The Billion Pound Product
Panini, EAFC, Sky Sports, Michelle Kang's empire. Women's football has been projected to be a billion pound industry, how do we get there? Where are we now?
Late last year an email came through to our inbox that we initially passed off as spam, an invite to the English national football museum in Manchester to celebrate the launch of Panini’s 2023/24 WSL sticker album. A few days earlier we had been reading Deloitte predict women’s sports to hit a revenue of £1 billion in 2024, and a few weeks before that about how the NewCo in England could finish the project to make the WSL the world’s first billion pound women’s football league. Sitting alongside attendees from Sky Sports, the Athletic, BBC Sport, etc… while listening to Rachel Brown-Finnis, Nikita Parris, and Chloe Kelly talk about how exciting the commercial opportunity was and how much the game had changed since they were kids got us thinking about where we are in Scotland.
From ground level the numbers in England seem planets away, not just a couple miles down the M6. Even with financial records of our own hitting the headlines last year with record payments to clubs, that figure of almost £350,000 is dwarfed by the numbers we are talking about in the WSL and other leagues around the world. How do we ensure that women’s football in Scotland keeps up? What can we learn from success, and failure, elsewhere to make sure we take this opportunity for growth?
Back to the Beginning
To understand how the WSL, NWSL, and other successful leagues got to where they are today, we need to understand how they started the journey. For our English neighbours that kicked off just over a decade ago with the formation of the WSL in 2011, this was led by the English FA’s Sally Horrox with ambition aplenty. To join the league clubs had to invest up to £70,000 a year for the first two years, matching the money the English FA provided to support a quick transition to full time status.
“We might be scaring a few of the clubs off. But we are raising the bar for the women's game and we are serious about player payments and other minimum requirements."
At the time the FA were dealing with the fallout from Setanta going under, something that had a huge impact up here as well, but CEO Ian Watmore pushed for the money to be spent on the women’s game as it was a key priority for the association. The support wasn’t just financial however, the FA also created “a central FA team, dedicated to The FA Women’s Super League’s development” that helped to push the commercial aspect of the league, aided clubs in their development with workshops and toolkits, and fought for the league within the FA.
Those foundations helped the league and its clubs to build commercial success, promote itself to prospective fans, improve how women’s players are treated, and lead innovation into new methods of improving the game.
Taking a flight West, across the pond in the States is a similar story. When the WPS folded in 2012 the US Soccer Federation brought together the women’s football stakeholders in the country to discuss where they go next. The result of those meetings was an eight team league with USSF subsidising salaries of 24 national team players, a further 16 subsidised by the Canadian Soccer Association and between 12 and 16 from Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación. Significant investment into the future of women’s sports from all three federations, working together to ensure the NWSL was built on financially stable ground and that financing was in place to support their players appropriately (at least for some big name players, but that’s another conversation).
NWSL is unique in women’s football with the American structure of elite sports placing a heavy emphasis on parity and utilising the college system over traditional academies (something that has started to shift in recent years, again another conversation). It also has access to a massive audience. Not just with the population of the USA being almost 332 million, compared to Scotland’s 5 and a bit, but also with the population of Canada and Mexico as many of their national stars were key in the league’s early development. Many players have heritage elsewhere as well, particularly Central and South America, providing links to family at home and often a source of pride for their communities. It can’t be ignored, though, that they have devoted resource to marketing which has allowed them to bring in those audiences. They have had to actively market to those audiences, success did not come freely.
Both of those examples come from much larger counties than our own, as we’ve illustrated with the NWSL in particular, so to use the example from a similar sized country (with a comparable men’s football infrastructure) we can look at Sweden. The Damallsvenskan is one of Europe’s oldest leagues, forming in 1988, and it is that to which it owes a lot of its commercial success. The longevity of the league has helped to normalise women’s football in a country with a culture that lends itself to accepting more progressive ideas. Women in Sweden were given the right to vote in the 1920s and throughout the 19th and 20th century women’s rights quickly progressed including working rights and maternity leave. We share much of that culture, and the SWPL is also one of the oldest women’s leagues in the world. Although we have seen a recent rise of sexist, homophobic, and racist attitudes, increasingly online, and more could be done to fight against those.
