Hannah Wilkinson celebrates after scoring New Zealand and the tournament's first goal during the Fifa Women's World Cup opener against Norway. Photo / Getty Images
Hannah Wilkinson celebrates after scoring New Zealand and the tournament's first goal during the Fifa Women's World Cup opener against Norway. Photo / Getty Images
When the last few spectators file into Eden Park on Tuesday night, the Fifa Women’s World Cup will hit a new attendance milestone in this country.
The semifinal between Spain and Sweden - which is expected to be another sellout - will see total crowd figures for matches in NewZealand surpass 700,000.
It’s a remarkable number, and one that puts the tournament in a rare stratosphere: of major sporting events to be held here, only the 2011 Rugby World Cup brought more fans through the gates.
“If Tuesday night goes as planned, then we’ll be over 700,000,” Fifa Women’s World Cup chief executive Dave Beeche told the Herald. “It is pretty phenomenal when you think about it, New Zealand, a rugby-loving country as we are, to turn out as we have for women’s football is just fantastic.”
The sales objective was around 500,000, so they have “well and truly smashed” that target, Beeche said. Even if you take out the 20,000 free tickets given away to four games on the eve of the tournament, the figure of 680,000 represents an average crowd of 23,500 across the 29 matches here.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup last year drew 150,179 people for 26 matches (average 5,776). To mitigate the risk of tiny attendances for certain games, organisers staged double- and triple-headers, with an average of 13,600 per match day.
The 2015 Cricket World Cup attracted 1.01 million people to 49 games across Australia and New Zealand (20,700 per match) while the 2017 Rugby League World Cup recorded an average of 17,600 for the seven matches staged here.
Only the rugby extravaganza in 2011 is comparable, with 1.47 million spectators across 48 games, which represents a mean figure of 30,700 per match.
Beeche added that the overall attendances across Australia and New Zealand will surpass 1.9 million, well above their targeted figure of 1.5 million.
“We always had the belief in the product but something’s special happened with this tournament,” said Beeche. “It’s been magical. It’s captivated the hearts and minds of the public in both countries and there’s no recipe for that.”
The opening ceremony of the Fifa Women's World Cup, with the New Zealand and Norway set to clash at Eden Park. Photo / Michael Craig
Beeche agreed that the success of the Football Ferns and Matildas had played a huge role in lighting the spark.
“The opening match was a mark in time for New Zealand sport,” said Beeche. “It was a phenomenal performance by the Ferns.”
Beeche said other success factors were the quality of the football and the number of close games, general good luck with the weather, the competitive ticket pricing and the ability of all stakeholders to work together.
He also pointed to the unique atmosphere in the stadiums, saying he knew something big was unfolding when more than 30,000 people attended a clash between Italy and Argentina early in the tournament.
“That was a Monday night, with no home team,” said Beeche.
More recently, the spectacle of last Friday’s quarter-final at Eden Park was something to behold, especially in the last 30 minutes as the capacity crowd bayed for a Japanese equaliser against Sweden.
“I’m never seen anything like it in New Zealand,” said Beeche. “It was just unbelievable. Like I get that, when you’ve got the All Blacks, Black Ferns or Football Ferns playing - but to have that much noise in a stadium when you haven’t got a home team playing, I’ve never seen that before and that’s the magic I’m referring to.”
Despite the success, it’s assumed this tournament will be a one-off, as Fifa look to bigger markets, larger populations and more convenient time zones for future iterations. Beeche was reluctant to comment on the possibility of another Australasian Women’s World Cup.
“There’s just so much at play with the host associations, Fifa, government and host cities,” said Beeche. “All I would say is that both New Zealand and Australia have proven their ability to deliver a first-class tournament and should there be appetite to look at other opportunities with Fifa, that positions both countries well.”
Beeche also didn’t want to talk about the mixed messages surrounding Spain’s experience in Palmerston North as their team base.
“I can only rely on what the Spanish team have said and that is that they did actually enjoy their time in Palmerston North,” said Beeche. “And we rolled out the great Kiwi Manaakitanga right across the country and that will be an enduring feature that the teams take home. Anecdotal feedback from all of them has been that they had an amazing time here.”
Beeche has had a hectic schedule. He hasn’t quite matched Franz Beckenbauer’s infamous feat of attending every match as tournament boss at the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany, but he has got close, criss-crossing the Tasman and travelling the length of both countries.
“I think there’s been one day that I haven’t been on a plane,” said Beeche. “I’ve been to every venue and I’ve obviously been to multiple venues multiple times.”
“It’s obviously been tiring but it’s easy because you’re turning up to stadiums that have got full houses, and the support and engagement from the fans has been amazing, so you look forward to it.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.
