A-League Women’s 2023-24 season: Huge changes after Matildas World Cup tilt but is it enough?

The A-League Women’s has announced some huge changes for the forthcoming season off the back of the Matildas’ World Cup run, but can they find a solution to the biggest issues the sport faces?

Cortnee Vine of Sydney FC

Women’s football is growing – the World Cup has put the sport under a huge spotlight, making it impossible to miss – and while season pass sales have already smashed records a great deal more needs to be done to put the competition on par with the top women’s leagues in the world.

The Women’s competition has come a long way from where it started in 2008 – with most matches played in front of tiny crowds.

Now the opening matches of the A-Leagues’ Women’s competition will be played at major stadiums including Allianz Stadium. Attendance records are expected to be broken.

But it still isn’t enough to keep our homegrown stars at home with Cortnee Vine and Tameka Yallop the only Matildas from the World Cup to play on our shores this domestic season.

Every other player has made the move to bigger competitions overseas – mostly in England’s WSL or the Swedish competition.

The new look A-Leagues Women’s competition has taken some big steps to improve the game’s accessibility and visibility but there is still plenty more that needs to be done.

Cortnee Vine of Australia and Jonna Andersson

WHAT HAS CHANGED

A new team, extra games, tougher finals competition – there is plenty the A-League is doing to keep the interest in women’s football growing following the success of the World Cup and the Matildas.

The game was already growing with record-breaking attendance across the 2022-23 season.

This year’s season will kick off with a stand-alone women’s round held in major venues, including Allianz Stadium.

But ground availability for games is clearly still an issue for the rest of the season with the fixture littered with the letters ‘TBC’ next to many matches – including those for Newcastle, Melbourne Victory and Western United.

Brisbane Roar have snagged a few games at the redeveloped Ballymore and will then be moved back to Perry Park.

With Central Coast Mariners rejoining the league fans will get to watch 22 regular season games. And with 12 teams now in the competition it means the top six teams will get to play finals football, not the top four – the same format as the men’s competition.

Nick Garcia, Commissioner of the A-Leagues said the World Cup had proven that football is loved by Australians and New Zealanders.

Sam Kerr got her start playing for Perth Glory in the W-League. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

“We want to carry this incredible momentum into the Liberty A-League Women,”

Garcia said.

“Every single Matilda (who played in the World Cup) was made in the Liberty A-League Women and it is the only place to watch current and former national team stars and the next generation every week, in our own backyard.

“We want everyone to get to a match and show their support for women’s football and for their local heroes.”

Season passes to women’s matches are already smashing records with Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory announcing it had broken their club records two months out from the first round.

Sydney FC have set a target of selling 1000 women’s memberships.

On top of this kids under-16 can attend any women’s match for free this season.

So far 10,000 youths have registered for passes in less than two weeks – this is up on the 9000 passes given out over the full 2022/23 season.

With the season running during summer a decision has been made to have 3pm kick offs between December and February for both the men’s and women’s competitions. These games will move to 5pm – meaning players and fans aren’t stuck in the hot sun.

There are several double headers scheduled in the fixture, meaning the women will play the curtain raiser to the men. As Abbie, from Her Way pointed out in her Insight column earlier this year – this hasn’t always worked in favour of the women.

“Change takes time but there are small things that can happen immediately to improve things in women’s sport like different scheduling and more respect for the athletes in general,” Abbie wrote.

“Playing in blazing heat as a curtain raiser isn’t always ideal particularly when so many athletes are coming from full time jobs and most of their fans are coming from school or work.

“After a recent A-League women’s match in Sydney, the sprinklers were turned on in preparation for the men’s match leaving some of the women players soaked. A bit more thought would go a long way.”

WHAT IS STILL MISSING

There is still a huge gap between the men’s and women’s competitions in Australia and a Neil Armstrong sized leap between the A-Leagues’ Womens competition and what is offered overseas in England’s WSL – not just in terms of the pay either.

The pay disparity is obviously one of the biggest gaps but it’s a problem that can’t be solved without more people lining up at stadiums to watch the matches.

Under the current players’ agreement the minimum wage for women’s players is $25,000 this season – the aim is for an increase of 50 per cent in three seasons.

The average A-League men’s salary is $150,000 a year.

Getting the game in front of people will also help grow it’s popularity – which is hard to do with matches limited to 10 Play and not on television.

It’s in comparison to the men’s competition where the top matches will be shown live and free on 10 Bold and 10 Play on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon – with all matches on Paramount +.

In England the BBC gets access to one live women’s match each week, Sky Sports have two exclusive games and the rest are available to stream by The FA Player.

The Matildas World Cup matches set new broadcast records for Australian sport – dwarfing anything the AFL or NRL has achieved with their peak television audiences.

Every Matildas game was played in front of a capacity stadium.

The appetite and audience exists for women’s football, but most of those fans won’t know where and how to find the domestic games.

Fans were even willing to buy Optus Sport subscriptions to watch the Women’s World Cup, not just the Matildas’ games. Some of the games from this World Cup have become the most watched in the streaming platform’s seven year history.

These subscprtions grant them access to the men’s English Premier League and WSL.

Imagine how many people would watch the sport if they could get it all in once place and not need multiple subscriptions.

A-Leagues’ deal with Paramount+/ Chanel 10 is three years into it’s five year deal and the broadcaster does have an option to extend their contract.

Cortnee Vine of Sydney FC controls

WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE

Turning the A-Leagues Womens’ competition into a league that stands on it’s own like England’s WSL is not something that can happen overnight.

Tom Sermanni, former Matildas coach and Western Sydney Wanderers Head of Women’s Football, said it would take several changes and seasons for the competition to reach its full potential.

Increased media coverage, clubs connecting with their communities and sponsorship deals are the obvious solutions.

But Sermanni said the biggest thing, especially for the players, was to just have people watching.

If this World Cup can at least give a boost in all attendances at W-League games and build the profile of the W-League then it’s a start and I’d say it is up to the clubs to really connect with their communities, we need people to want to come out and watch the games,” Sermanni said.

Cortnee Vine, the only Matilda from the World Cup squad still playing in the W-League competition, hopes to see full stadiums and plenty of support for the game this season.

“We just need to build from the momentum of this,” Vine said during the World Cup.

“We have 75,000 people watching the games and hopefully we can build and push them to look at the elite women and see that you can start following them now and see them progress to a World Cup in four years.”

Originally published as A-League Women’s 2023-24 season: Huge changes after Matildas World Cup tilt but is it enough?