In Sweden the 28 top flight and second division clubs are represented by an independent organisation, Elitfotboll Dam (EFD), who work with the Swedish association to further women’s football in their country. They are a significant resource devoted to ensuring Swedish women’s football remains a leader globally, pursuing new commercial opportunities to ensure clubs benefit from growth. They work towards medium term goals to help them focus their resources to an agreed final destination. Currently that is focused on developing professional clubs, those clubs developing young players, and for the Damallsvenskan to be an example to Europe. This paragraph is starting to feel like a paid advert for the EFD, it’s not. But, the EFD is a real standout in what can be achieved by not following the path men’s football has trodden.
All three countries referenced (England, USA, Sweden) have had international success and can boast equal pay at a national level. We know international success creates a “boom” around women’s football, it gets more media interested in covering the game domestically, it gets more eyes on the players, it increases participation. It is also likely something we would have difficulty replicating (as deluded as we are, Scotland probably aren’t winning the Euros or the World Cup any time soon). Equal pay at national level has been seen to help direct the conversation around women’s football, helping to change the image to one of something that matters as much as the men’s game. Financial resource equal to, or equitable to, the men’s national team also goes a way to improve performance and develop the game in the country. Unfortunately, the SFA haven’t seemed keen on bringing this into effect so far but the tone of recent negotiations has been a lot more positive than the legal action that was brought forward in 2022.
So, where are we now? What’s going on around the world that we can jump on board with? How do we improve our circumstances?
The Landscape in 2024
The past year has been big for women’s football fans that like to buy stuff, with the introduction of women’s players to ultimate team on EAFC 24, Panini launching a sticker collection for the WSL and Liga F, Foudys expanding their collection, Nike agreeing to sell replica goalkeeper kits, scarves appearing before big games adorned with player’s likenesses, and so on… Even while writing this piece the media down South have been covering news that the WSL is tendering offers over £20m per year to broadcast from next season.
We’re going to split commercial up into three categories, partly for simplicity and partly so we don’t go on fifteen tangents and lose focus in two paragraphs time. Those categories are: stuff you can buy, media rights, and miscellaneous things that are cool (these are mostly a mixture of both).
Stuff you can Buy
Replica kit availability has been a major talking point recently, for good reason. During the World Cup Nike were pressured to commit to offering more replica kits, which all sold out. Major retailers have been criticised for not offering WSL personalisation or an adequate stock of World Cup kits. Retailers that have stocked official WSL printing have often made basic mistakes with spelling and numbering, as well as printing using their men’s team lettering.
It feels like a small thing, especially at club level where you can still buy the club’s kit (although often women’s teams have different sponsors). But, think back to that feeling when you were younger, opening up a kit and turning it over to see your favourite player’s name there. Rushing to get it on, head through the arm hole, bouncing out the door to go kick about in the park, shouting “Larsson/McCoist/Skacel/Sproule” or whoever else (in this author’s case Torres after the 2010 World Cup) while firing shots. That feeling is priceless, and more than the joy it brings it also seals in the love of football. The love that inevitably leads to becoming a match-going regular. It is a feeling that some of us still have, getting a new kit and heading to fives to show it off while falling over attempting a rabona. A connection to the game all brought through a couple grams of plastic heat transferred onto the back of a kit.
As of this article being written that feeling is reserved for fans of just two SWPL 1 clubs. Only Celtic and Glasgow City offer shirt printing of their women’s players names, and we could only confirm Glasgow City supply the official SWPL font. Aberdeen offer their kit with the women’s sponsor, but the personalisation options are only men’s players. Spartans also sell their kit with women’s front of shirt sponsor but don’t offer personalisation on any of their kits. The SWNT kits are on sale on Scotland’s official retailer JD Sports’ websites, however there is no shirt printing and they are only available in women’s fit.
Looking South to our neighbours leads us to Foudys, their collection outside the WSL is not extensive but within the English top flight they stock kits from seven of the 12 clubs and offer an “upcycle” service for fans with a blank kit to get a player’s name printed on the back in WSL font. They also stock a number of clubs outside the WSL including big name teams in the UWCL and a selection of English clubs in the lower tiers.
Then there’s the product that inspired this article. Panini’s WSL stickers. We have experience in this area too as we created the first ever SWPL, WSL, Adran Premier, NIFL Premiership, and League of Ireland women’s collectable cards (not so subtle brag). Football collectables are so much fun and something that we have written about previously. Panini clearly agree and with the difficulty getting a pack of their WSL stickers it is clear that fans agree too.
