English women's football athlete Chloe Kelly wore sports underwear and waving his jersey high, running to celebrate her winning goal for England - a scene that is destined to be one of the most memorable moments in women's sports history.
British columnist Lucy Ward wrote: "It's a female body - not for sex or performance - just to celebrate the pure joy of what she can do and the strength and skills she has." Brandy Chastain across the ocean also saw this and congratulated Chloe Kelly on Twitter. 23 years ago, in the 1999 World Cup final, Brandi Chastain scored his last penalty against China. She knelt on the ground and clenched her fists, and celebrated her victory in black sports underwear. The photo was posted on the front page of the newspaper on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The future of women's sports laid the dark lines of change at that moment.
It is worth mentioning that the record of the women's football matches (90185) set in the World Cup final was not broken by the Champions League match held by the Barcelona Women's Football Team at the Camp Nou this year.
In 2001, the US women's football team took advantage of the momentum of victory and launched the world's first women's football professional league WUSA. At that time, Chinese women's football players Sun Wen, Pu Wei, Fan Yunjie, Zhang Ouying and other players went abroad, and the newly established league also attracted top women's football players from Germany, Norway and Brazil. Unfortunately, after only three seasons of operation, the game's TV ratings and attendance did not meet expectations, and the league spent its initial $40 million budget and had to declare its premature death in advance.
The flame of the development of women's football has not been extinguished. Over the years, almost all women's football leagues in countries around the world have been moving forward in exploration.
Entering the 21st 10s, the English Women's Football Super League (WSL) and the American Women's Football League (NWSL) have undergone professional reforms, but these two top women's football leagues have completely different systems and operating methods. The most intuitive point is that the famous fans of the Premier League women's football club are not too unfamiliar with them, and the NWSL is an independent league, and the clubs are not dependent on the Major League of American Football (MLS).
With the development of the women's soccer leagues and the women's football leagues in various European countries, women's football has undergone tremendous changes. We can summarize some experiences worth learning from the development of WSL over the years -
makes the league look good, which is the first step
Before 2010, WSL's predecessor, Women's Premier League, lacked television broadcasts, and less than 1,000 people were present in each game. At that time, Arsenal's women's football team dominated the world, winning seven consecutive championships from 2004 to 2010, which once made the game seem very uncompetitive.
In 2011 and 2012, Arsenal won the championship again in the two seasons after the launch of WSL, and for many fans, such an invincible state is disappointing. The Guardian wrote at the time that the dream of building a more competitive league seemed difficult to achieve, but the previous "embarrassing" scores have become a thing of the past.
That year, more than 5,000 spectators watched Arsenal's match against Chelsea. In the 2012 Olympic women's football match in the UK, 70,584 spectators watched the British team defeat the popular Brazil team 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. Nine days later, 80,203 people witnessed the US team defeating Japan at the Olympic final.
By 2013, Arsenal's winning streak was ended by Liverpool. The Liverpool club, inspired by the championship, decided to start investing in the women's football team seriously. That year, Liverpool was the only club in the Premier League to conduct full-time training. They introduced England internationals Farah Williams, Natasha Doy and foreign talents to vigorously develop the women's football team. In the second year, the champion was decided until the final round of the season - Liverpool defeated Bristol 3-0, while the two championship contenders Chelsea and Birmingham were defeated respectively - the brand restructuring plan of the British Super League was gradually on track.
Professional support
In 2018, the English Football Federation issued regulations that all women's football clubs must undergo professional reforms. The FA invited Barclays as the title sponsor and began to consider selling the copyright of the event.FA Women’s Professional Game Director Kelly Simmons told The Athletic, “If we are going to bring in brands, get really good TV collaborations, put the game in front of millions of viewers, you have to make sure the products offered are the best. If players have to do part-time jobs, then England can never maximize their potential. Players are absolutely necessary to get the best support and play in full-time training.”
At the same time, WSL doesn’t have to comply with the limits of the salary cap, WSL’s teams pay a much higher average salary than NWSL, which allows WSL to attract some of the best players in the world.
