We have had season tickets with CAFC women for a couple of years now, and attended home games intermittently before that. The improvement has been very noticeable, especially when CAFC went professional. I love it and as a child played football in the streets on a daily basis, with the lads. Never did it at school and no teams to join then so went into running, netball and hockey. But this generation, hopefully will have the opportunities to try it. Shame that school P.E. gets limited more and more in the timetable, so local clubs will be essential for girls. I really saw red, when Gabby Yorath said: 'Get down to watch the WSL' at the end of the show! There are many other teams as well. Still buzzing for the women and wish I could have been in Wembley yesterday. Brilliant win!
Out of interest will this tempt any of you to watch Charlton Women now?
I'll amend my answer to your question as I obviously wouldn't be going to watch CAFC Women.
This fantastic achievement by the England Women's team won't tempt me to watch domestic women's football in the same way that the men winning the Rugby World Cup didn't tempt me to watch domestic rugby, or the men's England cricket team winning major honours hasn't tempted me to watch domestic cricket.
It's exactly the same scenario for me. Little to no interest in the domestic game but will watch the major tournaments.
Out of interest will this tempt any of you to watch Charlton Women now?
I'll amend my answer to your question as I obviously wouldn't be going to watch CAFC Women.
This fantastic achievement by the England Women's team won't tempt me to watch domestic women's football in the same way that the men winning the Rugby World Cup didn't tempt me to watch domestic rugby, or the men's England cricket team winning major honours hasn't tempted me to watch domestic cricket.
It's exactly the same scenario for me. Little to no interest in the domestic game but will watch the major tournaments.
The big problem at present is building an audience for the domestic game.
I wish they wouldn’t keep banging on about ending 56 years of hurt though.
It hasn’t - that’s the mens team
It's 51 years since 1971 when the ban was lifted that women could play organised football in parks.
The final had a happy ending but it was brutal for both teams with the sixth match with the world watching. Stanways is a brilliant player but her early booking shackled her after nearly getting a second yellow.
Russo didn't have the same impact as in other games as we didn't get the ball to her feet which can be magical if anyone's memory is long enough to remember the other 5 matches.
Kelly the girl who played in the cages with her five brothers and got kicked and had to fight to prove her worth was brilliant when she came on and so good in tight spaces by the byline and the game management was superb near the end.
As I said in the group games, Russo, Kelly and Toone, with their 3 different skill sets will be the difference between winning and being another hard luck story in football.
My Favourite player Keira Walsh made the long pass of the match for Toone's goal, a pass of sublime skill with a finish of excellence, fit for a Euro's final.
Out of interest will this tempt any of you to watch Charlton Women now?
I'll amend my answer to your question as I obviously wouldn't be going to watch CAFC Women.
This fantastic achievement by the England Women's team won't tempt me to watch domestic women's football in the same way that the men winning the Rugby World Cup didn't tempt me to watch domestic rugby, or the men's England cricket team winning major honours hasn't tempted me to watch domestic cricket.
It's exactly the same scenario for me. Little to no interest in the domestic game but will watch the major tournaments.
The big problem at present is building an audience for the domestic game.
Bring prices for the men's game down.
Thats always going to be the bigger lure for people, at least for the time being, it may continue to change in the distance future - Once people have forked out money for going to those games, they cant justify the cost of going to women's games too.
Doesnt help either that Men appear to play Saturdays, Women appear to play Sundays.
I wouldnt want to spend my whole weekend going to watch Football - Especially when I have other things to be doing.
Maybe they should experiment... When Charlton Men play at home, the ladies are away, with all games on a Saturday, meaning there is also the potential for the Valley etc. to be used as the sole venue - Of course you're going to get fans who'll prefer to attend away games, but for those who cant be bothered with travelling all day, may instead opt to go and watch the ladies instead.
It's possible that I might be tempted to watch a Charlton women's game, in the same way I occasionally will watch non league matches. To be honest though, I'd be more tempted to see a WSL match in order to see some of the England stars, as I don't feel that attachment to Charlton women that I do to the men's team.
Well what a night, finally floating slowly down to the ground. The game itself has been commented on a lot, but just wanted to comment on what a brilliant experience it was at the stadium last night. I've never been in a more diverse, open and warm crowd at a football match. Be it age, gender, sexuality or race, it was a great melting pot, loads of joy. We sat next to German supporters, who were humble and gracious regardless of the result.
It felt very London 2012.
As for going to see Charlton women, we'll be going, and my son just sees it as Football, and a Charlton team he wants to win, in the same way he just saw it as an England team, and he now wants an England shirt with Toone 20 on the back of it. He honestly doesn't care they are the women's team, he cares they are an England team who gave him his best footballing memory to date.
