They venue were disclosed yesterday actually : Grenoble Stade des Alspes 20 068 places Le Havre Stade Oceane 25 181 places Lyon Parc OL 59 286 places Montpellier Stade de la Mosson 28 037 Nice Allianz Riviera 35 624 places Paris Parc des Princes 47 929 Reims Stade Auguste Delaume 21 628 places Rennes Roazhon Park 29 778 places Valencienne Stade du Hainault 24 936 places
Note : Montpellier is a charming City but the stadium is in the middle of suburb in the rough area, as soon as the game is finished, it is better to head back to the city straight away.
I was in Montpellier when Norway played there in the men's World Cup back in 1998. It wasn't too bad, but may be the problems have increased over the last 20 years..
I just did a quick Wikipedia search for the stadiums. A few old ones, but most built within the past 10-15 years. They look like great venues. Crowds should be better than Canada due to Europe's more central location (and being, well, Europe; Canada doesn't have the greatest soccer tradition). And I can't say enough how much the grass pitches will make a positive difference. A few of them have artificial fibers mixed in with natural grass, but nothing similar to the awful plastic turf from 2015, with the awkward bounces and rubber pellets flying everywhere.
I expect big support for the home team, plus many supporters from the playing nations. I think most of the French people will buy the stadium passes, where you get all the games from one ground at a slightly discounted rate. The women's football culture is still growing slowly in France as it really started to be recognized by the mainstream media from the WC11 QF against England. There are some good numbers for the Champions League games and NT games but the League numbers are still very small.
shlj, I really appreciate the info. As you learn more, I hope you'll post it here. I think another reason attendance may be better than in Canada is that France is vastly smaller in geographic area. Fans who wanted to attend games at multiple venues in Canada had to make major trips, many requiring air travel. I'm thinking that in France, we'll be able to rent a car and cover all the venues relatively easily. (Canada is, very roughly, 8 times the geographic area of France.)
Which means people would be more willing to stay at home and watch on TV in Canada than in France because of better display resolution? Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to a great event in a great host country!
Last World Cup in Canada, the 3 top ranked teams: France, Germany and USA ended up in the same half to the final - winning their groups were no advantage at all. I don't remember 100%, but didn't FIFA rigged it for higher attendance or something? I hope this doesn't happen in France
No, FIFA pre-assigned seeded teams to cities before the draw. Their group assignments were still random, and the rest of their groups were random. Yes, after France and Germany were randomly assigned into their groups, at that instant it was "obvious" that if they both advanced in 1st, they'd meet in the QFs. (But they traveled for that, which trashes any accusation that FIFA could script the QFs "for attendance".) Only one person on BigSoccer kept calling it a conspiracy
You can also travel with the high speed train the TGV between main cities, it is quite quick, but slightly expensive. Looking at cars, the biggest distance in travel is Le Havre to Nice 1123 km and Valenciennes to Nice 1128 km. An 11 hours drive. Motroways speed limit is 130 kmh by the way. I'm checking average attendance for clubs last year over 11 home games and I have done it for the National Team for the last 11 home games as well from September 2015 to June 2017, our average is 13 706 with lowest 7 521 and highest 24 835 in Rennes a Stadium that will be used at the World Cup.
Here are the 2016/17 League numbers by decreasing order Lyon average 2087 Guingamp 1290 Bordeaux 860 PSG 693 Soyaux 667 Albi 576 Rodez 524 Juvisy 502 OM 406 Metz 383 ASSE 271 MHSC 244 And Champions League home numbers for OL and PSG OL : 5 089, 3 841, 14 128, 19 214 PSG : 612 , 1 645, 12 000, 19 192
Here is the high-speed train map and travelling time. There have been recent improvement with Paris to Rennes in 1h30 rather than 2 hours.
Official tournament dates : 7 June to 7 July 2019 Obviously early enough not to clash with Le Tour de France and the French Open at Roland Garros
Ouch, I was hoping for something a little later in time : the beginning of June is not a good enough time for me to set myself free from work commitments... July could be good instead, but what if my team doesn't reach semi-finals/finals? I hope there will be enough games scheduled in the week-end: France is close enough for me in Northern Italy to imagine traveling through one or two week-ends, just to watch games without necessarily staying continuously in France should I have to keep working during working days. Of course, in that case, I would prefer the games of my interest being played in Nice or Lyon, than in Le Havre or Rennes!
Here it is! #DareToShineIl est là ! #LeMomentDeBrillerOfficial emblem was revealed!#FIFAWWC 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/qfHYdM5KiJ— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) September 19, 2017 #FIFAWWC France🇫🇷 2019's opening game will be played on Friday 7 June at Parc des Princes, featuring hosts @equipedefrance.— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) September 19, 2017 Group stage 7 to 20 June Last 16 22 to 25 June Last 8 27 to 29 June Semi-finals 2 and 3 July in Lyon 3rd place play-off 6 July Final 7 July Lyon
The cities on the map Pour la première fois, la France va accueillir, en 2019, la Coupe du Monde féminine de la FIFA > 9 villes hôtes pic.twitter.com/YQ3DlbRQmB— FFF (@FFF) September 19, 2017
You get the feeling that Hope Powell might be coaching in this tournament. June 7 to July 7. Hmmm, in 2015 it was from June 6 to July 5. Therefore, this time around, there is one extra day. I wonder where the extra day of rest will come into play? Between the group stage and the Round of 16?
Thanks. Apparently the Group Stage is the biggest difference. In 2015, it was from June 6 - June 17. In 2019, it will be from June 7 - June 20. An extra two days worth. On most days in 2015, there were 4 games each day during the Group Stages. Well, there are 36 Group matches, and in 2019, there will be 14 unique days (June 7 - June 20). It appears they will probably have 1 or 2 matches on the opening day/night, and then 3 on most days through June 20 (there may be two days of no matches, i.e. rest, in the June 7 - June 20 stretch). Unless they have a bunch of days of rest in between, there's just no way the math comes out to 4 matches per day (like in 2015), because of the extra two days this time.