Pre-season tours can be great for growing the game of women’s soccer, but they can be detrimental to the long-term longevity of a player’s career, injury prevention during a long season, and focus on what is important — the season itself. High-profile tours for players, especially those on huge teams that have social media followings, are good for publicity and exposure but can hinder focus on the game.
It has been a huge issue in recent months, and years, that the women’s game does not have the same backing, funding, or resources as the men’s game. Because of this, there is less preparation and studies done into the training schedules and routines of women’s soccer players. No wonder there has been a huge increase in the rise of ACL injuries in women’s soccer — players are playing dozens more games per year and have no downtime. Pre-season friendlies and others mean there is even less time to relax and recover between seasons.
Pre-Season Tours in Women’s Soccer Publicity
Just like men’s teams have done in the past, women’s teams are now embarking on long-lasting pre-season tours against various international clubs to bring in large crowds, make money, and increase publicity of their teams and players for fans to follow on social media throughout the year. However, this is relatively new, with the long-term effects of the lengthy pre-season tours unknown.
Many big-name clubs, like Lyon in France, Paris Saint-Germain in Paris, and Manchester City in the FA WSL in England have all flown to North Carolina in the United States to compete against the NC Courage and see how they fare against the U.S. professional women’s soccer team. But, is this the best use of the time and energy for the women’s soccer teams? Only time will tell.
Many English clubs are now heading elsewhere to compete against top-tier women’s soccer teams that offer them something different besides local, lower-tier teams for them to have friendlies against in the off-season. Arsenal faces off against Spirit and Chelsea, whereas Wrexham Women (a Welsh Premier League side) also head to the United States to play against the Portland Thorns Academy team and the Tigres Femenil underage squad.
Positives of Pre-Season Tours
Some of the main perks of pre-season tours for women’s soccer are increased exposure and revenue for the participating clubs that broaden their scope and increase the chance of getting more fans. For example, Manchester City saw more than a 50% increase in their fan base since last year, which has a lot to do with pre-season tours, social media, the Women’s World Cup, and the publicity of the women’s game in the media.
Negatives of Pre-Season Tours
Some negatives of undergoing pre-season tours include the ‘waste’ of time and resources. Many clubs have traveled halfway across the world to play elite teams when they could find similarly-matched squads much closer to home base. This is environmentally harmful and also takes up a lot of time for players who don’t have much of an off-season to begin with.
Plus, undergoing long-haul trips eats up more travel days than clubs can account for, which means they could be training at home or using their time more effectively, instead of sitting on planes, buses, and trains for hours and hours on end. Furthermore, although the club can benefit from increased publicity, it isn’t cost-effective. These tours are extremely cost-heavy, with most tours requiring huge frees from participating clubs.
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