Bonus issue: the Double-Header Dilemma

Today it was announced that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be hosting the club's first-ever Premier League and Women's Super League double-header on Saturday, May 20. The Men's game against Brentford will be followed immediately by the Women's game against Reading, with just under four hours between kickoffs.

The announcement was met with a mixed response from Spurs fans, and I believe that is primarily due to the timing. It's easy to make the assumption that this last-minute decision was an attempt to portray the club as a positive force behind the Women’s team after the recent bad press brought about by Daniel Levy. He came under fire for his questionable comments about women’s football and the future of the WSL (including in this newsletter, but also check out this superb piece on ESPN by Sophie Lawson and a heartfelt fan perspective from David Puckridge). Once again, it feels like the Women’s team has simultaneously been treated as an afterthought while also used as a convenient PR cudgel.

Perhaps if this double-header had come earlier in the season and with plenty of advance notice it would not feel like such a logistical imposition on Spurs Women's most loyal fans. Already there is a lot of anxiety about how ticketing is going to work (or not), as well as concerns about how the result of the Men's game could have a negative effect on the atmosphere for the Women's game if the fans who stick around for the second game are in a disgruntled mood. Is that a fair risk to put upon the Women's team for such a crucial relegation six-pointer? Because barring a surprise victory this weekend against Manchester United, the team will need a result in the Reading game to be assured of safety in the WSL. This was probably not the fixture to gamble with a double-header experiment.

As I wrote in the SAtP issue published earlier today, "The club has avoided acknowledging the relegation fight Spurs Women are in at the cost of helping fans who do attend the games to understand the stakes of the football they're about to watch." It's still early so far—there are two weeks between now and the double-header to rectify this—but besides the initial announcement, there has only been one other post drawing attention to the two-game event:  a clip from Ryan Mason's presser for the Men's game in which he frames the occasion as... a patriotic duty, I suppose.

Maybe the impending coronation has put national identity on his brain? I do appreciate the implication there that women's football should be a part of English sporting identity and heritage, and it could be that his answer made sense in response to the actual question asked, which wasn't included in the clip. But it's still disappointing that already the conversation around the Women's portion of the double-header is being reduced to the same old "inspirational" messaging that has limited proper promotion of women's football for so long. For more on this phenomenon, see Rachel Lara Cohen's astute takedown of the trend.

I don’t need to be inspired

The focus of women’s football on inspiring young girls limits the growth of the game. When Usain Bolt ran the 100 meters in 9.58 seconds. I was mesmerised. It was spectacular. It did not mean my ow…

Spurs WomenRachel Lara Cohen

I realize I've been a bit link-happy in this bonus issue, but truthfully, it's quite a hot topic in the world of women's football at the moment. I also enjoyed this special episode of the Upfront podcast from Football Ramble that featured football agent and director of Women in Football, Jo Tongue. She observed that there is a lack of storytelling around women's football fixtures in general, in contrast to media about men's football which always situates matchups in the context of rivalries, commonality with past and present players, or other aspects that can lend excitement and tension to the narrative around the game. Too often there is zero narrative around a women's game beyond those tokenizing inspirational messages. Fans need to know why specific games matter from the perspective of footballing consequences, not hear platitudes about the value of women's football overall—platitudes that often reduce it to a second-class status that doesn't reflect the strong growth of the game in recent years.

There's still time for Tottenham to craft that context for potential attendees of the double-header, but they must get on it quickly. The last thing the Women's team needs is a casual, "family-friendly" atmosphere for a game that is likely to be hotly contested on the pitch. They will need engaged and vocal support from the home crowd to actually gain an advantage from playing at THS rather than the admittedly imperfect but more familiar Brisbane Road, where the most diehard Spurs Women fans have become used to gathering (if reluctantly). That many of those dedicated fans will undoubtedly have to miss out on the final home match of the season because of the late change in schedule is an undisputed blunder from the club, and they will only have themselves to blame if their trust is permanently lost.

My biggest fear around the decision to hold a double-header is that we're going to see a stark confirmation of the elephant in the room:  the fact that a large portion of the fanbase for the Men's team simply doesn't care about the Women's team and have very little interest in changing their level of engagement. It's cynical of me, but I worry that the combination of this apathy from many Men's fans and the lack of captivating marketing around the Women's team is going to lead to an embarrassing attendance figure for the second game of the double-header, in a season where there have already been many disturbingly low attendances for Spurs Women games. I don't pretend to know what the secret is to converting fans of the Men's team into avid fans of the Women's team, too—those who are even willing to be converted in the first place, of course—but there are other teams in the WSL who have cracked or are beginning to crack the code. I don't think this slapdash approach from Tottenham is going to work in any meaningful sense, though I would love to be proven wrong.

I've attended one double-header event in my life as a football fan:  the Women's Cup that Spurs Women participated in last summer during their pre-season. Some people have expressed concern that it's too long for fans to be expected to hang out at the stadium and therefore will lead to an inevitable drop-off for the second game, the Women's fixture. But I think THS is much better equipped to facilitate this kind of marathon stint of stadium life than the ground I went to for the Women's Cup—which was a very nice stadium by US soccer standards, but had limited food and other hospitality options, in contrast to THS which is the legitimate gold standard in world football when it comes to amenities. Fans will have plenty to eat and drink, plenty of places to relax and be diverted during the pause between the fixtures, and plenty of camaraderie to be found with other fans since this double-header involves teams from the same club (unlike the Women's Cup that featured various teams on the same matchday). That aspect of the event is the lowest cause for concern out of all the potential obstacles, in my opinion.  

So I suppose I fall somewhere down the middle in terms of how confident I am that this double-header can be a successful event for the club. There's potential for them to pull it off if they get a jump start on marketing it more comprehensively, but there's a lot of potential for downside as well. The relationship between the club and the most loyal fans of Spurs Women is already tenuous at best, and this decision could fray it beyond repair for many of them if their experience is not adequately accommodated.

One solution to prevent this kind of debacle in the future is to coordinate with supporters groups like Tottenham Women Supporters Club and the Proud Lilywhites to gauge unmet supporter needs (like consistent, clear ticketing practices and improved stadium ambience at Brisbane Road) and ensure the club is communicating with fans in a transparent and timely manner. Whether the club would like to acknowledge it or not, the fact is that the Women's fanbase is not yet robust enough for Spurs to be able to afford alienating even a small percentage. Instead, they should be valued and prioritized in decision-making around fixtures whenever possible.

As I've said many times, it's embarrassing that our club always seems to be one step behind the curve when it comes to running the Women's team. A lot of the issues faced are self-imposed, and the decision to abruptly host a double-header with the Men's team at the last possible matchday is another example of "too little, too late" thinking. What could have been a good idea in theory has in practice only served to make fans more wary of the direction the club is taking with the Women's team. There was a way to do this correctly, but that ship had sailed mid-season when there was ample time for preparation and promotion. Now the club can only hope not to be shamed by a lukewarm response and further scrutiny from the media and frustrated fans alike.

I would love to be pleasantly surprised by the primarily Men's team-focused fanbase showing up for the Women's team for once. I just won't be holding my breath based on previous letdowns.

COYS

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