Yes you're right. Except that the FA has an obligation to grass roots football for boys and girls. Not so that it can generate the next David Beckham, but because it is funded to get people of all ages, and abilities playing the game, because it's good for them physically and socially. That's right, the FA is funded to get people playing, and keep them playing. So, it's not just about it being a spectator sport. The FA (and all other Governing Bodies of Sport) are funded to keep the people of this country active. If you look at the amount of resources ploughed into scouting boys at the ages of 8, 9 by top clubs, and leading them into false hopes of becoming pro footballers, I don't think it's much to expect that each club could adopt its women's team. We're not talking about revenue or Spectator Sports, when they're taking kids out of Secondary School one day a week to train boys in Academies, and how many actually make it? 1%? People need to see football for what it is. A popular sport that people want to play at whatever level.
It's not just secondary schools either, a kid in my class leaves school every Monday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon to go to football training. He really can't afford to miss that schooling time as he's already behind. Him plus two other boys often have 2 or 3 days off at a time to travel all over Britain to take part in tournaments too.
They could even have the women's team play their games at 12:45 on Saturdays on the main pitch to encourage fans to make a day of it which gives the club quite a few benefits. 1. Extra revenue from food and drink sales due to the captive audience being there much longer. 2. Extra advertising revenue from the larger exposure of stadium advertising. 3. A probable increase in attendances as people feel they are getting more for their money. 4. Extra supporters from people with ties to the female players plus a probable increase in female supporters in general. 5. Extra merchandise sales in the largely untapped female market. Drawbacks? 1. Extra wear on the pitch.
Whilst I admire your optimism, I really don't see the general football audience sacrificing their pre match routine to watch a game of football played by women... and I say this as someone who has played the game, and spent the last 5 or 6 years watching from the sidelines. I think the game is evolving, and the women will get faster, sharper etc, but as a mainstream spectator sport, it still has a long way to go. (Just look at tennis, who realistically watches women's tennis except when Wimbledon is on?). I don't mean that to be disrespectful. I'm a woman who's played football, and works in sport. My job is to include people in sport. The fact is that women are slower, and not as strong as men. I think a time may come when Women's football is faster and more appealing, but I can't see the British public breaking off from its pre match pint any time soon. Regardless of that the Women's game does deserve more backing from the clubs, because they need to recognise their duty to keep their communities active.
I agree with that and think it would need a change in attitude from a lot of people but that's where I think things like new scoreboards, selling proper food and drink and generally making the whole experience better would make a difference. I don't really think that thousands of people would turn up early to watch a women's game but rather that would just be the on pitch entertainment that is happening at the same time. Would people have their pre match drink at oakwell if a big screen was showing sky sports, beer was sold at a reasonable price and could be drank in the stands and a wide range of food was on sale? I'm not sure but I'd say its worth a try. It seems to me a bit daft that people are drinking elsewhere and then walking down to the ground when they could be drinking at the ground if it was done properly. If that was happening then I think the women's team on the pitch at the same time could be popular with the atmosphere being like that of a friendly
I did see at least a couple of American teams playing the women's match followed immediately by the men recently. We could do something like this, with the women on the training pitch (like the U21s) on the morning with the men playing after. If it got popular enough they could use the main pitch at Oakwell...
Actually Barnsley Ladies 1st team are now officially linked to BFC and are now based at Oakwell. This coming season they will play on the U21 pitch on Sunday afternoons with a 2pm KO so the club have made efforts to get involved more. They also have a development team and 5 junior teams and are currently looking for players to create new U9 & U13 teams.