We had to retire our cards, despite them being a commercial success, as we didn’t have the time to give to them while also providing coverage of the game and working at our day jobs. That leaves a pretty sparse market for SWPL fans to buy merch to support their favourite players. With the SPFL’s involvement in the league and having a deal in place for collectable cards, it would be fantastic to see the SWPL celebrated in this way.
Whether it’s some extra ambition, a little bit of inventiveness and creativity, or a determined person that just wants to get something out there, it really is up to the clubs and the league to help move the needle and give us things to spend our pennies on. We might not be fans of the general degradation of society’s foundations under capitalism but, oh boy, do we love a little treat (for our mental health, of course).
Media Rights
This is where a lot of the money lies, but also a lot of the risk. Globally the conversation has switched to whether women’s football is ‘ready’ to be paywalled. DAZN walked back their decision to run a paid subscription model, while Sky are criticised for continuing theirs. A tough balancing act that we will touch on more in the future section, right now though we are focusing on the here and now. What does broadcast look like today?
In SWPL 1 the majority of games are shown on either BBC Alba or on the BBC Sport website. Free to air on TV, in Gaelic, or on a corner of the BBC site that is often hard to find. There’s very little pre-match build up, a couple post match interviews, and usually a pre-recorded half time segment takes the screen over analysis of the game.
Parallel to that, the WSL is also shown primarily on the BBC. Their games, however, take up slots on the main channels. There’s build up with a panel of big name pundits, half time analysis, live graphics, replays, a full time breakdown of what’s gone on. For fans in England they can point to the disparity of length compared to men’s games, technology available, camera quality, etc… but for us we can only look on in envy.
Our halftime features are often fantastic looks into Scottish women’s football, highlighting people within the game that deserve to be held up. The chat on commentary from former players and pundits is usually really insightful (apart from when they criticise my team). The highlights show fills some of that analysis hole in our hearts. There just isn’t really enough of it.
Sky Sports have the rights to five games a season, reserving one for the cup final that bears their name. There is an option for them to increase this number, for additional cost, but as a for-profit organisation they are understandably hesitant while the Scottish game isn’t a major selling point for subscriptions. When they do broadcast games they put on a show. Pre-match buildup, analysis, big name pundits, the lot. It really feels like a big event. As it should.
The rights to the Champions League and many European leagues are held by DAZN, they were planning on introducing a paid subscription model this season but walked it back after backlash online. They have put a lot of investment into making the most out of it while it is free, we aren’t privy to the behind the scenes goings on but on the surface it appears that they are positioning themselves as the broadcaster that cares.
Similar to our complaints about SWPL broadcasts, DAZN have been critiqued as not covering the game in all its glory. Often only one commentator is on a game, with just ads for their other broadcasting offers at half time. Replays are spotty at best. Others retort that while it is free there won’t be an improvement, and those conversations go round in circles two or three more times before one party gives up.
Some clubs have invested in themselves and are producing their own streams, for free or pay per view. While these are fairly low budget for now there have been quick improvements as time goes on. The introduction of veo cameras at some clubs really pushing them on (a smart camera that uses AI to track the ball and stream to their app). As time goes on clubs will invest in commentary, in graphics, in platforms. Twitch and YouTube feel like huge potential growth areas if clubs can balance the football with a more ‘content creator’ feel, while not ignoring their existing fans to chase online ones.
Overall, broadcast in Scotland needs to improve. Our game deserves to be in the spotlight. It deserves the chance to have eyes on it. Whether it is the BBC, STV, Sky, or another broadcaster we need more informed voices, more airtime, and to be on actual TV. It is no longer enough to put a game on with no surrounding programming and have it hosted online only.
Miscellaneous Things that are Cool
In September 2023 EAFC 24 was released with Glasgow City the sole SWPL representative. The game sold 11.3 million copies in the week following release. That is a huge market that could potentially have eyes on SWPL clubs. EA may not be interested in licensing the full league, they are built on making money and unfortunately that means focusing on the top (less entertaining) leagues, but with the SPFL’s association with the SWPL it isn’t unreasonable to think there is an opportunity here. If that opportunity is taken for the next edition of the game, it could be a huge boost to the visibility of the league. At the present the SPFL have a licensing deal with eFootball (the artist formerly known as PES) but they have not yet expanded into women’s football. If they do, and they bring the SWPL into it, we will go back to shouting about how PES is actually better than FIFA like we used to argue with our pals in the mid to late 2000s.
