Jessica Halloran: Time to invest in golden era of women’s sport
On form, the best five athletes in Australia right now are women. Sam Kerr, Ashleigh Barty, Ellyse Perry, Stephanie Gilmore and Erin Phillips have all dominated. So now is the time to invest more in women’s sport, Jessica Halloran writes.
On form, the best five athletes in Australia right now are women.
Football’s Sam Kerr, tennis player Ashleigh Barty, cricketer Ellyse Perry, surfer Stephanie Gilmore and AFL’s Erin Phillips have all dominated.
Last weekend, more than 50,000 turned up to watch an AFL women’s match. Next year, the ICC wants to fill the MCG to its 100,000 capacity for the women’s T20 cricket World Cup final. That would be a world record for a women’s sporting event.
The federal government last week announced $150 million to ensure there are women’s change-room facilities at sporting grounds so some no longer have to get dressed “behind towels in their cars”.
They are signs that suggest the ‘golden era’ of women’s sport is coming. But how far off is it?
The dinosaurs who have been whingeing — privately and publicly — about the cost of women’s sport need to stop and start investing, or invest more, in female athletes.
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Sport Australia chief executive Kate Palmer, who was crucial in securing the funding, said she “admired” all the work the major sporting codes were doing but it was time for the “next step”.
“I think we are just at the start of an era where women are going to take a stronger position in the industry. It will be a golden era when there are truly equal opportunities for women to participate,” Palmer said.
“It makes perfect sense for those (at the top of sport) for their business to invest in women. You don’t do it to be nice or to be seen to being equal but you do it because it makes good sense.”
There are more than 800 billion reasons why Australian sports should be investing more dollars in women’s sport says gender equality expert Michelle Redfern.
“We know from research that women control or influence 75 to 80 per cent of family spending decisions; that’s over $800 billion of consumer spend in Australia,” Redfern said.
“The fastest emerging economy is the female economy worth $28 trillion globally.
“My question when it comes to sport administrators is: how are you tapping into that female economy and do you understand who’s making the buying decisions when it comes to your members, attendees but also your corporate sponsors? How would the AFL or the NRL pitch to powerful and influential women to tap into that market?”
Redfern points to clubs such as AFL’s Richmond and NRL’s Wests Tigers, who have memberships that directly support women’s teams and development programs. From my experience, there are men, women and sponsors increasingly say I want my money to go towards women’s football teams,” she said.
As Redfern points out, AFL participation rates for girls and women rose from 21,000 to 170,000 in just three years. Hence a need for new facilities.
While the government is providing $30 million help build a Brisbane AFLW facility and redevelopment of Carlton’s AFLW facilities in Melbourne, is the AFL contributing enough money to the growth of the women’s game?
The AFL gave a combined figure of more than $45m to the two expansion clubs (GWS and Gold Coast Suns) last year to try to gain traction in the non-traditional football markets in western Sydney and the Gold Coast.
Estimates suggest AFLW investment wouldn’t hit anywhere near the $20m mark for one season.
It was offensive then that the AFL invested in the gimmicky, superhero-themed AFLX (only 22,500 attended the Melbourne event) when that money could have been spent on AFLW.
The AFL paid its AFLX captains $50,000 for one night’s work. The base AFLW wage for players is $13,400 while top-tier players earn about $24,600 base for the seven-week season.
While tennis (at all four majors) and surfing have equal prizemoney — the footy codes have so far to go when it comes to parity.
Palmer, again, says sports need long-term strategy for women’s competition.
“They may not make money out of say AFLW for however many years but is AFLX something that is actually core to their future?” she said.
“I think that is a decision they would make … I would say stop taking detours and go straight to the heart of what needs to be done.”
And while it is a solid gesture to suggest a grandstand or a medal be named after Erin Phillips, what about raising her salary to be on par to the best males in the game?
Not a crazy thought, considering the dramatic rise in female participation at grassroots, the new sponsors attracted, number of people wanting to be members and new followers of the game — all because of these trailblazing footballers from the gutsy grace of Phillips to the fortitude of Tayla Harris.
So, will the AFL Commission demonstrate a boldness and move away from treating AFLW like some kind of pilot program?
Where is the strategy? Firm strategy is needed in the NRL as well. Last week, four clubs complained about the financial burden of supporting a women’s team. They appealed to the NRL for help with investment.
The Roosters, Brisbane, St George Illawarra and Warriors spent between $300,000 and $400,000 each to participate in the annual four-team competition.
Reportedly, the clubs considered pulling out of NRLW. Sure, the NRL should be helping too but investing in the women’s game shouldn’t be seen as a burden.
Two-time premiership-winning coach Trent Robinson was emphatically dismissive of the notion that NRLW wasn’t worth it.
“The women in our game, the women supporting our game, the women watching our game, that’s our future and we need to keep investing in it,” the Roosters coach said.
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