Bristol and Saracens women changed in offices as men’s teams given priority

• Men used changing rooms at Ashton Gate ‘double header’
• Women’s teams had to shower at gym away from stadium

Bristol Bears and Saracens women’s rugby union teams changed in offices and had to shower at a nearby gym away from the stadium for their fixture last month – while the men’s teams playing at the same ground that day were given full access to the changing facilities.

While the men’s teams changed in the only set of changing rooms at the Ashton Gate stadium for the “double header” of men’s and women’s fixtures, the women’s sides were in offices in a stand at the ground.

The situation for the 19 October fixture in Bristol illustrates one of the challenges facing the women’s game as clubs attempt to grow the sport.Bristol Bears said in a statement: “The decision to host a double-header at Ashton Gate was taken specifically to drive viewership of the women’s fixture, both at the stadium and on television via TNT Sports.

“We were delighted with the matchday which attracted nearly 4,000 supporters to the stadium for the women’s game alone and 18,000 overall. Sadly, stadia designs rarely have the luxury of space to have multiple sets of dressing rooms, so there was much discussion with our performance and operations teams (in the women and men’s sides) as to how best to deliver a double-header with the shortest turnaround time between matches to support fan engagement.”

The club added: “We opted to utilise the stadium’s old dressing room space in the Atyeo Stand to enable the women to have a separate stand in which to prepare in. Post-match they walked to a nearby private gym to access separate shower facilities as the men were by now occupying the Ashton Gate changing rooms ahead of their kick-off. This enabled both women’s teams to return in time to the stadium to watch the men’s game. This plan was agreed to by both clubs in advance of the double-header.”

Bristol also said it is “constantly looking at new ways to grow and amplify the women’s game. Our one-club ethos sees our women’s and men’s teams train alongside each other in a state-of-the-art facility at the Bears High Performance Centre.”

It is understood one of the main reasons why the men’s teams were not put into the offices is because of the men’s Premiership minimum standards. When the Guardian asked Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) if it could view the women’s league’s minimum operating standards, the league said it was not a public document.

The women’s match was attended by 3,534 fans. Bristol have also held standalone matches for the women’s team at Ashton Gate, with a game against Sale Sharks last season seeing 2,800 in the stands. Bristol women’s home stadium of Shaftesbury Park has a capacity of 1,500.Last season the defending PWR champions, Gloucester, were also part of a double header with the mens’ teams against Leicester Tigers at their Kingsholm ground. The men played first because of the TV pick and used the changing rooms, leaving the women’s teams to change in a separate room sealed with fire doors pre-match. During the first half of the women’s match, staff cleaned out the stadium changing rooms after the men had left and so the women’s sides could use the stadium facilities from half-time onwards.The club wanted to play the double header because of its charitable nature as the fixture between the two clubs is now known as the Slater Cup in honour of the former player Ed Slater, who has been diagnosed with MND. Gloucester do not have any plans in the future to hold double headers.

Leicester Tigers did not respond to the Guardian’s multiple requests for information around their facilities for double headers.

Exeter have never hosted a double header and Saracens do not have plans to. Trailfinders, Sale Sharks and Loughborough Lightning say they have enough facilities to accommodate all teams on double header days.

Harlequins go to Twickenham (now called the Allianz Stadium) for their double headers, which has two sets of changing rooms. However, when they were forced to move their annual Big Game double-header to The Stoop because of train strikes in 2022, they put the Quins men and women’s teams in the home and away changing rooms. Bristol’s men and women’s teams were then put in the club’s players lounge, separated by a wall, to change. Quins also hired in shower units for the away teams. It is understood the game may have had to be called off had the measures not been put in place.

A PWR spokesperson said: “One of Premiership Women’s key objectives is to grow the game and bring a new audience to watch women’s rugby. Double-header fixtures can help some of our clubs achieve this goal, as we have seen this season. Together with our clubs we are always looking at innovative ways to attract new fans to women’s rugby and last season we saw a record cumulative attendance of more than 100,000 supporters in our stadiums.

“We have seen from the huge success of Big Game, which set a world record attendance for a women’s club match last December, double-headers can be a game-changer for some of our clubs, players and supporters.”