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Wanderers have set an ambitious five-year target for their women’s team as they prepare to bring it back under their official umbrella next season.
The team, currently playing at the sixth step of the football pyramid in the North West Regional League, have been challenged to get three promotions by 2029/30.
That would put them in the FAWNL Northern Premier Division – step three – where the likes of Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Burnley and Wolves currently play.
Under their previous guise the team made as far as tier four but Wanderers chief executive Neil Hart told existing staff and players that sights have now been set even higher.
“I was asked where we wanted to take this and I said we have to be looking at tier three for now, that has to be our objective, the Northern Premier Division. Tier six to tier three is achievable over the next five years. It can be done,” he told The Bolton News.
“We need the right focus, the right staff, players will come and go – that’s the nature of it – but there’s no point me sitting here and saying ‘Super League’ because right now that isn’t realistic.
“Tier three is a good objective, and achievable.”
The team will see out the remainder of the current season before being run on a semi-professional basis from this summer onwards.
The growth of the women’s game has been considerable in the last decade following the establishment of the Premier League in 2010.
More than 40,000 people watched Manchester City beat Manchester United 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday and Arsenal recently recorded a record crowd of 60,010 for a WSL match at the Emirates.
Hart is confident that Wanderers can make their own operation a success and attract new supporters to the club.
“I am confident that it is another growth opportunity for us,” he said. “I am confident there are enough sponsors and commercial partners to make it a successful venture, so long as we position it the right way. That has been done at other clubs and it can be done here.
“We will run it on a semi-professional basis, which will enable us to manage our costs, but it does require investment.
“It has been run by our community department for a number of years. They have done a sterling job but I think they have taken it as far as they can.
“It needs to be semi-professional, to be run by the club like a club, it needs some additive things around it from a football and operational point of view.
“Ultimately, should a club like Bolton Wanderers have their team playing in tier six? Probably not. Our ambition is to get it much higher up the pyramid and I firmly believe we will do that.”
Wanderers are likely to use their training ground at Lostock to play games for the time being but are open to moving games to the main stadium if the situation dictates.
Hart said: “We definitely want to open up opportunities for fans to come and watch the women’s team play, for sponsors to get involved, we’d love to put a game on at the Toughsheet Community Stadium too, I am sure that will happen, in fact, at the right point.
“We want to make it part of the family and improve it. We can put more into it, progress it.”
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