By Samindra Kunti
June 11 – The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup has caught the imagination of the fans and TV viewers, but ultimately the success of the tournament may depend on host nation Canada’s fortunes.
Last Saturday Canada and China kicked off the sixth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Edmonton as a Christine Sinclair penalty in the waning moments of the game proved to be the difference between both sides in front of 53,058 fans. But the curtain-raiser had been a rather drab affair up to that point.
In the group of death Sweden’s 3-3 draw with Nigeria and the USA’s 3-1 defeat of Australia were entertaining and engaged neutral fans. Those fans have been turning up in huge numbers, to date about 920,000 match tickets have been sold. The local organizing committee wants to sell one million tickets and exceed the 1.2 million record registered during the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the USA.
TV ratings have been exceptional so far, attracting more television viewers in key markets than in 2011. 1.8 million Canadians watched the opening game on CTV, TSN and RDS. That was the biggest television audience in Canada for any FIFA Women’s World Cup match on record, according to FIFA.
In China, 2.3 million viewers watched CCTV5’s coverage of the match. In 2011 China had not qualified for the tournament. The highest live audience in the Chinese market was 1.3 million viewers at the time.
US broadcaster Fox Sports 1 drew 3.3 million viewers for the game between the United States and Australia, while England’s opener against France attracted 1.5 million viewers to BBC2, a bigger audience than for any group stage match in 2011.
It remains to be seen if the tournament has really caught on with local fans. Tonight the hosts have a chance to take a step towards the round of sixteen when they face New Zealand. Canada have a 6-2-1 record in nine previous encounters with the Kiwi’s.
In Group B Germany and Norway, two members of the big six, will battle for top spot. The Germans trashed Ivory Coast with double digits, while Norway cruised past Thailand 4-0. Germany have the better record against their European rivals with 19 wins, 5 draw and 14 losses.
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