Australia reports economic impact of $867.5M from 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

The GIST: The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) had a profound economic and social impact for host country Australia, according to a recent Football Australia report. Here are some key numbers from the Land Down Under.

🤝 $867.5M: The 2023 WWC’s economic impact on Australia, with an earlier FA report also indicating the tournament broke even for the first time ever thanks to $570M in revenue. Quite the statistic, considering international sporting events are often well-documented money pits due to infrastructure costs. Australia only had to rebuild one venue, so costs were low while hype was high.

📺 $1.82B: The media value generated by the Matildas, which was also declared Australia’s most valuable sports brand and its word of the year. No surprises here: 70% of Australia’s population tuned into the tourney, helping the Matildas’ semifinal match become the most-watched national broadcast in decades.

🌏 1.9M: The record attendance number for the tournament as it drew both local and global interest. About 86.7K of attendees were international visitors, providing additional tourism value for Australia. This popularity also carried into the A-League Women’s season, where games experienced a 123% jump in average attendance YoY and streaming viewership increased 120% YoY.

🏥 $212.5M: The decrease in Australian healthcare costs due to increased rates of physical activity, which the report ties directly to the WWC inspiring Australians to be more active. Keep it movin’.

💰 $261M: The amount of federal and state funds directed to FA’s Legacy ’23 program, which was created to facilitate grassroots soccer participation among women and girls. While most of it has been used to develop soccer-specific infrastructure, 33% of funds were allocated to other sports.