Well what a night, finally floating slowly down to the ground. The game itself has been commented on a lot, but just wanted to comment on what a brilliant experience it was at the stadium last night. I've never been in a more diverse, open and warm crowd at a football match. Be it age, gender, sexuality or race, it was a great melting pot, loads of joy. We sat next to German supporters, who were humble and gracious regardless of the result.
It felt very London 2012.
As for going to see Charlton women, we'll be going, and my son just sees it as Football, and a Charlton team he wants to win, in the same way he just saw it as an England team, and he now wants an England shirt with Toone 20 on the back of it. He honestly doesn't care they are the women's team, he cares they are an England team who gave him his best footballing memory to date.
Out of interest will this tempt any of you to watch Charlton Women now?
I'll amend my answer to your question as I obviously wouldn't be going to watch CAFC Women.
This fantastic achievement by the England Women's team won't tempt me to watch domestic women's football in the same way that the men winning the Rugby World Cup didn't tempt me to watch domestic rugby, or the men's England cricket team winning major honours hasn't tempted me to watch domestic cricket.
It's exactly the same scenario for me. Little to no interest in the domestic game but will watch the major tournaments.
The big problem at present is building an audience for the domestic game.
Bring prices for the men's game down.
Thats always going to be the bigger lure for people, at least for the time being, it may continue to change in the distance future - Once people have forked out money for going to those games, they cant justify the cost of going to women's games too.
Doesnt help either that Men appear to play Saturdays, Women appear to play Sundays.
I wouldnt want to spend my whole weekend going to watch Football - Especially when I have other things to be doing.
Maybe they should experiment... When Charlton Men play at home, the ladies are away, with all games on a Saturday, meaning there is also the potential for the Valley etc. to be used as the sole venue - Of course you're going to get fans who'll prefer to attend away games, but for those who cant be bothered with travelling all day, may instead opt to go and watch the ladies instead.
When we are in the Premiership in 2 or 3 seasons time, there may be the opportunity to play on Sundays. In which case the mens' and womens' matches could be played as a double header.
I enjoyed the woman's matches I went to in the Euros and the Charlton woman's game i went to on a Sunday but it was always about gaining new female supporters from young girls to their nan's who may have only watched men's football before. This forum with the majority being middle aged men certainly isn't the demographics they are after.
In ten years time most Women keepers will be 6ft tall as the tall young girls leave netball behind at 12 and go into the financial rewarding world of football; having been playing football as well from 6 years old. The crazy talk of making the goals smaller by Emma Hayes(2019?) and others can be put in room 101.
Mary Earp's made one mistake all tournament when she missed a punch when crowded by bodies. The young tall Dutch keeper was excellent. The Swedish keeper had a good career but had a mare against England and it was one tournament too many for her.
For those saying they'd be interested but live too far away - there are very few away fans at most Championship games, so it would make a big difference if even a handful of extra people decided to go to one game a season and turned up to the one game local to them.
The big challenge for the club is to get attendances up from the 200 to 300 who typically come to games at Crayford. Playing at the Valley does make a big difference, if the pitch would stand another 10 games a season. Otherwise, it's down to catching the enthusiasm from yesterday, which starts with the friendly against West Ham on the 14th (reminder that's a 1pm kickoff rather than the usual 2).
If it wasn't for the damage to the pitch, I'd suggest a setup like the 100 in the cricket, where the women play at The Valley at midday on a Saturday, directly followed by the men's match. Open a turnstile or two and a food/drink outlet in each stand and you'd see people arriving early to catch a bit of the women's game.
Getting people in is the biggest hurdle, once they've watched a bit you'd see people arriving earlier and earlier to catch more and more of the women's game. You'd see far bigger crowds for an important women's game if there were 1000s of Charlton fans already heading in that direction on the same day.
Some of the credit to the win has to go to the decision of the FA to go for a fully professional WSL and for the big clubs to really invest in their women's teams. In the case of Man U, a very recent investment which has created a top team out of nothing.
Yes the top men's clubs can easily afford it, but it's because of the investment from them that our women are starting to get the top training and facilities needed to compete at the highest level. It's painful in one sense that for example the Top 5 in the 21/22 WSL were all "Big 6" clubs, but for the national team it's worked having the best players at the top clubs.
BTW, I think the current ground in Crayford doesn't help, not the easiest to get to unless you drive, Dartford isn't available, so going back to Ebbsfleet might be a better option
Men: Erm, that's not really the same thing, but very well done on winning and We're as equally over the moon and as proud of you on this great achievement, as everyone will be if or when the blokes emulate it....
Had a family BBQ on Saturday. Was very interesting hearing the difference in excitement levels between all the female relatives who, up until England reached the final, have had absolutely no interest in football at all.
My cousin has never watched a match in her life and she was the most upbeat. She exclaimed "It's amazing what they've done. Me and the girls will be watching and cheering them on". She then turned to my missus and asked "Will you be watching it?", to which my missus replied "nope". "Why not?" my cousin asked, sounding rather shocked at this lack of sisterhood.
