Bristol Rovers is looking to welcome first-time football female fans to The Mem to mark International Women’s Day.
The Sky Bet League One fixture against Portsmouth on Saturday 18th March will also celebrate our second year of collaboration with Her Game Too, who want to ensure that 10 women will experience their first football matchday.
In partnership with the club, Her Game Too will be offering new potential fans the chance to come along to the game.
HGT founder Caz May said: “We would like to invite 10 new potential female fans to the Portsmouth game, as our guests.
“We have found that one of the main barriers that stop women from attending is they don’t have anyone to go with. Offering them a free ticket and being part of a community of other new supporters will give them the chance to experience a football matchday in a safe environment with us. The hope is that they love it so much that they want to come back again.
“Rovers’ female Season Ticket holder percentage isn’t as high as either the club or ourselves would like it to be and we want to work together to encourage more women to attend to make Bristol Rovers a more diverse and inclusive fanbase.
"We are in regular communication with the club to ensure our equality standards are met. Collaborating on this dedicated fixture as part of our partnership is a great way for us to influence positive change at Bristol Rovers."
Head of Sales David Bright added: “It will be hard to top last year’s double-header fixtures against Forest Green Rovers’ men’s and women’s teams, but we think this offer will be a huge success. The dialogue between HGT and the club doesn’t stop once the activations each season are over. We have end-of-season discussions and learning sessions, we bounce around ideas for the coming season, and we like to be a sounding board for any ideas that the group wants to share. We are looking forward to seeing this idea hopefully grow our fanbase.”
The Portsmouth game will also see women taking the centre stage of the matchday, from the female-led band Blue Soul playing in the FanZone, to female powerhouses taking over the pre-game music playlist and plenty of competitions taking place.
One of those competitions will see HGT reach out to local schools to ask them to design their own Gas Girls kit. The winner of this competition will not only be invited to the game to receive a prize from the club but will see their design up in lights at half-time on the big screen.
The club’s head of HR, Louise Smith, said: “Bristol is such a diverse, exciting city, and we can’t wait to see the children’s artwork. Football is such a massive part of adult life in Bristol and older children are now seeing it added to their curriculum, so the work that the team from HGT is doing to spread this message at grassroots level, and to those children in junior schools, is so important for the future of fans of the club and personal development in children.”
The HGT team has made it really easy to apply for their ‘First Time Fan’ tickets - all you need to do is send your request to their email info@hergametoo.co.uk and they will get back in touch.