Sheffield United Women

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Sheffsteel said:
With respect that doesn’t really make any sense.
Owners of most clubs are investors, top businessmen motivated by profit, of course they will be looking at the women’s side closely
so see if it’s worth the effort, comparing income versus costs, however as mentioned good PR offers benefits that can’t easily be measured.

I see women’s football a little like when McCabe bought Chengdu Blades in China years ago.
At the moment women’s football is on a slow upward rise but it does make you wonder where it’s heading, will it stabilise, grow or dwindle?

If it was like you suggest then surely there would be loads of owners gambling big sums desperate to get in the WSL.
Also not sure how the WSL can be high return opportunity, with ticket prices of £10 and the bottom 6 averaging 1,000 to 3,000.
Assume it must be loss making apart from Arsenal, who have done fantastic, comfortably the best supported club in the world, far higher than any in the US.
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I would suggest women's football will only improve and get bigger given the amount of girls now playing. Whether there will be the structure to support it is another matter.

I agree with the post above that getting and staying in the WSL is a huge opportunity. We're the only club in Yorkshire at a decent level. There's easily the potential to pull in 10-20k per week if we did. Add in the merchandising, advertising etc and I think it would be very good for the club.
 
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Sheffsteel said:
Also not sure how the WSL can be high return opportunity, with ticket prices of £10 and the bottom 6 averaging 1,000 to 3,000.
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But that isn't the only return. United reach a whole new audience with women's football that then becomes much more likely to start coming to men's matches. We draw in fans from much further afield (south barnsley and beyond) as we're the only big club. We attract incremental sponsorship into the club; businesses we aren't currently speaking to, who might then become men's team sponsors.

Progressive, well managed clubs aren't ignoring the women's game. We ought to be doing the same.
 
There's SO much football on tv that there's no real need for me to see a lesser version of the men's game. So I don't watch but I fully support it being a thing for others.

If you look at the make up of a normal mens game it's mostly men in the stadium. The women's game is more of a mix especially with younger girls. If that gets them into the coming to games as adults watching then men too it's win win.
 
Sheffsteel said:
Wednesday don’t even officially have a women’s team.

There is a women’s team called Sheffield Wednesday playing local Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley based women’s football (think it’s about the 6th tier)
and SWFC have allowed them to use the Sheff Wed name and club shirts but they receive zero finance given from them.

Women’s football is another area where we are light years ahead of Wednesday.
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All women's football would be at that level if it wasn't financed and supported by the men's teams they are affiliated with
 
Does anyone know how much it takes to run an average Championship club? There's £400k of funding. Surely it doesn't take that much more? Less than Tom Cannon Canon's agent fee
 
Edgar Allan Poo said:
Prefer it if they were all non affiliated myself.
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Been banging this drum for years. No way a Sheffield United women's team is successful. Half the city is already alienated and of the other half, 95% are 100% focused on the men's team. 1 women's professional side, not affiliated to either Utd or Weds and therefore able to draw support from both, stands a much better chance of ever standing on its own 2 feet. I suspect that's the case for quite a few cities or metropolitan areas.
 
Bristol started out as Bristol Rovers, then became Bristol Academy, and is now Bristol City, they probably need the City money to exist but the Academy years where it was supported by fans of both clubs seems a much better idea than cutting off part of your potential support.
 
Blade for Sale said:
Been banging this drum for years. No way a Sheffield United women's team is successful. Half the city is already alienated and of the other half, 95% are 100% focused on the men's team. 1 women's professional side, not affiliated to either Utd or Weds and therefore able to draw support from both, stands a much better chance of ever standing on its own 2 feet. I suspect that's the case for quite a few cities or metropolitan areas.
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It just won't ever work, there is no real support for the women's game it's a minority sport and always will be , as much as the media try to make out it's this huge global sport that's the fastest growing game on the planet, I know the top clubs are now successful and the games are on sky etc, but again piggy backed on the mens game, let the, build their own grounds, negotiate their own kit manufacturer deals, fund their own coaches, remove all the infrastructure of the men's game completely and let it exist as a completely separate entity and let sky have a dedicated women's football channel that's subscription only and you will soon see that the game becomes what it is a minority sport, watched mainly by families and kids that get free tickets at school, and it will drop back to being amateur within 10 years
 
Blade for Sale said:
Been banging this drum for years. No way a Sheffield United women's team is successful. Half the city is already alienated and of the other half, 95% are 100% focused on the men's team. 1 women's professional side, not affiliated to either Utd or Weds and therefore able to draw support from both, stands a much better chance of ever standing on its own 2 feet. I suspect that's the case for quite a few cities or metropolitan areas.
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How is that being funded?

Being a United team gives it kit, coaches, training facilities, somewhere to play, ticket services, marketing, social media etc
 
robbiez666 said:
How is that being funded?

Being a United team gives it kit, coaches, training facilities, somewhere to play, ticket services, marketing, social media etc
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The same way all startups get funded. Initiative, investment, organic growth, evolution. If the limit of ambition for women's football in Sheffield is a heavily subsidised, poorly supported bolt on with no independence whatsoever, fine, maintain the status quo.
 
Blade for Sale said:
The same way all startups get funded. Initiative, investment, organic growth, evolution. If the limit of ambition for women's football in Sheffield is a heavily subsidised, poorly supported bolt on with no independence whatsoever, fine, maintain the status quo.
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You may have noticed that Sheffield isn't an economic powerhouse overflowing with millionaires looking to throw money away on a heavy upfront investment.