"Just because they're women, it doesn't make football any more interesting".
I glanced at my mum and she was nodding appreciatively. I wanted to high five my missus right there and then. Two-fold, really. One because she was brutally honest and true to herself and, two, because it meant I wouldn't have her sitting in the same room as me wondering why I was kicking every ball and getting far too excited
It is not local for me to watch Charlton's women but I did follow them on streams last season. I enjoy watching women's football and this Euros has produced a lot of quality games. What was significant was England have truly joined the elite. They have been knocking on the door for a while and yesterday they confirmed they are on of the best teams in the World. This is a fantastic achievement and we should be proud of all those who have played a part.
For me, Walsh is a beautiful passer of the ball. The pass for the first was World Class but she has been doing similar hrough the tournament.
If it wasn't for the damage to the pitch, I'd suggest a setup like the 100 in the cricket, where the women play at The Valley at midday on a Saturday, directly followed by the men's match. Open a turnstile or two and a food/drink outlet in each stand and you'd see people arriving early to catch a bit of the women's game.
Getting people in is the biggest hurdle, once they've watched a bit you'd see people arriving earlier and earlier to catch more and more of the women's game. You'd see far bigger crowds for an important women's game if there were 1000s of Charlton fans already heading in that direction on the same day.
I think the match would have to be played after the mens game on a Saturday, and even then the groundsman would be pretty unhappy!
If it’s not possible to play more matches at the Valley is there not a venue that’s closer/more convenient to Charlton than VCD?
Had a family BBQ on Saturday. Was very interesting hearing the difference in excitement levels between all the female relatives who, up until England reached the final, have had absolutely no interest in football at all.
My cousin has never watched a match in her life and she was the most upbeat. She exclaimed "It's amazing what they've done. Me and the girls will be watching and cheering them on". She then turned to my missus and asked "Will you be watching it?", to which my missus replied "nope". "Why not?" my cousin asked, sounding rather shocked at this lack of sisterhood.
"Just because they're women, it doesn't make football any more interesting".
I glanced at my mum and she was nodding appreciatively. I wanted to high five my missus right there and then. Two-fold, really. One because she was brutally honest and true to herself and, two, because it meant I wouldn't have her sitting in the same room as me wondering why I was kicking every ball and getting far too excited
That line was equally parroted by my Mrs. She made it perfectly clear that football is still a "load of old nonsense".
She then called me a sexist because I wasn't out in the pub watching with my mates going mental! Apparently the fact I didn't want to go and party into the early hours at the achievement makes me an awful misogynist, so here we are!
Football belongs to women just as much as it does men. Yesterday proved that and any girl who wants to play football and is stopped from doing so is now a thing of the past.
I've been following women's football since around 2003 when my dad started telling me about how good they were. It was really exciting for me as a 12 year old seeing a Charlton side competing for honours at the top end of the table rather than scrapping to be afloat midtable in the Premier League (though of course I loved that too). Charlton Women was a way for me to see a top team wearing Charlton colours. I used to love watching and reading about Aluko, Stoney, Pond, Cope and Williams, and seeing them get call-ups to the England squad when our men's players almost never did even if they deserved it. The problem always was how hard it was to actually see them play; apart form the FA Cup final on ITV it was next to impossible to see a match on TV, obscure streaming and instant Twitter goal highlights weren't around then, so I saw the squad play more for England than I think I ever did for Charlton. For me then it was reading match reports after the games had happened. Even now it's only in the season just gone that WSL games have started being shown regularly on Sky, which is pretty ridiculous. I'm still reading match reports for our women's team, though there's a lot more in terms of available streaming and highlights, and when they pop up at The Valley I'm there.
The next step for women's football has to be getting the players nearer their actual club base. How is it that Chelsea, WSL champions, are still playing at Kingsmeadow, something like 9 miles away? That's where they used to send their reserves to play, I don't get how the women's team are still pushed that far out. I could walk to Stamford Bridge in half an hour and it would be my nearest game but instead I'm looking at a ridiculous journey. Same with Charlton, I can get to The Valley without too much bother but the women basically play in Mordor as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure it's fine for the Kent people who live out there but it's an hour's journey out from The Valley to get there. Tottenham play at leyton Orient That really limits the close association you can build between the two sides and makes it harder for the team to be seen as a legitimate option for many fans to watch. I know there's no easy solutions to this, you'd take a bath every week on costs at The Valley, not to mention it's impossible to schedule both, and I don't think there's loads of clubs nearer crying out begging to host women's games at the moment, but if the increase in interest can translate into higher attendances then getting the women's teams into better stadiums closer to the men's home grounds can only help.
Comments
But this generation, hopefully will have the opportunities to try it. Shame that school P.E. gets limited more and more in the timetable, so local clubs will be essential for girls.
