Dave Dew of Victoria, the former assistant Canadian coach, can recite from memory the attendance numbers for sa国际传媒鈥檚 games in the 1995 Women鈥檚 World Cup in Sweden.
鈥淎gainst England, there were 112 fans, against Nigeria 332 and against Norway 1,001 because it was played in a town close to the Norwegian border,鈥� Dew said.
What a difference to the scene in Vancouver today, where a capacity crowd will fill sa国际传媒 Place to watch sa国际传媒 play Switzerland in a round-of-16 playoff game of the 2015 tournament.
鈥淲e had no massage therapist, no physiotherapist, no team psychologist, no goalkeeper coach,鈥� said Dew, who was later Canadian Under-17 women鈥檚 coach and is now coach of the Victoria Highlanders men鈥檚 team. 鈥淸Head coach] Sylvie Beliveau and I were also the equipment managers, picking up the jerseys and rounding up the balls. The standard of play in women鈥檚 soccer is so much higher now.鈥�
Among those who have brought along the younger players who have emerged for sa国际传媒 in this World Cup is Neil Sedgwick, coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps鈥� Victoria Prospects Academy, who assisted the sa国际传媒 U-17 women鈥檚 team in 2012 and 2014. Out of that group came Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence and Jessie Fleming.
鈥淭he athletic and technical ability is the highest standard we have seen in a women鈥檚 World Cup,鈥� Sedgwick said of the play to date.
鈥淔or sa国际传媒, we are seeing the fruits of our development system.鈥�
But problems remain in the women鈥檚 game. Most notably is that fans clearly will pay to watch the women鈥檚 game every four years in the spectacle setting of the World Cup, but women鈥檚 club pro soccer remains a tough sell around the world. 鈥淭he World Cup is an event and everybody wants to be part of an event,鈥� Dew said.
He coached an Island team, the Peninsula Co-op Highlanders, in the second- highest club level of women鈥檚 soccer in North America. The teams were not well supported at the gate. 鈥淭he Pali Blues [of Southern California] were three-time W-League champions and they drew between 15 to 50 fans a game,鈥� said Dew, whose Highlanders team folded.
Dew noted the highest North American women鈥檚 pro league now is subsidized by the Canadian, U.S. and Mexican soccer federations.
Few fans could name Christine Sinclair鈥檚 club team. In ads and marketing, she is almost always shown in a Canadian team jersey.
鈥淭he CIS [Canadian university soccer, and in the U.S., the NCAA] is the high point for most female players,鈥� Dew said.
鈥淎t the pro league level, people are not paying to watch women鈥檚 soccer. They will in the World Cup. Outside that, I don鈥檛 see it.鈥�
The general theory at the grassroots level is that Canadian youth soccer organizations are going to see a spike in registrations this September because of the saturation coverage with sa国际传媒 hosting the 2015 World Cup.
鈥淢aybe we need more of these kinds of events to grow interest,鈥� said Sedgwick, who has been USC Trojans women鈥檚 assistant coach in the NCAA and head coach of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux and University of Montana Grizzlies.
The trouble is the World Cup only comes around once every four years, and hosting it likely only once in a lifetime.
