Matildas stars like Mary Fowler become household names in the FIFA Women's World Cup shopfront

Plastered on the side of a Kent Street office tower are images of the two Matildas stars giving Australians a reason to dream about lifting the FIFA Women's World Cup.

"If they weren't household names before," RMIT marketing expert Con Stavros said, "they are now."

Because these building wraps are more than 40 metres high. Put simply, they're impossible to miss, just like the Matildas have been as they surge into a quarter-final against France seemingly destined to shatter their own record for the most-watched television program of the year.

The Matildas are so big, Channel Seven will push their normal 6pm news bulletin to after Saturday's match in all states. The usual play is to shift the game to a secondary channel and keep the news in the same slot. This shows how much the Matildas are moving the needle.

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Now the earning capacity of the Matildas' biggest names could skyrocket as prospective sponsors take notice and try to cash in on the hottest ticket in the country.

Sam Kerr might be the most talked about athlete at the World Cup - and she has barely played more than 10 minutes. But that is hardly a surprise for arguably the best player in the world.

Kerr is already the highest-paid female soccer player on the planet with a Chelsea contract coupled with Nike and EA Sports endorsements netting the goal-scoring superstar $3.3 million last year.

Then there is Ellie Carpenter, who is said to have made about $1.2 million in the last financial year when combining endorsements with her deal to play for Olympique Lyonnais in France.

Then the figures start to fall. Midfielder Emily van Egmond is next on the list having raked in almost $400,000 during the same period, while 10 players earned between $100,000 and $200,000.

But never have the Matildas been so marketable.

"It helps because whilst Sam Kerr is the superstar and the captain of the team and she attracts enormous interest from sponsors, there are a lot of brands that are interested and have been for a long time in the Matildas, but even more so now," Stavros said.

"If Sam has got too many brands around her, then they go to perhaps someone not as exposed or someone quite a bit younger that they can have a longer playing relationship with.

"From the sponsors' point of view, having a bigger selection of athletes in the spotlight is going to be really good for them, conversely, on the athletes' side of it, the World Cup has always been a shopfront. It's a shopfront for moving from club to club, we see that in the women's and the men's.

"The world is watching at this particular point. Whilst there are scouts all around the world and everyone knows who the players are, it is how you perform at this highest level that carries more weight than a lot of the other things.

"It's great for the players, because it not only means potentially moving to a lot of the bigger clubs around the world - although most of the Matildas are already there, there's only a couple that aren't - but it also opens up their perceptions with sponsors.

"Sponsors get a look at them on that bigger stage and start to realise the names like Mary Fowler and Caitlin Foord have a strong resonance within the community, and they would like to be a part of that."

The free-to-air telecast of the Matildas' win over Denmark in the round of 16 was broadcaster Channel Seven's No.1 program of 2023, reaching 6.54 million people, with an average audience during the game of 3.56 million.

Seven's figures were higher than every NRL grand final and State of Origin since 2016, and higher than four of the past six AFL grand finals.

Never have the Matildas gone beyond the quarter-finals at the World Cup. Three times - in 2007, 2011 and 2015 - their journey ended at this stage. The prospect of a semi-final against England - perhaps the best team in the world - awaits if Australia can account for France this weekend.

"From a marketability point of view, the great thing about the World Cup is, unlike other events, it might be a swimming competition over a week or so, you've got a semi-final and the next day is the final, there's a real build up to this," Stavros said.

"It's like a drama series playing out in front of your eyes. There's a build up, there's a game, there's a pause for three, four, five days, and then there is another game and a pause.

"It's got that storytelling narrative, it's not over and done with in one race or a couple of days, it actually unfolds over a month. That's the beauty of the Matildas now getting to this pointy end of it. I get the sense people not that interested in football or women's sport have come on board now.

"We don't come together for many things anymore in society, sport seems to be the big gravitational force for uniting communities these days."

But how long it lasts is the burning question as sponsors and athletes look to cash in on the Matildas' success.

Football Australia officials have vowed to ensure the tournament is more than a fond memory when the remaining teams board their flights home, with the sport's power brokers determined to unlock federal government funding to open opportunities for development, stadiums and the like.

"By demonstrating there is incredible interest, as TV ratings and attendances have indicated, this is where governments should be looking to invest," Stavros said.

"Whilst it's great, what's happening now, the next six months is where we'll really see what the lasting effects of this are going to be.

"You want to see the investment and the interest being maintained so as the team goes onto the Asian Cup and other events, we still have that same kind of passion for it."

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