Women’s Football Net Gains: Another Female Sport Is Becoming a Big Business

“Is this how we should show up before you come to our games?” read the frustrated slogan of the French national team, posing nude during the women’s football World Cup in 2011. At this year’s tournament in France figures smashed records without such desperate measures. FIFA, the game’s governing body, estimates that it drew a total of 1bn viewers, up from 750m four years ago in Canada. The semi-final featuring England was the most watched television programme of the year so far in Britain. Some 14m Americans saw their team beat the Dutch 2-0 to win their fourth title on July 7th, more than tuned in to most basketball and baseball league finals.考生如果怕自己錯過考試成績查詢的話，可以 免費預約短信提醒，屆時會以短信的方式提醒大家報名和考試時間。

Sponsors have taken note. Visa, a payment-card network with a taste for supporting high-profile sports events, spent as much promoting it as it did on the men’s competition. Earlier this year Barclays, a bank, became the first ever title sponsor of the English Women’s Super League (WSL) in a deal said to be worth over £10m ($12.6m). On July 5th Alipay, China’s electronic-payments giant, announced a 1bn yuan ($145m) ten-year deal with the Chinese women’s football team.

The women’s game is luring brands which have previously been shut out of the sport because of the way sponsorships of women’s teams were bundled with those of men’s sides. Avon, a beauty and cosmetics company, became the first to sponsor a women’s professional football club, signing an exclusive deal with Liverpool FC Women in 2017. In April Boots, a pharmacy chain, struck partnerships with the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the Irish Republic. Arkema, a chemicals firm, recently bought the naming rights to the top French women’s league in a deal worth ?m ($1.1m) a year over three years – peanuts compared with the ?5m a year the men’s league receives from its main sponsor, but a start.

Sixty percent of women’s football teams in the biggest leagues now sport front-of-shirt patrons different to those for the men’s team at the same club, according to Deloitte. The consultancy reckons this could approach 100% by the next World Cup in 2023. The number of European national associations with dedicated women’s football sponsors rose from nine in 2013 to 17 in 2017.

Kelly Simmons, director of the professional women’s game at England’s football association, says that these multi-million-pound deals have been transformative. The big bucks, though, will come with broadcasting rights. Men’s English Premier League games bring in more than £3bn a year from broadcasters. France’s top female league sold five-year rights to Canal+, a pay-TV firm, for ?m – a trifle but six times more than two years ago. TF1, the most popular French TV station, raised ad prices twice in a week for France matches, earning an estimated ?m as the home team reached the knockout stages. In Britain women’s-football rights were handed over to BT, a telecoms company, and the BBC, the public broadcaster, at virtually no cost. Expect negotiations for new contracts, set to begin now that the tournament is over, to be much more of a contest.

女子足球穩賺：又一項女子運動變成大生意

“我們非得這樣，你們才會來看比賽嗎?”這是法國國家隊在2011年女足世界杯期間的全裸宣傳寫真上的辛酸口號。今年在法國的女足世界杯上，無需這樣的“苦肉計”觀眾人數也破了紀錄。運營女足世界杯的國際足聯估計，本屆賽事共吸引了10億觀眾，較之四年前加拿大那一屆的7.5億觀眾顯著提升。有英格蘭隊參加的半決賽是今年迄今為止英國收視率最高的電視節目。7月7日，約1400萬美國人觀看了美國隊以2比0擊敗荷蘭隊、第四次捧杯的決賽，比大多數籃球和棒球聯賽決賽的觀眾人數都多。

贊助商們注意到了這種變化。一向熱衷贊助重大體育賽事的支付卡網絡Visa已經將對女足世界杯的贊助投入提高到和男足世界杯不相上下。今年早些時候，巴克萊銀行成為英格蘭女足超級聯賽(WSL)的首位冠名贊助商，據稱贊助協議價值超過1000萬英鎊(1260萬美元)。7月5日，中國電子支付巨頭支付寶宣布與中國女子足球隊達成價值10億元人民幣的十年合約。

女足賽事正在吸引新的贊助商。過去因為女足與男足賽事的贊助權捆綁銷售，一些品牌無法參與。美妝公司雅芳2017年與利物浦女子足球俱樂部簽訂獨家協議，成為第一家贊助女子職業足球俱樂部的公司。4月，藥店連鎖Boots與英格蘭、蘇格蘭、威爾士、北愛爾蘭及愛爾蘭的女足國家隊建立了合作伙伴關系。化學品公司阿科瑪(Arkema)最近與法甲女足聯賽簽訂了每年價值100萬歐元(110萬美元)、為期三年的冠名贊助協議。這與法甲男足聯賽每年從其主贊助商那里獲得的1500萬歐元贊助相比是小巫見大巫，但總歸是個開始。

根據咨詢公司德勤的數據，在最大的那些足球聯賽里，現在60%的女子足球隊的球衣胸前廣告贊助商和同一個俱樂部里男隊的贊助商都不是同一家。德勤估計，到2023年下一屆世界杯時，這一比例可能達到近100%。歐洲各國足協里，有專門的女足贊助商的足協數量從2013年的9個增加到了2017年的17個。

英格蘭足總的女足聯賽主管凱莉·西蒙斯(Kelly Simmons)說，這些價值數百萬英鎊的協議帶來了變革性影響。不過，收入的大頭將是轉播權。男足英超聯賽每年可從各家廣播公司獲得超過30億英鎊的轉播收入。法甲女足聯賽以600萬歐元的價格向付費電視公司Canal+出售了五年的轉播權，雖說比起來只是毛毛雨，但已是兩年前價格的六倍。法國收視率最高的電視頻道法國電視一臺(TF1)在本國女足隊挺進淘汰賽之后，一周之內兩次提高了法國隊比賽的廣告價格，估計大賺900萬歐元。在英國，女足轉播權幾乎免費給了英國電信(BT)和公共廣播公司BBC。現在世界杯已經結束，新合同的談判即將開始，等著看一場激烈競爭上演吧。

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