Early today I read the news, as I’m sure you did, that Aston Villa women will be playing 11 matches at Villa Park and that is massive news not just for the players and the club, but for the WSL as a whole and since it’s beneficial for the league it is absolutely beneficial for Arsenal as well, because like I said in a post recently, we need every single team to thrive for us to fully thrive and by the same token, if any team is struggling then we are all struggling.
We can only hope that this is truly where the game is going and that other teams, the ones that can, will follow suit. And I personally want to emphasize “the ones that can” because I know it is not as simple as just telling clubs to have the women play in the main stadium.
I have never hidden the fact that I’m not an expert and by and large I try to not talk about things I don’t know about. Sometimes we see people on YouTube and podcasts talk about things in a way or framed as if they are experts and I never wanna be that guy, so precisely because I don’t know much about finances and logistics, I think it would be naive by saying that “all teams should play” at the main stadia because simply put its just not possible and it might not be the best thing. I don’t really know.
Let me paint a picture as a musician since I’m literally going on tour an hour after I finish writing this. I’m headed on a ten day run playing drums with Orianthi, an incredible Australian singer and monster guitar player, and you might’ve seen her playing guitar with Michael Jackson.
The venues we play are basically rock clubs which are very, very well attended. She has a loyal fan base that even travel overseas to see her and regardless of the love and support, if she were to book a 5k venue in middle America, I don’t think she would sell them out. So, cost wise and/or optics wise playing in a larger venue, with less people, which might be more expensive for the artist from a production standpoint, might not be the best thing.
Another potential parallel is the concept of “1000 loyal fans” which can, in some cases, allow a musician to have a good life if not a great life depending on where you live and of course many other things. But basically that concept implies that it’s better to have 1000 fans that buy everything you put out and come to shows and invest in your art via merch sales, etc than 20k that aren’t engaged at all. So if you put out $100 worth of music/shirts/merch and every single person of that 1k purchase it, that’s $100k.
What’s better? A sellout small venue or a big venue that is empty but has the same amount of people or maybe a bit more? I don’t really know but the fact that we’re having this conversation is a very good sign.
If you are in the USA please check out my social media for the shows I mentioned, in case you can attend a show and watch how incredible Orianthi is.
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HERE
A very subjective look into AWFC 
Leave a comment