Newcastle United Women - Champions and Promoted

[O Neill]

On 18/02/2024 at 19:37, OpenC said:

 

No doubt, so I'm delighted to be one of the people who can rattle on in the future about how it didn't used to be this way you can sense the women's game taking off at the minute, imo. I hope Newcastle make it before FFP starts protecting another big four or six

 

I'm envious, as the bullshit went into overdrive up here at the weekend with the Old Firm. I don't want to clog the thread up with the nonsense, but basically, Rangers cancelled all the Celtic tickets for their Old Firm derby at Ibrox on the day before the match. An embarrassing situation, followed by all the usual finger pointing and expert opinions from supporters of both side, most of whom will never have attended a women's match.

 

While the game is gathering momentum in England, the evidence is that it has already peaked in Scotland and is now starting to decline.

[OpenC]

Why did they do it? The usual safety reasons? Can't imagine crowd trouble at a women's game here

[O Neill]

8 hours ago, OpenC said:

Why did they do it? The usual safety reasons? Can't imagine crowd trouble at a women's game here

 

Rangers had intended to set things up as they have done for previous big stadium games, where they just opened the one stand along the pitch, with no hard segregation in place. It's generally a family friendly atmosphere at women's games, and having one stand open means having to put less staff on. They also didn't want to fork out for additional police and stewarding.

 

Information reached both clubs and the police late in the week that the Green Brigade had purchased around 800 tickets. With The Union Bears up in Perth on Sunday afternoon, there was unlikely to be much in the way of actual trouble, but I suspect Rangers decided that the easiest way to ensure that, was to cancel all the away tickets.

 

Depending on who you speak to, it's either Celtic's fault for selling their allocation to known 'risk supporters' or Rangers are to blame for not putting on additional security measures. The league itself completely ignored the situation, and were still pushing ticket sales on the morning of the game. The whole situation just didn't look good for women's football up here at all.

[OpenC]

Are they selling enough tickets to justify segregation on the grounds of making sure everybody gets a seat they've paid for? It's one of the best things about going to Kingston Park, just being able to watch from wherever takes your fancy. Will be a bit sad when segregation and defined seats come into it although I guess that's the price of success.

 

Shame that the usual old firm rubbish is impacting on the women as well though, interesting read

[O Neill]

The setup at Kingston Park is pretty much the standard setup for your average SWPL level match. It's general admission, take a seat anywhere you like, or feel free to stand behind the barriers around the pitch etc. The average attendance at a league fixture is around 150. Yes, it's really that low, and that's not a paid 150 either. For a 'special event' at one of the men's stadiums, then teams can draw anywhere between 2,000 and 6,000.

To answer the question better. There has never been need for segregation at any women's fixture in the past. The problem with the Old Firm is that ultra groups have been known to turn out at youth fixtures, and are now seeing the women's fixtures as a new place to gather.

 

It could become interesting next season if Newcastle make it into the WSL2 and Sunderland fail to get promoted. Do you think those fixtures on the calendar will start to draw the attention of more people who have yet to attend a women's match? Certainly going to be something that both clubs will need to consider how they manage if that scenario is on the table next season.

 

I should also highlight that the Edinburgh derby between Hibs and Hearts women has been made into a big stadium fixture for the last few years. Ultras groups have been welcomed along to home and away fixtures to help the atmosphere, and there have been no issues at any of the matches I've photographed. It has been great to have those supporters along, and they haven't damaged the family friendly atmosphere. The clubs have simply opened the stand behind one of the goals and allowed them to have that area to themselves.

[Miggys First Goal]

Sorry if Giggs. 
 

 

[Fezzle]

10 minutes ago, Miggys First Goal said:

Sorry if Giggs. 
 

 

Speaks volumes that a google name search yields zero football related stats and 100% photos, insta shite and articles on how hot she is

[Mag3.14]

To be fair, looks like she can play a bit ...

 

 

 

 

[Fezzle]

2 minutes ago, Mag3.14 said:

To be fair, looks like she can play a bit ...

 

 

 

 

Thats off 4 years ago, shes still playing in a regoinal league a few levels below us and seems to value celeb life over football based on what you can find. Sounds more football Joe wanting hits than anything real

[Keegans Export]

Looks like her team play the level below NUFC were last season, seems like a strange link.

[JonBez comesock]

25 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

Looks like her team play the level below NUFC were last season, seems like a strange link.

 

25 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

Looks like her team play the level below NUFC were last season, seems like a strange link.

It’s a wind up post for clicks / bites 

[Jack27]

https://theathletic.com/5287386/2024/02/21/newcastle-united-women-staveley-swift/?source=user_shared_article
 

long live Amanda Staveley

 

Great read 

[Jack27]

From an infrastructure perspective, found this part interesting. Would have assumed they'd be further along the way in terms of a new location.

 

Maybe the club are still needing to grow out their infrastructure department to have somebody leading the way on it.

 

[O Neill]

It's not just Newcastle who have to consider what the longer term solution for their women's team should be. If you look around the WSL, very few clubs either own their own stadium or are the primary tenants at their home ground. The London clubs benefit from having numerous lower league clubs nearby, who are keen to ground share, as it means easy money in the door.

 

Home venues are still something that I think is a real challenge in women's football up and down the country. There are a lack of suitable venues in accessible locations, which can help women's clubs tap into the bigger supporter base or at least some sort of new audience. I think it's important to get the right size of venue, but also to avoid things like multisport venues that have running tracks around the pitch, or poor spectator viewing.

