Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, who marks a decade in charge of the club this season, said: “Women’s domestic football still has a way to go. Only in the last 12 months have we been able to schedule fixtures with any consistency, plus have broadcasting slots with some consistency.
“Yes, everybody selling out the opening day weekend would be fantastic if that is to be the case. But for me it’s about how many of those are we capturing to be returning fans?
“I think it will have peaks and troughs throughout this year, but I think the peaks will be bigger than last year and the lows still higher than last year’s lows. And average attendances all around the game will be spectacularly different.”
Asked what the WSL needs to grow further, Hayes told BBC Radio One’s Newsbeat: “I think people have to realise that – taking aside the top two or three clubs – there are still a lot of clubs under-resourced. They might not have the levels of expertise or resource to maximise growth on the same level.
“There still has to be a lot more investment into their infrastructures to compete on and off the pitch in the same way – and a levelling up across the game which will take a period of time.
“I’ve always been an advocate of leaving the FA and going into a separate entity, because I believe we could take the expertise from somewhere like the Premier League to help clubs build on their models. It will happen, it’s just when.”