WXV: From record-breaking crowds to empty stadiums - what’s the problem with women’s rugby?

OPINION

England Red Roses captain Marlie Packer speaks the way she plays. She loves a direct line. So of course she provided an honest answer to the question “What do you think of the attendance at WXV” when she said, “The stadiums were empty – they weren’t what I was expecting.”

Packer was among the players who ran out to a record-breaking crowd at last year’s World Cup final. She was there when the English raised the bar higher at Twickenham, bringing in 58,498 fans. It’s no wonder she expected more.

What a difference a year makes. The conversations ahead of last year’s event centred around the hope we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves on the world stage. The largest stand-alone crowd the Black Ferns had mustered was just shy of 4000 at their Laurie O’Reilly test in August 2022. They had got to nearly 9000, but that was only at halftime as they played as curtain-raisers to the All Blacks. So those folks from last year would have been stoked with the turnout at Mount Smart Stadium.

The trouble is, we’ve popped the cork on women’s rugby fans’ appetites. We now expect nothing short of champagne rugby. As always, the athletes delivered but happiness is only real when shared, and there simply weren’t enough of us there to revel in it. So where was everyone? Had they emptied their pockets at the Fifa World Cup? Were they caught up in the men’s rugby and cricket World Cups? Or did they just not receive the invite?

Anecdotes suggest the latter, and the ticketing strategy does too.

The reality is that at last year’s World Cup, we went big. The Space Between, a London-based sports marketing agency, was tasked with running the campaign to sell our rugby-mad nation on our female athletes’ rightful place in the game. We all saw the result of their actions, as they successfully bottled the magic of our Black Ferns and sold it back to us with a slice of hope.

This part, still largely unseen, is the part still not understood. That the secret of their success was in deliberately targeting those who don’t usually attend rugby matches - taking the sport directly to “lifestyle”, AKA women-friendly, media. These punters then went on to make up a reported 70 per cent of attendance at the final. There was no such campaign for WXV. Instead this time, we relied on the traditional rugby channels to reconnect with this newfound audience.

The lesson learnt from last year’s World Cup is not that women play rugby but that women watch it, along with many others not caught up in the All Blacks bubble. This different audience requires a different approach. The secret of their success was in deliberately targeting those who don’t usually attend rugby. Taking the sport directly to ‘lifestyle’ aka women friendly media. These punters then went on to make up a reported 70 per cent of attendance at the final.

The old ways don’t work, not for any part of the game. The New Zealand Rugby Governance Review revealed that on average only 2000 fans pay to attend each NPC match. Prior to Covid-19, Super Rugby was hitting an average of around 11,500 per match. Attendance leapt up once lockdowns were lifted but has been sliding back towards these prior averages ever since.

The Space Between was brought back for WXV but lightning didn’t strike twice. Channels were activated but messages didn’t connect. Last year, we successfully tied this moment to a movement but things have kept moving since then. Marlie Packer and many like her, now expect an audience for their excellence. How quickly expectations are shifting has many still struggling to keep up. Embracing the difference is the unique selling point of women’s sport and needs to underwrite our marketing efforts too

The good news is, the WXV averaged around 8000 to 10,000 in attendance each weekend during the tournament. Reporting just this week has confirmed the Black Ferns as the country’s second-favourite team. So we have stepped confidently forward from where we were ahead of last year’s World Cup. We just need our marketers to step up.