 

A mate that I worked with at Hibs women about 5 years back, is now employed at Everton women. I've been down a couple of times to Walton Hall Park. The redevelopment job they have done has been an interesting project to see. The ground holds just over 2,000, but it's not all-seater. That's not a huge issue, as Everton tend to draw around 1,200 spectators for the average WSL match. If, or rather when, Newcastle reach the WSL, what do we think the average attendance would be like? Maybe a question for @OpenC to answer? A season in WSL2 might bring better answers to that as well.

 

I like what Manchester City have done. Without a huge amount of research, that's probably the model I'd want to follow if possible. While not a football example, Murrayfield have done a similar thing by putting up a smaller stadium (7000ish covered seats) around the back of the main stadium. It serves as a home for both Edinburgh Rugby, and the women's national team fixtures. It's definitely an improvement on the atmosphere if you have a few thousand people packed around the pitch, rather than sitting in part of one stand in a massive, empty feeling ground. I do believe the proximity to the men's stadium is also a key factor to consider. A basic example here is Hibs women, who moved out to Livingston for 2 seasons, before return to Meadowbank, which is just five minutes from Easter Road. Despite it the facilities at Meadowbank being awful (stand miles away from the pitch due to running track, no parking etc), they have seen a big uplift in attendances at home matches because it's on the doorstep of the supporter base. I don't know enough about the geography of the area around St James' Park, but anywhere 10-15 minutes away would probably be helpful in boosting visibility, rather than putting up a new facility on the fringes of town, where people need to make a bigger effort to arrange travel.

 

Whatever they end up doing, the future certainly looks bright at the moment for NUFC women.

[OpenC]

I'm not sure if their relatively recent move from Druid Park to Kingston Park was part of the takeover or if their numbers were going up anyway so they had to find somewhere else but I'm not sure Kingston Park has ever been anything other than a temporary measure. I'm not sure what the long term solution is. The big stand at Kingston Park usually looks 40-60% occupied but there are only a couple of dozen behind the goals where I prefer to watch from. They routinely announce the attendances as into the mid 2,000s already and given that the stadium is apparently 10,000ish rated I would say that's probably right. I haven't really got a feel for how many more people would go if they were playing in the Championship and the WSL but the attendances have definitely been on an upward trend since I started going

 

I guess it's inevitable that more people will go if/when they progress up the leagues but the options in the town centre are pretty much nonexistent, unless there's an area of Shieldfield or Manors or Walker I haven't thought about. Maybe that gigantic scrapyard at Ouseburn have heard plenty of people at the game saying that they should just move the men out of SJP and build them the 100k megabowl they think they deserve, and leave SJP for the women

 

[iklgizmo]

I think kingston park will be fine for a while.

The long term aim has to be a combination of doing what Man City do (sharing a smaller stadium with the academy) and what Arsenal have done (having more games at the men's stadium).

Arsenal have been brilliant at gradually building the fan base, to the point where they sold 60,000 seats for their WSL game last weekend. 

As a result, their average attendance this season is currently higher than 9 Premier league teams!!!

 

 

[iklgizmo]

Also agree that location is key! It's easier for Arsenal fans to get to the Emirates than it is Borehamwood! 

[Stifler]

I went to the last game before lockdown, it was international woman’s day that weekend. They had one of their biggest crowds, and that was only just over 200 people.

I think it might have been the last, or one of the last games they played with fans attending, before the takeover.

 

The takeover, like the rest of the club, has obviously got people interested and wanting to go.

It’s interesting because at work I was talking to a couple of people who you would think would never go to a woman’s match, but either go, or would go.

 

If we got to the Championship, I think a 5k seater stadium would be reasonable, with the possibility to extend to 10k, and maybe 15k at the top end for if we get all the way to the WSL, and compete.

 

If you are getting crowds bigger than that, then you are probably just looking at using SJP, or a new stadium more.

 

With the mens team it’s easy, you know that if we match what our owners want to achieve, then we can easily sell out a 70k-80k stadium.

With the women’s it’s more complicated because we don’t know where the ceiling is, both for our own team, and that of the women’s sport in general. You don’t want to go too low and prevent your growth, but you also don’t want to go too high and end up with a facility that is too big for the team.

[et tu brute]

I think it maybe very telling that the Falcons management were photographed in Saudi, with one of our board members. Could well be that a new stadium (or discussions)

maybe on the horizon (guess I know), which will cater for the rugby, NUFC women and academy. 

[Paullow]

Without wanting to come across all Mackematics, does anyone have any idea of how many tickets have currently been sold?

[Iwantcurlyhair2]

Looks like the whole of the East stand, the full leazes paddock and the gallowgate, excluding the very top tier has about 350 seats left. I think most of the Millburn has corporate offers on. I expect the north east corner and the rest of the leazes will open up tomorrow.

 

Think they'll hit 25000ish by Sunday 

[Disco]

4 hours ago, et tu brute said:

I think it maybe very telling that the Falcons management were photographed in Saudi, with one of our board members. Could well be that a new stadium (or discussions)

maybe on the horizon (guess I know), which will cater for the rugby, NUFC women and academy. 

Was always the rumour about the Woolsington Hall site which would tie in nicely and is handy for Darras and the airport. 

[iklgizmo]

Anyone know if you can use your magpie mover tomorrow? I can't see anything so I'm assuming not

[OpenC]

I think they do for Kingston Park games but not sure (assuming this is the free public transport thing). Would be strange if they didn't.

 

While I'm here, cash turnstiles confirmed as well, £8/£2 on the door, for anybody at a loose end tomorrow afternoon

 

 

Edited February 24 by OpenC

[christ]

Taking the daughter tomorrow. Her only previous matchday experience she burst into tears when we scored because of the noise. Hoping that the lasses game is a bit more sedate.