Among the many things, Australian women’s football needs to discuss is the use of double headers.

It’s a topic that encompasses so much more than just match day itself. In the W-League, double headers are intrinsically connected to broadcasting, scheduling and venues.

For starters, Australian women’s football is still in no position to take its television presence for granted.

A few years ago, the W-League was only shown as part of double headers with men’s A-League games.

That is, more often than not, still the condition behind W-League games being broadcast.

While complaints about every game not being available to watch are valid, there must also be an acknowledgement of the good work that has happened in this area.

More games have been broadcast compared to last season, 27 to 17.

Three games have also been live streamed on Fox Sports in collaboration with Sportscast Australia and Professional Footballers Australia.

On average, more games are being shown per round and the W-League usually has more games on free to air per round than the A-League (Friday night and Sunday afternoon on SBS Viceland compared to Saturday night on One.)

‘At least it’s better than nothing’ is a familiar refrain from fans but when do we start to move beyond that?

Double headers are an undeniably useful tool in terms of broadcasting.

The ability to show two games back to back from the same venue is convenient for the broadcaster and those watching on TV and, in theory, good for those at the grounds.

But the theory differs from the reality. For one, double headers beginning at 5:20pm on a Friday night only have one benefit: convenience for the broadcaster.

Yes, it’s important that the game can be broadcast but it is a difficult time slot for people to get to the venue in order to actually watch the game, which is almost always the women’s match.

In the same vein, people trying to get home in order to watch the match on TV are also likely to be missing a good chunk of the game. This doesn’t even begin to consider the role time zones play.

Every Friday night the same discussion was had.

Why are games being played at a time where people can’t go to them OR watch them on TV?

At what point does the gratitude at being broadcast and the convenience for TV networks at having double headers not outweigh the actual practicalities of getting people to watch the game either in the stands or on TV?

Is this the price we have to pay for TV presence?

When the games aren’t scheduled at inappropriate times or the rare occasions when women’s games follow men’s games, there is a raft of new issues which come into focus.

Firstly, football double headers become a long day.

If you throw kids into the mix I can only imagine it becomes exhausting.

There is a big difference between around four and a half hours of watching football at a stadium compared with the ease of watching back to back games at home.

Secondly, there is a symbolic victory in having the women’s match second and the men’s game occupying the unofficial ‘curtain raiser’ slot.

However, there is something disheartening about watching people leave after the men’s game and not sticking around for the women’s game.

When scheduling isn’t the issue, venue choice can also play a role in crowd numbers.

Almost all double headers are played at large, centrally located venues, typically with easy public transport access, therefore removing a barrier to people attending.

Stand alone games – meaning non-A-League double headers – are generally a different story.

Only a handful of W-League games have been played at a big venue without the presence of an A-League match.

Otherwise, it’s small venues which can be difficult to get to.

The differences in attendance between a club’s  stand alone home games and double header home games has a unique set of considerations attached to it.

Venues and their accessibility, kick off times, weather, the presence or lack of an A-League side and the success of the individual club all play a role in the crowd size, as much as the double header-stand alone dichotomy. 

For example, the Wanderers felt the full force of these variables and experienced the two extremes of crowd figures.

They had both the highest crowd number for the season – 8449 at a Sydney derby double header at ANZ Stadium — and the lowest — 215 at a stand alone, Friday 4:30pm kick off. 

This brings us to the main use for double headers: they are the most effective way of increasing crowd figures.

Here are the tip of the iceberg facts.

The total number of people who attended W-League home and away season matches increased by 52 percent from last season.

In 2016–17, a total of 75,694 people attended the 54 games in the season proper. This season 115,087 people went to the 54 regular season matches.

But within these figures there needs to be a distinction between stand alone and W-League/A-League double headers.

For starters in 2016–17 there were 18 double headers and 36 stand alone games.

This season that has increased to 24 double headers but only 30 stand alone games.

Working with the knowledge that double header W-League crowds are often well into four figures, those extra six games represent an increase in attendance before the season has even begun.

When you compare the numbers between the two types of matches from one season to the next, the results are interesting.

Last season, the total crowd for double header W-League games was 46,165. This season, with the six extra games, 85,296 people attended the W-League as part of a double header.

The average attendance increased by 39 percent from 2,565 last season to 3,554 this season.

Double header figures must also take into consideration how crowds are counted at these games.

Attendance figures for the first game in a double header are typically calculated around the 70th minute mark.

Speaking from experience attending both Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City double headers, the difference in crowd number between kick off in the W-League — even when poor scheduling isn’t a factor — and half time is very different.

Just as it is different when compared to the hour mark and even 80 minutes in.

With that in mind as well as the figures mentioned before, a few questions are raised.

Is that feeling of false or inauthentic growth surrounding double header crowds valid?

Is intention — whether people actually set out to watch the women’s game or stumbled upon a small amount of it by virtue of getting to the men’s game early — really important when calculating attendances?

When it comes to stand alone games, last season saw a total of 29,529 people get down to a W-League game. This season that figure rose slightly to 29,791.

The average crowd at stand alone games rose from 820 last season to 993 this season.

So with all these figures and the knowledge that a discussion about crowds encompasses so much more than just how many people are in the stands, are double headers the best way to grow the W-League?

*NB: All my crowd figures were collected from the W-League website. While I would’ve loved for this piece to encompass more than just the last two seasons, crowd figures were difficult to come by so take into consideration the limits of what’s been presented in this piece.