The success of the Premier League naturally laid the foundation for the development of the women's football league. Eniola Aluko, former director of Aston Villa women's football and current director of Angel City sports, said in an interview with planetfootball, "I think WSL actually has an advantage in attracting talents, because the club is a given name. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, all teams in WSL are built on Premier League clubs. With this brand power, the league is competitive, while NWSL does not have such strong brand recognition."
Of course, the support provided by Premier League clubs is not just brand influence, but also professional support in youth training, team personnel configuration, logistics support and even scouting systems.
In the 2019-20 season, WSL launched the "Women's Football Weekend" event, which arranged the women's football matches at the men's football club stadium, when 38,262 fans watched Arsenal's defeat of Tottenham at the new Tottenham stadium. Other clubs followed suit and held women's football club competitions in Anfield, Stamford Bridge and other places.
Use the league as a product
Looking at the interview with Kelly Simmons, director of the FA Women's Professional Competition, you will find that she mentioned the word "product" many times.
That’s right, professional leagues are just a product, you need to make fans buy it, brands buy it, and TV broadcasters buy it.
When the English Super League becomes more and more beautiful, there are not always exaggerated big scores like before; when players can regard football as a profession and do their best; when the club provides sufficient and all-round support, the time for commercialization is ripe.
In March 2021, the British Girls Super League signed a three-year contract with the BBC and Sky Sports. Sky Sports invested just under £10 million per season, including production, additional marketing and exposure commitments to bring this investment figure to about £15 million per season.
This is the first time that the copyright of the British Women's Super League is sold separately from the men's competition. The British Women's Super League team will receive 75% of the revenue, and the remaining 25% will enter the second-level women's league team.
Kelly Simmons said the deal is "a game-changing protocol that will revolutionize WSL. This will make us the most watched women's sports league in the world."
Currently, WSL has 12 clubs and the league's expansion plans are very cautious. Asked when the top league will expand, Kelly Simmons said, "What we have to do is make sure WSL expands without degrading product quality, make sure we have a top-level, fully professional team and can guarantee support and revenue."
In contrast, NWSL has a clear expansion plan. Since its founding in 2013, the original eight NWSL teams have now expanded to 12. The Louisville Athletic Club, which Wang Shuang will join, joined the NWSL in 2021, while the Angel City invested by movie star Natalie Portman and the San Diego Inspurs, played for American women's football star Morgan, debuted in the NWSL for the first time this year.
In addition, the NWSL is also discussing expanding the league territory to one of the major cities in Texas (Austin or San Jose), Atlanta and Canada, with the Canadian national team becoming more prominent after winning gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
mentioned earlier that NWSL is an independent league and the club is not affiliated with the Major League Soccer team, so it will be relatively more flexible. For example, after acquiring a team, you can move to a city with a better football fan base.
failure cases are ahead, NWSL needs to enable the league and team to better achieve self-genesis.
The hot and cold women's national team seem to have become a common problem. In fact, the record-breaking number of more than 90,000 people in Barcelona's women's football team this year is a good marketing case -
At that time, the Barcelona women's football team's game was rarely held at the Camp Nou Stadium, the home court of the men's football team. The ticket price ranged from 9 to 15 euros, which is much cheaper than men's football matches.
Three days before the start of the game, Barcelona club chairman Laporta called on all fans with tickets to attend the game during the live broadcast. The club published a full-page advertisement in the Daily Catalonia with the slogan "Let's break the world record."
Their star player, FIFA Golden Globe winner Alessia Putras' huge banner is hung on the side of Camp Nou, overlooking a main road in the city, graffiti artists create outside the stadium, and a painting of Alessia dressed as a superwoman is unveiled in a square in Barcelona.
In order to vigorously promote this game, the day before the game, Barcelona men's football legend Puyol gave a special motivational speech.
Finally, we all saw that a club event for women’s football can also be a carnival feast for the whole city, with club management, media, cross-border artists, men’s football celebrities, all fans and all players being participants. Even Real Madrid's head coach said it was "a great scene, a carnival of women's football".
Let's go back to the scene at the beginning of the article - just like the whirlwind that blows from the women's football world after Brandi Chastain's shocking takeoff. Now the baton is handed over to the hands of 24-year-old Chloe Kelly and others. No one can stop a free and confident female athlete from celebrating their victory.
