by Diana Ching
Thursday, March 21, 2002

We're sorry to hear that the Football Association are having trouble selling tickets for England's World Cup matches. But they've got a nerve to cite "nagging wives" as a key factor for putting the kibosh on male fans' desire to go and support their country. It's a nice little soundbite, and may be partially true - but it's far from the whole story.

The sheer distance of Japan and South Korea will deter many fans. It's not as easy as popping over to France to watch a match and being back behind your desk the next morning. If it were, tickets would be selling like hot cakes - not just to male supporters but to the growing number of female footie fans, too.

The same issue is likely to arise during the run-up to cricket's World Cup in South Africa next year, and doubtless we'll get the same excuse: "Ticket sales are poor because women won't let their husbands go."

Well now, husbands may well have to choose between a trip to South Africa and a holiday with the wife, but this is not necessarily down to being nagged. Long-haul trips take not only money, but also time. One major holiday a year may be all that many working couples can fit into their busy lives - an additional three-week sports tour may be out of the question.

So surely the obvious solution is to combine the two. A holiday in an exotic location with some top-notch sporting action thrown in could make not only for wedded bliss, but money in the bank for everyone else and stronger support for England abroad.

It shouldn't be difficult to ensure excellent English support at the World Cup. We all want England to do well; South Africa is a glorious place for a holiday and nobody - male or female - should turn up their nose at a chance to visit. So the battle's half-won, and now, to pre-empt another ticket-sales fiasco, more effort must go into marketing the event.

To put it bluntly, if our sporting authorities want to sell more tickets, they must stop wasting time whingeing about the problem and turn their attention to ways of solving it. Surely they could work with the tour operators and local authorities to devise a proper campaign promoting the many delights of both cricket and South Africa.

Let's see features and special offers and competitions in magazines, on websites and Channel 4's cricket roadshow, as well as on holiday programmes to catch the attention of cricket widows for whom this tour could be the one to make cricket fans out of them.

We women may be accused of nagging, but at least we're constructive about it. The advice to any sporting authority wanting to sell more tickets to England's matches is this: you've identified at least some of your missing customers - so do your job, go get them, and stop making excuses. There's an awful lot more you could do if you put your mind to it. Got that? Good. Get on with it then!

Diana Ching is a freelance writer and a keen Hampshire fan.

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