Devil's Advocate: How Weymouth Women Move "Might" Make Sense for Bournemouth

It is easy to understand why AFC Bournemouth supporters have reacted so strongly to the decision to move the women’s team’s home fixtures to Weymouth. The Cherries are, after all, Bournemouth’s football club. So taking the women’s team away from the Bournemouth area than they already were - naturally feels counterproductive.

There have already been comparisons to AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons, with some supporters questioning why a club supposedly committed to growing its women’s team would choose to play its home matches 38 miles from the Vitality Stadium.

And those concerns should not simply be dismissed.

But there is another side to the story which perhaps deserves greater consideration.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Bournemouth head of women’s football Bruce Suraci explained that the decision was not simply about finding somewhere with enough seats for a potential promotion to the Women's Super League.

Instead, the club assessed a long list of potential venues, with the WSL's requirements extending far beyond capacity and covered accommodation.

"There's so much more, from the lux of your floodlights to your car park to internet", Suraci explained: "the list is extensive."

According to Suraci, Bournemouth looked at four venues with the WSL itself and assessed another eight potential grounds across the South West before ultimately deciding that Weymouth represented the best option.

That is important context.

The alternative interpretation is that Bournemouth have not abandoned their ambition to build a women's team based in Bournemouth. They have instead chosen the most straightforward and financially sensible route towards achieving their immediate sporting objective.

The biggest issue with Ringwood was not necessarily that it was unsuitable for National League football. Rather, it was that it was not a particularly straightforward venue to upgrade to WSL2 standards.

The ground had only been usable for the women's team after a period of grace allowed improvements to be made. Bringing it fully up to the standards required for the second tier would require significant investment.

And that creates a sizeable risk.

Bournemouth could spend heavily upgrading a ground, only for the team to fail to win promotion - something which cannot be relied upon given the significant changes being made to the squad.

Weymouth, by comparison, offers an existing stadium which already provides the infrastructure required to future-proof the team for WSL2. When the team eventually fins its feet in the second tier, the plan seems to be - with the extra support garnered from the west of Dorset - to return to the team's home-town.

As Suraci put it, the move was ultimately about "guaranteeing that if the girls did the business on the pitch, then we would get promoted."

That does not make the decision perfect. But it does make it considerably more understandable.

There is also an important distinction between saying the women’s team will be based in Weymouth for the next couple of seasons and saying Bournemouth have decided that Weymouth is its permanent home.

Those are not necessarily the same thing.

Suraci himself told the Daily Echo that the club's intention is to eventually find a local solution and return to the Bournemouth area. 

"We want to recruit fans in Dorset, and then eventually come back", he said. "So there is a long-term strategy."

That is perhaps the most significant part of the entire debate.

A club source has also indicated that the intention is for the women’s team to ultimately have a homecoming. The timing of that return has yet to be determined, with the club continuing to investigate a number of possibilities.

One potential factor could be the second phase of the redevelopment of Bournemouth's Performance Centre, while there is also the possibility of a partnership involving Chapel Gate and Bournemouth University.

In other words, Weymouth does not necessarily represent the final destination. It could instead be a staging post.

And perhaps that is the most charitable - and potentially realistic - way of looking at the decision.

Bournemouth are trying to build a women's team capable of reaching WSL2 within the next 10 months. To do that sustainably, they need to make decisions that allow them to invest in the football operation rather than pour money into infrastructure that might become redundant if promotion is not achieved.

There is also the argument that Weymouth could help expand Bournemouth's reach across Dorset.

Suraci was keen to stress that the club sees itself as "Dorset's football club", rather than simply one belonging to Bournemouth.

That will understandably do little to comfort a supporter who lives five minutes from the Vitality Stadium and/or Ringwood and now faces a lengthy journey to watch the women's team.

But if the move is genuinely temporary, and if the club uses the next couple of seasons to build the team, increase its profile, grow its supporter base and establish itself at WSL2 level, then the picture could look very different.

The danger is that supporters understandably interpret a move to Weymouth as a permanent relocation.

The mission for Bournemouth, is to make sure that does not happen.

Via the article, the club clearly communicated that Weymouth is a strategic short-term solution rather than the end goal, while continuing to investigate a sustainable Bournemouth-based home, underlining that this move does not have to represent the abandonment of the women's team's identity. In fact, it could ultimately prove to be the foundation for bringing that identity back home.

On several occasions in recent history, there have been a number of individual moments which seems like madness, only for the "method" to be explained afterwards - and with a track record of sticking to the word on building training centres, expansing the stadium, and getting the team to Europe - cynical Cherries fans might want to assess the recent history to realise that, on the whole - the club ownership has eventually got things spot on.

For now, of course supporters are right to ask questions - it'd be outside the scope of their DNA if they didn't, but perhaps it is too early to conclude that the women’s team has been permanently exiled from Bournemouth.

This may be less of a goodbye - and more of a see you later.