What league would they start in?
Where would they play?
 

robbiez666 said:
You may have noticed that Sheffield isn't an economic powerhouse overflowing with millionaires looking to throw money away on a heavy upfront investment.

What league would they start in?
Where would they play?
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Where they play initially would depend on the level of investment such a club is able to attract. It doesn't have to come from the local area. What league they start in would be down to the authorities. How successful it is would largely come down to the city's apetite for women's football, which I suspect would be higher under this guise than the current insanity of a minority team immediately closing itself off from 50% of an already challenging market.
 
Blade for Sale said:
Where they play initially would depend on the level of investment such a club is able to attract. It doesn't have to come from the local area. What league they start in would be down to the authorities. How successful it is would largely come down to the city's apetite for women's football, which I suspect would be higher under this guise than the current insanity of a minority team immediately closing itself off from 50% of an already challenging market.
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You would have a valid point if the current situation was handed over to an independent organisation. As it stands, the kit, training, medical, social media, signing, admin, ticketing, stadium etc etc is done as part of the wider club business.

But you thing Sheffield should just start from scratch with magic beans?
 
robbiez666 said:
You would have a valid point if the current situation was handed over to an independent organisation. As it stands, the kit, training, medical, social media, signing, admin, ticketing, stadium etc etc is done as part of the wider club business.

But you thing Sheffield should just start from scratch with magic beans?
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en.m.wikipedia.org

London City Lionesses - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

I think they would do well to break from SUFC if they can secure some investment, similar to London City who schismed from Millwall.
 
robbiez666 said:
Lol. London. Bit different to a poor northern city.
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Yes but it has 15 women's teams. We can't even make 1 work, mainly, and I can't stress this enough, because it alienates 50% of the population of the city. As I've already said, if we want to maintain the status quo of a terribly preforming, utterly dependent bolt on to a mens team, fine, but all indicators point to it going absolutely fucking nowhere.
 
Blade for Sale said:
Yes but it has 15 women's teams. We can't even make 1 work, mainly, and I can't stress this enough, because it alienates 50% of the population of the city. As I've already said, if we want to maintain the status quo of a terribly preforming, utterly dependent bolt on to a mens team, fine, but all indicators point to it going absolutely fucking nowhere.
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You make a fair comment about the women's team but you seem to think that replicating the current position is likely to happen when it clearly isn't.
 
Blade for Sale said:
Yes but it has 15 women's teams. We can't even make 1 work, mainly, and I can't stress this enough, because it alienates 50% of the population of the city. As I've already said, if we want to maintain the status quo of a terribly preforming, utterly dependent bolt on to a mens team, fine, but all indicators point to it going absolutely fucking nowhere.
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It it is working. Most weeks getting 1000 fans. You wouldn't be saying non league doesn't work. Is it different? Yes but it works.
 
Blade for Sale said:
It's facing relegation to a tier akin to the Sheffield and District Cubs league. It's not working very well.
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But it's still working. It's providing a new commercial arm for the club that hopefully grows over time. It isn't for me but you have to be thick to see there isn't a potential upside. 500 or so young girls regularly going to the lane in 20 years will be adults with money to spend on the club.
 
It very much is going to depend if the owners are interested. Relegation out of the top two tiers would be a devastating blow as without that there is even less coverage in the UK + the funding of £400k for membership disappears.

My guess is if that if they are relegated - the new owners will be more likely to pull the plug - particularly if the men’s team are not promoted to the Premier League - as money will be tighter and the focus will remain on them and Premier League football.
 
Blade for Sale said:
It's facing relegation to a tier akin to the Sheffield and District Cubs league. It's not working very well.
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Is that the case? I think the Third Tier currently includes Nottingham Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Derby County.
 
Berkshire Blade said:
Attendance wise it's the 5th biggest sport in the country
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Im sure it is and I'm sure they would get exactly the same attendances if they had to fund multi billion pound stadiums to play in themselves and were charging £60+ per game to cover the costs
 
wak1889 said:
Im sure it is and I'm sure they would get exactly the same attendances if they had to fund multi billion pound stadiums to play in themselves and were charging £60+ per game to cover the costs
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Nobody is pretending they don't get a leg up off the men's game but it's clearly popular even if I don't even watch the national side unless there's absolutely nothing else I can do!
 
Berkshire Blade said:
Nobody is pretending they don't get a leg up off the men's game but it's clearly popular even if I don't even watch the national side unless there's absolutely nothing else I can do!
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Yes it's popular it's massively promoted but my point is it is still a minority sport and always will be however you want to dress it up as the standard is absolutely abysmal compared to the men's game , a good men's amateur team would annihilate every women's team in the country, darts is massively popular since sky took it over it's still a relative minority sport
 

wak1889 said:
Yes it's popular it's massively promoted but my point is it is still a minority sport and always will be however you want to dress it up as the standard is absolutely abysmal compared to the men's game , a good men's amateur team would annihilate every women's team in the country, darts is massively popular since sky took it over it's still a relative minority sport
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I really don't see what point you are trying to fight against. Nobody is here pretending it's just as good or just as big but really it's a massively growing sector of sport right now so why not stick it out and see where it goes over the next 10 years if it's anything like the last 10?
 
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