WOMEN’S football in Scotland can take a leap forward and drive up not only the standard, but attendances too, on the back of the SWPL deal with Sky Sports.
That’s the view of SWPL managing director Fiona McIntyre, who believes that there is a massive appetite for the women’s game in Scotland, and that exposure on Sky can help take the sport to the next level north of the border, emulating the burgeoning success of women’s football in England.
“I think in the context of women’s football in Scotland this is a hugely important deal,” McIntyre said.
“It’s the single biggest commercial deal we’ve ever had across the game, all parts of women’s football in Scotland, so from that perspective it is a landmark day for us.
“It really does feel as if something exciting is happening and the clubs are phoning and texting and that is the message that is certainly coming through loud and clear.
“There is a real excitement and a buzz about what is happening in the women’s game in Scotland. We’re always compared to England, the proximity we have to them makes that an obvious comparison.
“But we can use some of the energy that comes from their momentum in the Euros, for example, where we saw record crowds in the first week of the SWPL and that has just followed on from the Euros.
“This arrangement we have with Sky now in terms of this partnership is probably representative of the growth of women’s football overall, but also the work we’ve done here in Scotland, and also the move over to the SWPL has been really important to get it over the line.”
McIntyre thinks the addition of five to 10 matches on Sky Sports can also help the SWPL reach a new audience outwith those already engaged with the sport.
“The way this partnership is structured, we’ve got the perfect balance,” she said.
“We have our long-term supporter in BBC Alba who will still have 26 live games per season, we’ve got the highlights programme that launched last year really successfully and that’s been extended this year from 30 minutes to 45.
“What we are doing with Sky is in addition to what we are already doing, so we have that week-to-week visibility through terrestrial channels which is really important, but also those five to 10 games that are on Sky, which will give us an opportunity to reach a different audience.
“That’s people who are fans of Sky Sports, have Sky Sports News on all the time, they will hear about and see the SWPL. It just allows us to access that new audience.”
