In 8 days time on the 22nd August the 2025 Rugby Women's World Cup begins and to be frank I could not care less as I have no interest in watching the sport. I love my rugby but females playing the sport is not the same and it never will be.
I was watching some ex players discussing the "hard sell" trying to get rugby supporters to buy into this and this is not straight forward. I think it is great that women can enjoy playing all sports, but making it professional is what makes no sense as is there a demand for this?
Apparently what has been happening in certain parts of the world is have the ladies play a curtain raiser game before a big match to try and get the public interest. They mentioned maybe having the women play before the men's game would help fund their sport and this sounds ludicrous as that is not a financially sound argument. This would dilute the earnings for the male sport by piggy back on the earnings and is not a sign or reflection where the sport is. This sounds more like a charity than a proper business that is sustainable.
Would I pay $100 to watch women play rugby and the answer is a big no and even if it was free I would not attend. The standards are not the same and even if they improved considerably the desire is just not there as then the number of matches would double and that would be over kill. You can only watch so much sport and having both make and female playing the same sport you are going to choose one over the other. That is the simple reality and why there is no room for both because financially they can never be the same.
The World Cup is being played in England with England having the biggest support in this female sport of rugby. If you watch all of the other teams games they will not be so well supported and why they have smaller stadiums for the majority of the matches.
England are favorites even though they lost the last World Cup to New Zealand and now the South African team just beat the New Zealanders a few weeks ago for the very first time. If England do not win the World Cup and reach the final it will be a financial disaster due to the numbers not supporting the other teams. Could you fill a 90 000 seater stadium between South Africa and New Zealand? The demand is not there and the chances are it will never be there.
Host nation England are the favourites, but defending champions New Zealand, as well Canada, France and Australia, will all fancy their chances of lifting the trophy at Twickenham Stadium.
Funny how no mention of SA even though they just demolished the New Zealand ladies national team 41-24.
The funny thing about this is the SA coach of the men's team got involved with one or two training sessions and the result was they won against a team no one thought they could. I am sure he will be offering the ladies more sessions seeing what or how he can influence their results. This is like a new challenge and one he could not turn down so guaranteed he is having some say on how they play. SA could easily upset the favorites and this was not expected or part of the plan. The organisers would have expected an England New Zealand sell out final which may happen still , but there is also a good chance this may not happen.
Odds of 351 to 1 does not sound like anyone gives them a realistic shot and may actually go and stick some on them tomorrow. I have no idea as squad depth etc plays a big role in such an event, but this is not that crazy with these odds.
Even if SA won this World Cup the support base could grow, but it is still not going to be a sell out each time they play. There is a big difference between 15000 supporters and 100 000 because to justify making a sport professional you have to pay your way and not rely on the men to subsidise your salaries. This is a niche sport and is not mainstream and is in the same boat as basketball in the US. Would the NFL be able to have a ladies NFL and would it get the same type of hype and support because it would not so why do people think they can grow ladies sport and scale it to the height of the men's sport because that is not being realistic or sane. A niche sport yes, but mainstream definitely not and not even close.