Manchester United might host Ladies’s Champions League video games at Previous Trafford when the membership makes its debut within the competitors subsequent season.
Marc Skinner’s aspect performed at Previous Trafford twice within the present Tremendous League marketing campaign, attracting crowds of 30,000 and nearly 28,000 for video games towards Aston Villa and West Ham.
United are dedicated to utilizing Leigh Sports activities Village as their essential floor for the foreseeable future and wish to construct on an encouraging season that included two sell-outs on the venue.
However Uefa rules permit them to appoint a most of two house stadiums within the Champions League.
Arsenal performed all their house video games on this season’s competitors on the Emirates Stadium. Chelsea performed one group sport and all their knockout spherical matches at Stamford Bridge.
Given the attraction of taking part in at Previous Trafford, consideration is more likely to be given to taking part in at the least one match there.
There are calendar points to be taken into consideration – with the November-January interval, when group video games are scheduled, significantly busy for the lads’s aspect domestically – and different logistical points, reminiscent of Manchester Metropolis being at house on the identical time, to think about.
Nevertheless, speaking to BBC Sounds’ ‘How To Buy A Football Club’ podcast, United’s head of girls’s soccer Polly Bancroft says choices nonetheless should be made about European video games.
“We’re nonetheless taking a look at that truly,” she stated.
“We do not have the lads’s or ladies’s fixtures out but. As soon as they have been drawn, we’ll begin to have a look at the place we will place ladies’s matches at Previous Trafford subsequent season.”
The Ladies’s Tremendous League champions might earn direct entry into the group section – though that’s not assured and can rely upon the Champions League last consequence as England usually are not one of many three prime nations in response to Uefa statistics. The runner-up has to enter through a two-legged play-off in October.
United go into the ultimate weekend with outdoors hopes of overtaking Chelsea to clinch their first WSL title however are assured of ending second.
‘Ladies’s staff very a lot depending on males’s staff’
Bancroft joined United from Brighton in October in a newly created function.
By definition, Bancroft is without doubt one of the most vital ladies within the ladies’s sport and her voice additionally carries weight at United. She spoke with United co-chairman Avram Glazer when he attended the Ladies’s FA Cup last earlier this month when United were beaten by Chelsea..
“I noticed him afterwards,” she stated. “It was first time he’d been to see the ladies’s staff so it was nice to have him at a sport and we look ahead to seeing what the long run seems to be like.”
It’s clear that nevertheless the present possession uncertainty works out, there may be large progress potential on the ladies’s aspect of the sport.
It’s a delicate steadiness however Bancroft feels assured sufficient to sanction a rise in ticket costs subsequent season as United prepare for a busy summer time reshaping their squad to attempt to present WSL heavyweights Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester Metropolis with much more competitors.
“We all know the economics aren’t there but,” stated Bancroft. “We have had a brand new TV deal by the WSL the season earlier than final.
“We all know the trajectory of the income and the published is on the way in which up. Clearly, the ladies are very a lot depending on the lads’s aspect. So we perceive the economics. [But] there may be actually an growing profile throughout the membership.
“Leigh Sports activities Village is a improbable stadium. It is bought all he amenities {that a} Ladies’s Tremendous League staff require and the workers there are glorious.
“[It] might be not within the excellent location when it comes to public transport and people issues, and we’re working with the council on that to enhance the matchday expertise.
“Should you have been to have a look at the opposite mini stadia throughout the WSL, it is actually up there when it comes to the capability and the truth that we have bought on the market twice this season already exhibits we’re doing a terrific job of attending to 11 or 12,000.
“We have additionally began to barely improve our ticket costs. We’re aware that it nonetheless must be accessible so charging a value that values the product however can also be accessible is the place we’re at.”
Hear extra from Polly Bancroft within the newest episode of Easy methods to Purchase a Soccer Membership on BBC Sounds here.
