As a supporter of female footy, I'm concerned that the $10 ticket charge for the Highlanders Women might be a bridge too far for most. I remember watching the Victoria Stars play Mainland teams at St. Mike's for free...I just wonder if yr. average punter will come out...obviously you have to charge for admission, but $5 right across the board might be a better idea. I hope to be proven wrong. If the games were double-headed with the men's side for one price then the party might start early, but that doesn't appear to be the case this season. Any opinions?

Yeah, I was kind of disappointed that they didn't make it a double-headed event. Not only is it a bit pricey, when I've already got my seasons tickets for the mens side, but it's a bit difficult getting out there, and if I'm paying for the shuttle twice as often, etc. It's just not practical for me. So sadly, with the way it's set up now, I won't be able to support the women's side in person

I have to say I'm glad there are no double-headers. This was tried for years at Victoria United games with either the Stars or the U-20 team playing before the first team. It was a disaster from my point of view. A few people would show up early for the opening game but mostly the crowd would dribble in during the last ten minutes of the game and many would complain they were being charged for a double-header that they did not want to see.

If the Highlanders did this we would lose the Buoys marching in as this would disrupt the game. Adding 2 hours to the length of the event would make the Bravehearts End a lot quieter during the men's game as some of us already lose our voices by full-time. It would result in a lot more drinking which would, I am pretty sure, not be a good thing for the stadium staff.

A single game is a good length of time for an event.

That's a bad thing? We're football hooligans who cannae hold their bevvy?

Any suggestions about marketing the women's side?

Well, judging by last year there were several who had their full measure by full time and occasionally a little more than that.


I don't know if I can come up with anything original but I would suggest:

Offer all season tickets holders a special deal for the Women's team.

Schedule the games "opposite" the Men's so that when the men have a home game the Women are on the road and vice versa. Run a campaign based on games every weekend.

Special "Date night" packages: "Take your lady out for a night of loud music, sweaty action and kicking balls."

Produce a pin-up calendar (ooh gonna get flack for that one.)

Do community promotion with Men's and Women's team members together.

Do some TV spots where the best man and woman compete in little contests ie. juggling, shooting (accuracy and speed), sprinting, "volleyball" and any other little games they can play showcasing skill and athletic ability of both men and women.

Those are just off the top of my head. Sorry they are not all that original. Maybe if I was doing this as a job ...

I have whitecaps season tickets. They throw in all the womens tickets for free. Up until last year their "never waste a ticket program" allowed you to trade in all your unused womens tickets for mens tickets ... they caught on and stopped that. They use to have double headers but it was a disaster, because the thousand people that went to a womens game would leave after that match, leaving the whitecaps unable to resell those empty seats. This year the Whitecaps are moving the women's games around. There is even a match at RAP. I might actually go to that one.

If the Whitecaps women's team is playing at the RAP this season, I would probably go to it too

Maybe they've realised just how few people would show for the female Highlanders this weekend, so they've gotten sensible and turned it into a PR campaign for Mother's day (free admission) coupled with the reserve side's match. Be interesting to see how it turns out.

Hey guys... thanks for all the thoughts and feedback!

While unfortunately, we cannot change the schedules that are in existence, we have rethought the pricing strategy and changed to $7 for adults and $3 for youth to attend women's and reserve games.

We are working on putting more of your thoughts into action.

Cheers!