Matildas: Asian Cup Final Attendance & Concerns Over Declining Interest

Sarah Walsh has heard the skepticism, the whispers questioning whether the momentum generated by the Matildas’ run to the World Cup semi-finals has faded. The chief operating officer of the Women’s Asian Cup acknowledges the insinuation: that Australia’s favorite sporting team has lost some of its luster. But Walsh isn’t backing down, and she used a press conference on Thursday to address what she sees as a desire from some to see the Matildas falter.

“Some people don’t like change,” Walsh said, announcing that ticket sales for Saturday’s final between Australia and Japan had surpassed 60,000. “They’re a lightning rod for change, and so if the Matildas are still doing well, it suggests that things are changing.”

The attendance at Tuesday’s semi-final between Australia and China – 35,170 at Perth Stadium – didn’t fill the 60,000-seat venue, and many ticket holders hadn’t arrived by kickoff. This prompted questions about whether the fervent support seen during the World Cup had waned. Walsh, however, insists the tournament has been a success by multiple measures.

“I hear those comments and I really don’t want to give them any airtime today, but I just suppose it’s really essential [to say] in every single measure, this [the Women’s Asian Cup] has been a success,” Walsh stated. She added that tourism targets were “smashed” by early November, and that the tournament had successfully “embedded multicultural Australia.”

Wednesday’s semi-final between Japan and South Korea drew a crowd of 17,367, setting a latest record for the highest attendance at a Women’s Asian Cup game between two non-host nation teams. This mark had already been broken twice earlier in the tournament, with two quarter-final matches at Stadium Australia attracting crowds exceeding 10,000.

While the Matildas haven’t consistently sold out their matches, organizers estimate total attendance for the tournament will reach approximately 250,000 over three weeks – five times the previous Women’s Asian Cup record.

“If people are still thinking about the Women’s World Cup, that’s fine, that might have been their first experience,” Walsh said. “But this is a Women’s Asian Cup, and I think there’s some education through that as well.”

The logistical challenges of hosting a tournament featuring only a handful of elite teams across three states, while competing with the start of the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) seasons, and the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, were significant.

The Matildas’ opening match against the Philippines attracted a television audience of 635,000 on Channel Ten, slightly less than the Nine Network’s coverage of an NRL opener on the same day. The Australia-Iran match drew 466,000 viewers, while the AFL season-opener between Sydney and Carlton garnered a larger audience. However, interest appeared to grow as the tournament progressed. The third group match against South Korea, with 722,000 viewers, surpassed the free-to-air AFL and NRL broadcasts on the same day. The quarter-final against North Korea drew 634,000 viewers, despite competition from the NRL (693,000) and AFL (557,000). The Australia-China semi-final averaged over 900,000 viewers, despite a late 9pm kickoff in Sydney and Melbourne, setting the stage for a potentially massive broadcast on Saturday.

The Asian Cup final presents a formidable challenge for the Matildas, arguably their toughest test since the Paris Games. Japan, ranked No. 6 in the world, will be aiming to repeat their victories over Australia in the 2014 and 2018 finals.

Former Matildas goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri, a member of the 2010 championship-winning team, became emotional when discussing the significance of Saturday’s match. “We are a nation of many different faces and colours and creeds and genders, and I feel like when we are together, we are unstoppable,” she said, adding that the Matildas would be motivated by being considered underdogs. “I just think if we all receive fired up for the night, we’ll just really show the world what Australia can do.”

Walsh emphasized the broader impact of the tournament, urging people to seem beyond the Matildas’ performance. “We have 5, 6 million Australians that identify with one of the 11 nations that are not Australia,” she said. “We need more of this connection and unity right now.”