Press Release: 29 August 2017

WOMEN’S SPORT REACHES NEW HEIGHTS

It’s been a phenomenal summer for women’s sport. Record viewing figures and attendance at major sporting events, new sponsorship deals and television companies battling to secure broadcasting rights –the corporate world is finally waking up to the fact that there’s a huge appetite in the UK for women’s sport.

Household names such as Vitality, Investec, Kia and SSE are now backing women’s sport. Lords was a sell out last month, with 26,500 people packed in to watch England’s cricketers win the World Cup and Sky reporting viewing figures of 1.1Million, more than the average number of viewers for a Premier League football match. Over 80,000 tickets have already been sold for the Women’s Hockey World Cup next summer and BBC2 reported over half a million viewers when it broadcast England Netball against Australia earlier this year.

Behind the scenesthree sports NGBs have been working together to create a stronger fan base for women’s sport on the back of the three Women’s World Cups hosted in England over three years. The ‘TeamUp’ campaign sees the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), England Hockey and England Netball collaborating with promotional activity to increase ticket sales and encourage increased participation in schools.

Joanna Adams, CEO of England Netball and part of TeamUp’s steering group, comments: “Those involved in women’s sport have been working hard for many, many years to increase profile and attract sponsors and it seems that at last we’ve reached a tipping point.”

“England Women’s Rugby team were phenomenal in this weekend’s World Cup final and on the same day the England Hockey girls bravely fought for the bronze medal at the EuroChamps. The Lionesses battled their way to a European Championships semi-final earlier this year with viewing figures of over 4Million and theWomen’s Cricket World Cup was an absolute triumph last month. Looking ahead we have a host of netball internationals, the Commonwealth Games next year, the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup in London followed by the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool. There’s a three-year span which we cancapitalise on both from a commercial and broadcast point of view.”

Sally Munday, England Hockey CEO, says:

“The opportunity to watch women’s sport has never been better. In June of this year, BT Sport agreed a two-year partnership with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) which sees the broadcaster cover various flagship hockey events, including the World Cup, World League Hockey Finals and most recently the Euros.

“Sky Sports recently agreed to the biggest-ever netball TV rights deal in the UK, a four-year agreement to broadcast the Vitality Netball International Series and Vitality Netball Superleague fixtures. But they face competition from the BBC for rights to show the 2019 Netball World Cup, following the success of the England v Australia game shown live on BBC Two earlier this year.

“Even more encouragingly, terrestrial TV broadcasters have played a big part in this incredible summer of women’s sport. The UEFA Women’s EURO’s were shown live on Channel 4, the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final was broadcast live in a primetime slot on ITV, and Channel 5 has just announced that it will show women’s cricket domestic highlights in 2018.”

To be part of this revolution in women’s sport find out about tickets for major women’s sporting events in 2017 and 2018 at

~ENDS~

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EDITORS NOTES

About TeamUp

What are the goals of the TeamUp initiative?

To effectively use the platform presented by three consecutive women’s World Cups to:

  1. Increase the number of people watching women’s sport
  2. Strengthen the perception of women’s team sport
  3. Promote the benefits of participation in team sports for women
  4. Ensure every school in the country consistently offers one of these three women’s team sports
  5. Provide teachers with training and tools to deliver high quality team sports for schoolgirls

Targets for TeamUp?

  • 5,000 schools signed up and delivering an increased offer of team sports to girls in their schools
  • 60% of all those signing up offering girls in their school cricket, hockey AND netball
  • 6,000 teachers interacting with the scheme, with 50% accessing training
  • At least 150,000 girls aged 7-13 playing more team sport in school each year as a result

What’s the rationale for TeamUp?

  • The gender gap in participation begins in the later years of primary school and continues to widen in secondary school
  • Marked gender differences are noted in school sport with 11-15-year-old girls less likely to play for a school team, be a member of a sports club, play sport against others in PE lessons or take part in a competition than boys of the same age. (Changing the Game for Girls, WSFF 2012)

How does it work?

  • TeamUp actively engages with teachers via a rewards scheme
  • Once signed up for to the TeamUp portal - – teachers can access free training along with an extensive range of support resources
  • The more girls’ team sport activity a school delivers the more rewards points they’ll receive which can be used for incentives such as tickets to events and athlete appearances, along with ‘gold ticket’ experience opportunities such as being ball girls for a World Cup Final.

Where else is TeamUp?

  • Twitter - @teamupengland
  • Instagram - @teamupengland
  • Facebook –
  • Hashtags - #TeamUp #TeamUpEngland #WhyITeamUp