Amy Drucquer, founder of This Fan Girl, an online community project for female football fans, urged pubs to seize the opportunity presented by the sporting competition.
In 2015, the tournament was watched by 764m viewers and FIFA hopes enthusiasm created by the England men team’s success last summer will encourage even more viewers for this year’s competition.
Female fans are often hypersexualised in media coverage and imagery, Drucquer explained at an industry briefing event organised by Match Pint.
Such perceptions can make it “intimidating and lonely” for women to go to the pub by themselves to watch a game, she said.
The project organises meet-ups in London and Manchester where female fans can watch games together at the pub.
Fan excitement
Drucquer predicted the World Cup would be the biggest audience for women’s football “by a country mile”, as interest, investment and participation in women’s football are all at their highest ever levels.
The Lionesses are predicted to do well in the competition and could even meet the US for a rematch of the recent SheBelieves Cup, which England won. Such a meeting could mean an “exciting moment of fan rivalry” of a comparable level to England v Germany men’s team matches.
Some 56% of respondents to a survey from MatchPint said they would watch the games in a pub this summer, as opposed to 6% just at home.
However, 37% of people said they would be watching the tournament at a combination of both a pub and home.
Stopping punters from “falling back on the sofa”, will be a key battle for publicans said Dom Collingwood, the co-founder of MatchPint.
Paul Filler, from Magnify Marketing agency, called women’s football a “prime example” of an opportunity for growth.
Young people are drinking less but when they do, it is for occasions, he said.
However, these customers are “not quick wins,” he said.
“You have to start to think long term. This is a huge opportunity if we get it right”.