UEFA Women’s Euros Could Draw Record Crowd

In today’s edition of the Front Office Sports newsletter, we’re taking a look at an event that could showcase the growing interest in women’s sports.

Influx of Fans

After a one-year pandemic-related delay, the 2022 UEFA Women’s European Championship begins Wednesday.

Around?500,000 tickets?have been?sold, more than doubling the record?240,000 fans?who attended the 2017 edition in the Netherlands.?

• This year’s competition takes place in England, marking the first time the country has held a women’s soccer tournament since 2005.?
• The?31 games?will be held at 10 stadiums across nine cities.

English soccer’s Football Association?expects?the 16-team tournament to be “the biggest women’s European sport event in history,” generating an estimated?$65 million in revenue?— nearly four times as much as the last tournament — due to higher ticket sales and media and commercial rights.

Last year, UEFA?announced?it would double its prize fund for the tournament to?$18.75 million?and include?guaranteed payments?for each team. The competition’s sponsors include Adidas, Nike,?Visa, and Heineken.

The tournament will air in 195 territories and is expected to bring in more than?250 million viewers, up from 178 million in 2017. BeIN Sports and ESPN will broadcast in the majority of countries, with BBC holding rights in the United Kingdom.

Record Attendance

The influx of fans for the women’s tournament comes as no surprise. Barcelona twice?broke?the?world’s attendance record?for a women’s game in April. Club attendance records were also?broken?in France and England last season.

Conversation Starters

• NBCUniversal will cancel the Olympic Channel on Sept. 30. after a five-year run.
• Hear about the day’s most important business of sports stories in five minutes or less by listening to our daily podcast The Leadoff .
• The Premier League is asking clubs to agree to a voluntary ban on new gambling shirt sponsorship deals.
• Everton FC owner Farhad Moshiri backed away from sale talks with a consortium co-led by Peter Kenyon, former CEO of Manchester United and Chelsea.
• The ACC and Pac-12 are reportedly discussing a “loose partnership” that would see the two conferences play a “championship game” in Las Vegas.

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