What's next for women's sport? - Ticketmaster Sport

On 14 November 2018 at Twickenham Stadium, Ticketmaster officially launched State of Play: Sport UK, the latest study in the annual State of Play series, surveying 12,000 people across the country on their attitudes to sport with a specific focus on football, rugby union and cricket.

The report reveals some fascinating insights which examine public attitudes to watching, attending and participating in sport, from local to professional matches, with breakout sections on fan behaviour and the challenges faced in women’s sport.

Marking the launch, we held an all-female panel to discuss one of the key themes that emerged from the report, ‘What’s next for women’s sport in the UK?‘ Hosted by broadcaster Matt Barbet, we welcomed some very special guests to the panel:

Alex Scott MBE, Arsenal WFC Captain
Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE, Olympic Gold Medal winning English Hockey Captain
Lisa O’Keefe, Director of Insight, Sport England
Sally Bolton, Strategic Planning & Operations Director, All England Lawn Tennis Club
Karthi Gnanasegaram, Broadcaster

During the panel, the guests took part in an insightful discussion regarding women’s sport, touching on some of the issues that the research revealed, including, the marked difference in perception between men’s and women’s sport, whose responsibility it is to readdress the balance and most importantly, what more can be done to help grow women’s sport in the future.

Sally Bolton: “Society needs to do more to keep up the momentum in growing women’s sport. The statistic in the Ticketmaster Report on youth supporting women’s sport is very encouraging – but we shouldn’t be complacent about the progress made. Women as pundits may be seen by some as tokenism now but is and will continue to become the norm, we just need to keep going”

Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE: “Once companies start investing more money in women’s sport, the growth will be massive and immediate. A little bit of sponsorship goes a long way. In short everyone wins.”

Lisa O’Keefe: “If we want to see more people take part, have interest in, or become fans of sport we need to do two jobs. First we need to encourage sports fans to grow their interest in their favourite sports or teams to include the women’s teams. Build on their affinity to the brand to engage them in great entertainment. Secondly, we need to work hard to make sport work better for the many girls and women who have concluded its not for them. We know that children are more likely to be active if their mothers are, so the benefits here could be long lasting.

A huge thanks to our panellists and host Matt Barbet for contributing a great deal of thought and insight to our panel discussion. To learn more, download a copy of the report today.