Women’s football has arrived and some more. This summer the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the quadrennial international football competition for women’s national teams, takes place. Hopefully the event will accelerate the sport’s worldwide growth even more.

Below we take a look at a few of the business aspects of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, from location to prize money and from attendance figures to sponsors.

France hosts the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup

The 8th edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup takes place in France from June 7th to July 7th. Nine cities will host 24 teams across 52 matches with the final taking place in Lyon. France is not new to hosting FIFA tournaments, as the country already organised the 1938 and 1998 men’s World Cup editions. 

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Prize money at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup

The prize money for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup has doubled compared to the 2015 edition. FIFA has set a total prize money purse of $30 million, with the tournament champions receiving $4 million. A figure that is also double the amount the 2015 champions USA received.

In addition to the $30 million prize money purse, FIFA will distribute $20 million for tournament preparations and the Club Benefits Program.

Yet while there is an increase in price money, there is also an increase in the gap between prize money for men and women. During the 2018 World Cup in Russia the men teams were awarded a total of $400 million, with champions France receiving $38 million. This is a huge difference in any case and definitely for those advocating equal prize money.

Several sponsors, spearheaded by Adidas, try to address this gap. The German clothing and sporting goods manufacturer announced that ‘sponsored players on the winning 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup team will receive the same performance bonus as their male counterparts.’

Attendance figures of the FIFA Women’s World Cup

With women’s football growing rapidly and attracting more and more attention, the gap between men and women’s football will likely shrink in the future. Recently various matches across Europe had record-breaking attendance figures. It is therefore expected that attendance figures will be quite high at the 2019 tournament. Especially since FIFA has announced that ‘ticket sales for the competition are smashing records, with over 720,000 sold so far.’

So far the highest attendance figure at a FIFA Women’s World Cup was during the 1999 final in the USA. At the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles the USA beat China in front of 90,185 people. The opening match of the same edition had an attendance figure nearing 80,000.

The second highest final attendance was set in China in 1991. In the Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium 63,000 people saw the USA beat Norway.
The 2015 final between the USA and Japan took place in front of 53,341 people in Vancouver, Canada.

The 2019 final will take place at the Stade de Lyon, which has a capacity of 59,186.

Sponsors of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup

FIFA has six main partners: Adidas, Coca Cola, Wanda, Hyundai/Kia Motors, Qatar Airways and Visa. In addition to these partners, FIFA.com and FIFA living football, the 2019 edition has six national sponsors. These event specific sponsors are:

• Arkema: a French specialty chemicals and advanced materials company
• Crédit Agricole: a French full-service banking group
• EDF: Électricité de France is a French electric utility company
• Orange: a French multinational telecommunications company
• Proman: a French recruitment and workforce management company
• SNCF: France’s national railway company

Sponsors of the national teams

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Six different brands sponsor the 24 World Cup teams. Nike leads the way by sponsoring 14 nations, followed by Adidas with six. Le Coq Sportif, Puma, Umbro and Warrix (all 1) complete the list. Several nations received a new kit for the tournament with a unique design that differs from the men’s kit. 

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Activation of the FIFA Women’s World Cup

There is no shortage of activation of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup or capitalisation on the immense interest in the event. Pre-tournament everything around it seems bigger and better than last time around. So here are a few examples:

• Nike organised a special kit launch event (see video above)
• Adidas announced same performance bonus as men
• Visa pledged to support women’s football with a marketing investment equal to the support of the men’s World Cup in Russia  
• FIFA has social media reporters for all 24 nations with separate Twitter accounts
• COPA90 appoints first Global Executive Director of the Women’s Game to also maintain momentum for the women’s game after the 2019 World Cup.
• Coca Cola and UK broadcaster Channel 4 team up for a show around the World Cup

You can find the FIFA Women’s World Cup latest news and match schedule on the official FIFA website. For other sports events to attend you can have a look at our overview of sports events.