Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Women's World Cup proves we'll come for women's sport- if it's worth going to

I went to the football at Eden Park on Friday night. It was great, an almost full stadium and probably -without a lie- the loudest roars from a crowd that I’ve ever heard.

All of the tech was there, they had a drone above the grounds- and everyone who was anyone was there. 

Government ministers, political figures, national sports bosses, small business owners, former national footballers, it was the place to be on Friday night.

And the thing that occurred to me was that it could’ve been a men’s game- that’s how good the quality of everything was. And isn’t that the crucial point?

The quality you get with women’s sport is different. If you want to watch a women’s Super Rugby game, you have to haul ass to Levin to watch an afternoon game in your gummies, like you're watching schoolboy rugby. Or you tune in to some grainy coverage that looks like something out of 1990s rugby coverage.

But this tournament had good stadia, good kick off times, good commentators and good camera operators. 

I had exactly the same thought when I watched the women’s Rugby World Cup final a while back. A good stadium, a good kick off time, good commentators, good camera operators- it was nice to watch. 

And that, I reckon, is part of the reason people have turned up and tuned into this World Cup. 

Because it is a good quality event, and it’s been given the resources to make it enjoyable for us as modern crowds. 

I'm not a hopeless optimistic and I'm not going to make the argument that if you simply resource women’s sport properly, you'll attract the same crowds as men’s sport. You won’t, it’s not going to happen.

At least part of the reason the stadia was full for this tournament was that the tickets were extremely cheap and the organisers gave thousands away. But even then, the turnout was impressive.

Because New Zealand is not a football country, and it is definitely not a women’s football country.

But the lesson here is that there’s not point hoping we will do the right thing and go watch women’s sport, and there’s no point in women’s sport advocates trying to harangue people into going.

The sports bosses have to make it quality if they want us to come. And we'll come. The crowds  won’t be as big as men’s crowds, that's life.

But people will go if it’s worth going, like this tournament has hands down proved.

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