Speaking of video games, in July 2021 Sports Interactive announced that women’s football would be coming to Football Manager. It is understood that this will be implemented for the 2025 edition of the game with the SWPL likely to be included as a licensed league (although nothing is certain until official). FM23 was reported to have over five million players, with countless hours of content being created around the game from YouTubers and streamers. Can SWPL clubs encourage players who wouldn’t know their Kirstie MacIntoshes from their Ellis Notleys to take the helm of their team virtually? Many players pick a team they aren’t associated with for a variety of reasons and become attached to that team in real life (including us, auf gehts die Zebras). SWPL clubs need to be proactive in this area, offer a challenge with a prize, interact with creators, and engage with the game itself. It is a huge opportunity for extra eyes on them, as well as the licensing itself being a potentially lucrative commercial opportunity.
Future
Money makes the world go round, there’s no avoiding it no matter how anti-capitalist you are, but not every financial opportunity is worth taking. Is it worth taking a brand deal with an uninterested party because they are offering more than one that is engaged? Is it worth taking money from a controversial source because it is “too good to turn down”? Should funding be protected and targeted or should we trust the stewards of our game to spend it properly? At the end of the day commercial decisions will have a wider impact than the money they bring in, and we know all too well in Scotland what happens when you rely too much on money from an unstable source after the Setanta collapse’s repercussions.
As Flo-Lloyd Hughes argues in this piece, we should be looking to move away from the benefactor funding model that we currently see in the SWPL. To place women’s football on sustainable footing where it doesn’t need money from respective men’s teams to survive. The barrier to getting there being a lack of appetite for a paid subscription to watch women’s football, something that we saw in Scotland with Recast’s unfortunate fall into administration, and a need to convert casual fans into match-going regulars.
As we move forward clubs are going to have to make the decision of how to invest in themselves with new broadcast equipment, permanent stadia, expanded marketing teams, etc… paid for in the short term for gains in the long term. They will need to wrestle with the desire to have as many eyes on the women’s game as possible with the need to monetise the product. Someone has to pay the wages as we head further into a full-time league. For many that will mean making a loss for a period, something that no one had a problem with in 1893 when the men’s game went professional (okay some had a problem with it but that was based on idealism not spending money), or when clubs throw money at the men’s game to go from seventh to sixth.
Outside of simply making more money, government grants and central funding from the SFA will likely play a huge factor in the development of our leagues. We saw how important it was to successful leagues in the past right at the start of this article. However, how does this funding look? What is fair?
Australia has seen controversy in the “should funding be ringfenced” conversation recently. 15 million AUD was awarded to Collingwood to support women’s sports infrastructure, they subsequently folded their netball side and reportedly used some of that funding to upgrade their AFL facilities including turfing over a netball court. They released a statement to say that their AFLW side would also access the facilities, but that just adds another question. How far can public or central funding go to support teams with both men’s and women’s sides? If the SFA was to give funding to Saint Johnstone and they used it to expand their gym and lay an additional training pitch for example, is that a fair use of the money if their men’s team also have access to the improvements? Where does it leave the league in terms of not showing favour to a club?
It’s a tough conversation with no real ‘good’ answer. The closest we can come is that the bigger picture of women’s football’s development is more important than tribalism and we would hope that the media see that way and don’t hone in on differences in amounts funded to create a turf war. We know that’s unlikely though, outrage gets clicks.
The future is uncertain, with the young talent coming through it will certainly be bright on the pitch. We hope that over the next year, five years, decade, that clubs can invest in their behind the scenes set ups. We hope every SWPL club has a social media presence, has a strategy in place to grow their fan base (not just hoping men’s fans come over), has something we can buy off them.
Most importantly, we hope the financial side of the game is there to allow the 22 women that take to the pitch for kick off in every game, every week, to thrive.
If you work for an SWPL club and are now fired up, raring to go, but aren’t sure where to start. Slide in our DMs, email us at hytannual@gmail.com, put a smoke signal up at Hampden... We’d love to chat about how we can support you in growing, how we can collaborate, and how to make the future of the game require a Scrooge McDuck-ian vault hold its bountiful riches.