I really saw red, when Gabby Yorath said: 'Get down to watch the WSL' at the end of the show! There are many other teams as well.
Still buzzing for the women and wish I could have been in Wembley yesterday. Brilliant win!
This fantastic achievement by the England Women's team won't tempt me to watch domestic women's football in the same way that the men winning the Rugby World Cup didn't tempt me to watch domestic rugby, or the men's England cricket team winning major honours hasn't tempted me to watch domestic cricket.
It's exactly the same scenario for me. Little to no interest in the domestic game but will watch the major tournaments.
It's 51 years since 1971 when the ban was lifted that women could play organised football in parks.
The final had a happy ending but it was brutal for both teams with the sixth match with the world watching. Stanways is a brilliant player but her early booking shackled her after nearly getting a second yellow.
Russo didn't have the same impact as in other games as we didn't get the ball to her feet which can be magical if anyone's memory is long enough to remember the other 5 matches.
Kelly the girl who played in the cages with her five brothers and got kicked and had to fight to prove her worth was brilliant when she came on and so good in tight spaces by the byline and the game management was superb near the end.
As I said in the group games, Russo, Kelly and Toone, with their 3 different skill sets will be the difference between winning and being another hard luck story in football.
My Favourite player Keira Walsh made the long pass of the match for Toone's goal, a pass of sublime skill with a finish of excellence, fit for a Euro's final.
Thats always going to be the bigger lure for people, at least for the time being, it may continue to change in the distance future - Once people have forked out money for going to those games, they cant justify the cost of going to women's games too.
Doesnt help either that Men appear to play Saturdays, Women appear to play Sundays.
I wouldnt want to spend my whole weekend going to watch Football - Especially when I have other things to be doing.
Maybe they should experiment... When Charlton Men play at home, the ladies are away, with all games on a Saturday, meaning there is also the potential for the Valley etc. to be used as the sole venue - Of course you're going to get fans who'll prefer to attend away games, but for those who cant be bothered with travelling all day, may instead opt to go and watch the ladies instead.
It felt very London 2012.
As for going to see Charlton women, we'll be going, and my son just sees it as Football, and a Charlton team he wants to win, in the same way he just saw it as an England team, and he now wants an England shirt with Toone 20 on the back of it. He honestly doesn't care they are the women's team, he cares they are an England team who gave him his best footballing memory to date.
In ten years time most Women keepers will be 6ft tall as the tall young girls leave netball behind at 12 and go into the financial rewarding world of football; having been playing football as well from 6 years old.
The crazy talk of making the goals smaller by Emma Hayes(2019?) and others can be put in room 101.
Mary Earp's made one mistake all tournament when she missed a punch when crowded by bodies. The young tall Dutch keeper was excellent. The Swedish keeper had a good career but had a mare against England and it was one tournament too many for her.
The big challenge for the club is to get attendances up from the 200 to 300 who typically come to games at Crayford. Playing at the Valley does make a big difference, if the pitch would stand another 10 games a season. Otherwise, it's down to catching the enthusiasm from yesterday, which starts with the friendly against West Ham on the 14th (reminder that's a 1pm kickoff rather than the usual 2).
Getting people in is the biggest hurdle, once they've watched a bit you'd see people arriving earlier and earlier to catch more and more of the women's game. You'd see far bigger crowds for an important women's game if there were 1000s of Charlton fans already heading in that direction on the same day.
Yes the top men's clubs can easily afford it, but it's because of the investment from them that our women are starting to get the top training and facilities needed to compete at the highest level. It's painful in one sense that for example the Top 5 in the 21/22 WSL were all "Big 6" clubs, but for the national team it's worked having the best players at the top clubs.
incredible
Men: Erm, that's not really the same thing, but very well done on winning and We're as equally over the moon and as proud of you on this great achievement, as everyone will be if or when the blokes emulate it....
My cousin has never watched a match in her life and she was the most upbeat. She exclaimed "It's amazing what they've done. Me and the girls will be watching and cheering them on". She then turned to my missus and asked "Will you be watching it?", to which my missus replied "nope". "Why not?" my cousin asked, sounding rather shocked at this lack of sisterhood.
"Just because they're women, it doesn't make football any more interesting".
I glanced at my mum and she was nodding appreciatively. I wanted to high five my missus right there and then. Two-fold, really. One because she was brutally honest and true to herself and, two, because it meant I wouldn't have her sitting in the same room as me wondering why I was kicking every ball and getting far too excited
For me, Walsh is a beautiful passer of the ball. The pass for the first was World Class but she has been doing similar hrough the tournament.
She then called me a sexist because I wasn't out in the pub watching with my mates going mental! Apparently the fact I didn't want to go and party into the early hours at the achievement makes me an awful misogynist, so here we are!