Southampton Sees Women’s Match Attendance Soar

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, Southampton Football Club has reported a 63% increase in average game attendance for its Women’s team, on top of a 45% increase in season ticket sales, indicating a boost in appetite for the women’s game.

As a result of the club’s ongoing focus on equality and inclusion, the year-on-year increase can be attributed to several club-wide initiatives which promote women’s football, encourage allyship, and inspire more girls and women to take up the sport. This includes working closely with its partners to support the Women’s football team in achieving its goals, even during the lockdown.

With games taking place behind closed doors, the club partnered with Virgin Media to live stream Women’s FA Cup games across its official Facebook and Youtube channels, opening the game up to a previously difficult-to-reach audience and accumulating over 140,000 views and 4,400 engagements.

Further work with Virgin Media included the creation of the ‘Introducing…’ series – a Q&A-style video content series for social media that shines a light on key players from Southampton FC Women’s team, who they are off the pitch and their journey in football so far.

To support the club’s goal of increasing interest in the team and driving attendance on matchdays, Southampton FC has been working hard to boost the visibility of its female players. With both the Men’s and Women’s first team FA Cup matches falling on the same weekend in January, the club saw an opportunity to elevate the women’s game by hosting it at St Mary’s Stadium and promoting a ‘Double Header Weekend’ for fans.

Both fixtures were promoted using one campaign message through organic and targeted paid media, incentivised ticket sales, male and female build-up content, and a limited-edition programme sold at both matches. The initiative saw a record-breaking number of spectators gather for the women’s game, which drew in 4,523 attendees – the highest for women’s football in the round and Southampton Football Club overall.

To maintain and further boost match attendance, the team responsible for enhancing the matchday experience for the Men’s First Team has committed to achieving the same goal at Women and Girl’s fixtures – aiming to deliver entertainment, information, and engagement across all matches at St Mary’s and Snows Stadium. 

Recognising that women remain significantly under-represented in executive and board positions in the football industry and believing that wider operational change is necessary to improve women’s representation at all levels of the game, Southampton Football Club has committed to promoting gender equality in all its recruitment and hiring processes. 

Most recently, the club identified the need for greater input and representation at board level on people matters and appointed Michelle Butler, HR Director for the club, to its Board of Directors.

Discussing the role, Michelle, said: “Being part of this team means I have the opportunity to contribute and provide insight on people related matters, ensuring we all have a voice in the boardroom and remain central when decisions are being made. As the only woman on the team, I also hope to provide a different viewpoint on conversations and decisions that affect the amazing workforce we have here.”

Championing female representation in the game, Southampton’s very own female first team captain, Shannon Sievwright, also represents the Saints Foundation as Female Inclusion Officer.

Discussing the role, Shannon, said: “I am incredibly proud to be Female Inclusion Officer at the club. The role involves working across all Saints projects, making our programme and delivery more inclusive for females, and ultimately creating gender equality in our environment.

“We are a long way off complete equality yet, but there has been tremendous progress since I started in the role. For example, we have been able to keep female pupils engaged with sport during lockdown via online exercise sessions, which has been great for keeping physical activity levels up during this time.

“Staff awareness around the importance of female inclusion continues to be raised across the club, and there has been a significant increase in the number of females within our workforce. This is something we want to continue by encouraging females to apply for relevant roles within our workplace.” 

Sharing her hopes for continued female inclusion in sport, Shannon added: “In 5-10 years, it would be great to see everyone having equal opportunity to get involved in grassroots sports, regardless of things like their gender and location.

“Having more female coaches and leaders in the industry than ever before and having the best teams in the world playing in the women’s leagues at an elite level, too, would give young females something to aspire to, which would be brilliant.”

Further demonstrating its commitment to promoting inclusivity in football, the club has enrolled in the Women in Football’s Corporate Membership Programme, allowing them to access a range of tailored courses, workshops, group coaching, and mentoring to improve the landscape for women and girls in the game.

For more information, visit www.southamptonfc.com

Image: Southampton FC