All the commercial details you need to know about the first-ever 32-team Fifa Women’s World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand.
Another year, another landmark moment in the ongoing commercial development of women’s soccer.
Fifa hopes two billion people will watch the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which got underway on Thursday and is the first to feature 32 teams. That would be nearly double the 1.12 billion who tuned in for the 2019 edition in France, where 24 countries competed.
Close to 1.4 million tickets have already been sold for 64 matches taking place across Australia and New Zealand, surpassing the record total for the tournament set eight years ago in Canada. The co-hosts remain optimistic of reaching their ticket sales target of 1.5 million.
However, the headlines going into the tournament haven’t all been positive. Media rights to the Women’s World Cup were sold separately to the men’s equivalent for the first time, which led to a standoff in some key European markets as Fifa president Gianni Infantino dug in his heels and publicly called on broadcasters to improve their offers. Reports last week suggested that soccer’s global governing body missed its broadcast rights revenue target by US$100 million, falling short of its US$300 million goal.
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