greater numbers, but increased participation is not resulting in anything close to a like-for-like increase in loyal women’s club fandom. The pipeline of participation to club loyalty is a long way from being built.
Match scheduling is a significant barrier to attendance growth. Too many women’s club fixtures are scheduled to avoid clashes with men’s football, to ensure men’s stadium availability, or in alignment with existing men’s football conventions.
There is an awareness-to-attendance gap: “We don’t have a problem with people coming once. We have a problem with people coming twice.”
Commenting on the report and it findings, Flo Lloyd-Hughes, Founder of The Cutback, said: “The combination of data and industry insight means this is the most accurate and expansive analysis, and diagnosis of the current commercial landscape in women’s football. There is no hidden agenda and no hyperbole. This is an honest and detailed look at the growth of the game, driven by those working in and around it.
“Women’s football is more visible than ever. However, as our research shows, viability is a long way off. Whether women’s club football can mature into a sustainable, independent ecosystem will depend on if clubs, leagues, federations, broadcasters and sponsors can work together to create a larger pool of core women’s football fans willing to prioritise match attendance over other areas of their life – the kind of culture that built the popularity of the men’s game”.
Read the executive summary and the full report.
I spent ages writing an ESSAY in reply but I managed to delete it before posting it, so here’s the tl;dr version.
I think marketing women’s football in England is REALLY difficult. The best marketing strategy is to articulate the unique value you bring. And from my scientific sample of the dozen people I talk to about Man City Women, the unique value is that it’s the *opposite* of men’s football in terms of vibes. Practically no aggy men. Nobody’s calling the liner a paedophile because Hempo’s been correctly flagged offside. The toilets aren’t full of lads doing coke.
But 22 of the 24 WSL clubs can’t market it as the antidote to men’s football and how toxic it is, because that’s ripping their ‘main’ product to shreds. It’d be like Maccies promoting the McPlant by saying the suppliers for the beef in a Big Mac are linked to illegal deforestation in the Amazon.
So I think a lot of clubs settle for that middle ground of “family friendly”, which it is - but that’s not necessarily going to attract your gen Z-ers who need a stronger pull.
It’s a dead interesting report. Thanks for publishing it.