Research shows Australia’s major sporting events struggling to generate engagement

364 days away from the start of Australia and New Zealand’s hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup a new study shows that the tournament is attracting attention from just 21% of the population, with only 17% of Australians intend to watch.

The newly released study from True North Research shows that the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 scores an awareness level of only 8%.

Among events with the highest recognition, Qatar’s men’s FIFA World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics both rated 51% awareness among survey respondents, while next year’s Rugby World Cup in France attracts the attention of just 16% of Australians.

The Rugby League World Cup later this year in England also scores alarmingly low awareness, recognised by only15%, which will cause some concern to those involved in the game internationally.

The Birmingham Commonwealth Games that begin in less than two weeks on the other hand, rates a strong intention to watch by Australians, with 43% saying they will switch on.

The FIFA men’s World Cup in November sees 35% aiming to watch while the cricket T20 World Cup will be seen by 29% of respondents.

Commenting on the study, True North Director, Chris Hobden explained “although intention to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia/NZ is relatively low at the moment, there are events that are happening before this one that also catch the eye of sports fans in Australia.

“The success of the women’s European championships currently progressing in the UK and the precedent set by the T20 Women’s World Cup that took place on Australian shores in 2020 suggests there is huge potential for a successful event.

“With a year to go until the tournament starts there is plenty of time to generate awareness and intention to watch. The key will be how the event is marketed, knowing how to develop an emotional connection with the broader audience, and what drivers to pull to pique interest. We look forward to tracking this over the next few waves of our BenchMark study.”

The study interviewed 34,528 people aged over 16 in eight ‘waves’ from October 2018 through to May this year.

Click here for more information on True North Research.