Around 450,000 visitors to the fan mile. The stadium 92 percent sold out. Plus a peaceful, fair and party-like atmosphere – the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Frankfurt was a memorable event for city on the Main and a great image-building promotion for Frankfurt – the Heart of Women’s Football.

"The media interest in Frankfurt during this World Cup was huge. It was fantastic PR for our city," said Frankfurt's Lord Mayor, Petra Roth, summing up in very positive terms one of the benefits that the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 brought to the city. It was a view shared by the Council's Head of Sport, Markus Frank: "The 2011 Women's World Cup was a complete success and Frankfurt can justifiably feel that it too is a winner. The three weeks of the tournament enhanced the city's image no end. Our slogan, 'Frankfurt - the Heart of Women's Football', which is, of course, based on solid fact, became very well established."

'Frankfurt - the Heart of Women's Football'

Even before the big kick-off on 26th June, the City of Frankfurt had launched an extensive publicity campaign under the heading 'Frankfurt - the Heart of Women's Football'. With a major kick-off event in September 2010, a series of press events, an exhibition on the history of women's football in Frankfurt, a big roadshow, the 'Love Frankfurt' promotion and a website with lots of multimedia features (which incidentally achieved only 10% fewer hits than the men's World Cup website), the way was paved for great attention to be focussed on Frankfurt as a central venue of the Women's World Cup.

With the spectacular 'Ball Magic' opening show on the eve of the tournament, Frankfurt achieved unique nationwide attention. The show was watched by 120,000 visitors at the site itself and was broadcast live on regional TV channel hr3 and also in part on the national ZDF sports show 'Das Aktuelle Sportstudio'. On all the news channels clips were even still being shown on the Sunday evening. Foreign broadcasters, including China TV, also reported on the 'Ball Magic'. The largest American sports channel, ESPN, reported live from Opera House Square for around 5 hours on 30th June. From the semi-final onwards, Nippon TV also broadcast extensively from Frankfurt.

Centre of World Cup media attention

During the tournament, too, there was comprehensive coverage from the city, both in print and on TV. German national channel ZDF presented its morning magazine show from the roof terrace of the visitor marquee beside the Main. On 29th May, ZDF broadcast regular reports throughout the day on the world record attempt in women's penalty taking, which ended in success for Frankfurt. During the course of the tournament, in addition to the ARD 'Sportschau' and hr 'Heimspiel' programmes, the majority of the independent channels also broadcast at times from the World Cup's largest fan mile. Frankfurt was thus not just a central playing venue at this World Cup, but a central point of media focus as well.

A feminine, chilled out, family World Cup

The idea of having a varied programme of entertainment as well as public viewing was also a big success. Every evening thousands of people took advantage of what was on offer to enjoy food, drink and a party atmosphere in the Frankfurt Football Gardens. By the end of the tournament the visitor total was around 450,000. In terms of the type of crowd the assumptions were fully correct both on the fan mile and in the stadium: there were more women and girls, more families and a more relaxed mood than in 2006. This was also reflected in the general security situation: the police had practically no incidents to report and things were similar for the paramedics. It was all very peaceful.

USA vs. Japan - a dream final for Frankfurt

In the World Cup stadium, too, things went very well. The games were around 92 percent sold out. One fly in the ointment, though, was naturally the premature exit of the home nation, as all hopes had been on a German final. Nevertheless, having the USA playing Japan was practically a dream final for Frankfurt. There are strong, lively communities from both countries in the city and the Rhine-Main area and the USA is also Frankfurt's largest tourist market with Americans making 420,000 overnight stays a year and the Japanese in 5th place accounting for around 130,000. One particular highlight was the visit of both countries' ambassadors to the fan mile. Among those in American ambassador Philip D. Murphy's delegation was Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, current foreign minister Hilary Clinton.

All in the all, the great effort was more than worth it for Frankfurt. For three weeks, the city was the global capital of ladies' game. And proved that it is indeed the Heart of Women's Football.

Looking forward beyond the World Cup

And the city will remain this heart in the future, too! For with numerous girls' football projects, a whole series of women's football clubs and the flagship FFC Frankfurt, women's football is in great shape here right across the board. The women's game in Frankfurt has a bright future and it's thus to be hoped that a bit of World Cup hype penetrates into the 'Stadion am Brentanobad' when Frankfurt's ladies start their title chase again on 21st August.