Me with my silly ideas... What is your opinion on merging men's and women's world cup? FIVB (volleyball) will pay equal prize money for the winner of 2018 VNL, this is a great. So I was wondering how this could happen in soccer also. Due to the astronomical difference in GLOBAL revenue the only way I see this going down would be to merge the WC's. So 24 teams of female and male. 48 teams in total but much better IMHO. Split the total payout in half (same pay), natural grass field, fan interest and a lot of media coverage. Also I believe that the proposed nation league will clash with WWC's. Do you perceive combining WC's as reasonable/good or would it devalue woso?
First the logistics of such a development, from FIFA's point of view, would be a deterrent to any approval of such a move. Also it would be, probably, a great economic boon to the host country BUT it would reduce the host countries by half and make becoming a host much harder. Along with that it would dilute the crossover fan base and thereby reduce overall attendance. I think it would be a horrendously bad plan that would turn the women's WC into a near joke. But I really think that my desires are pretty safe as I think the chances of this happening range between diddly and squat.
Bad idea. Women's World Cup stands better on its own. More attention, great attendances in many games, and no ongoing competitions in the men's game to interfere. The World Cup is one of the (few) great successes of woso. The big challenge is the club scene. That's where the game has to grow professionally. National team woso is getting pretty good with sizeable crowds in more and more matches also in qualifiers. There is an upward trend in that area.
Yeah, don't mess with the one thing that's really working. Instead try to fix what's broken (like the prize money....).
I hear what all of you been saying and I do think you raise solid points but my problem is that the money allocated into woso is just too little. There must be a reasonable way to finance its growth. One way is to force clubs to have a professional female teams. CONMEBOL required that any South American club that wants to play in the Libertadores must have a professional women team. So every major Club in SA has a professional female team now. It would be great if the rest of confederations or FIFA force this issue also. But this organic grows is too slow and the money and fan gap is just too large. Look at the last WC's 2014 WC Revenue US$ 4.8 billion total prize money US$ 576 million Fifa profit US$ 2.6 billion Fifa estimates that 1 billion people watched the final alone Before the WC each participating team receive US$ 1.5 million for preparation costs 2015 WWC Revenue US$ 49 million (Fifa 2015 financial report) total prize money US$ 15 million As per Fifa financial report it spent US$ 81.3 million on the Canadian WWC thus a financial loss source: https://resources.fifa.com/image/up...2015-2770871.pdf?cloudid=asmgcqptmszlmj5quozr Fifa estimates 750 million viewers for the whole 2015 WWC The money and viewers difference is just to big. The male game became a big, profitable, global sporting event. How can woso compete with that? I do not think the logistics would be a problem. Fifa is pushing for the 2020 WC to have 48 teams. Thus a WC with 24 male and female teams would be pretty much the same as a 48 WC. Think of the Olympics were a female and male cup is held at the same time they use the same venues, referees etc. I don't see why people would not want to see/go to a WC just because there is also a WWC going on, again Olympic games is a good example. Relative to WC the WCC isn't really a success - it is the most watch woso event for sure. I think soccer fans in general do not pay the proper attention to it, thus it is a question of would extra exposure (viewers) and money help the development of woso? "I think it would be a horrendously bad plan that would turn the women's WC into a near joke." this for me is the real problem. At first merging WC's would be akin to saying WCC has no merit or it's an inferior product and of course this is problematic.