The 2023 Women’s World Cup kicks off Thursday in Australia and New Zealand and teams/fans are geared up for the travel.
Soccer fans might remember last year’s men’s tournament in Qatar where the furthest distance between two stadiums was 35 miles. That is no longer the case for Australia and New Zealand where travel will be a major factor.
Perth, Australia, and Hamilton, New Zealand, are the two furthest host cities sitting 3,333 miles apart.
Some teams, along with their fans, lucked out and won’t need to do too much travel for the three group stage games. Other countries will have over 4,000 miles of traveling to do just for the first three games.
Casinos.com has done the math and put together the full list of how far each team will travel for their group stage matches.
Norway and Zambia lucked out and will do the least amount of travel tied at 253 miles. Meanwhile Ireland got absolutely screwed over and will cover 5,131 miles over the course of 11 days for their games.
Here’s the full list.
How far teams travel for Women’s World Cup
Five teams got it the worst. Ireland, Denmark, Jamaica, Canada and Panama will all travel more than 4,000 miles. The one thing all five countries have in common is playing a game in the Western city of Perth.
These are the travel plans for the teams covering the most miles. In case a reminder of Australia’s geography is needed, here’s a map.
Women’s national teams traveling the most for the World Cup
- Ireland: Sydney → Perth → Brisbane (5,131 total miles)
- Denmark: Perth → Sydney → Perth (4,894 total miles)
- Jamaica: Sydney → Perth → Melbourne (4,577 total miles)
- Canada: Melbourne → Perth → Melbourne (4,278 total miles)
- Panama: Adelaide → Perth → Sydney (4,123 total miles)
Just for fun let’s now look at the five teams doing the least amount of travel. The USWNT sneaks into the bottom five with 800 total miles. All five countries on the list play their group stage games in New Zealand.
A map of New Zealand is provided.
Women’s national teams traveling the least for the World Cup
- Zambia: Hamilton → Auckland → Hamilton (253 total miles)
- Norway: Auckland → Hamilton → Auckland (253 total miles)
- Sweden: Wellington → Wellington → Hamilton (323 total miles)
- Italy: Auckland → Wellington → Wellington (389 total miles)
- USWNT: Auckland → Wellington → Auckland (800 total miles)
