The sea of people outside Marvel Stadium in Docklands resembled the view when flying into Sydney in spring; an explosion of purple jacaranda trees in amongst the swathes of green and gold.
The Matildas were in town for the second leg of their Olympic qualifier against Uzbekistan and that meant people were carefully picking their outfits.
Some went with vintage Socceroos jerseys, others with the classic 2019 Matildas spew kit, more still with the two 2023 World Cup kits.
There were homemade t-shirts, ribbons in ponytails, green caps, weather-inappropriate scarves, club jerseys with the names of Matildas on the back and some were lucky enough to wear the rare purple goalkeeper jersey that Nike and Football Australia had only released earlier that day.
Normally, temperatures in the mid-30s would deter folks from heading out to watch a game on a weeknight. But the 54,120 people in attendance wouldn't dream of missing out on this.
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With green and gold friendship bracelets on their arms and cold drinks in hand, this crowd witnessed the closest thing to a party that can happen on a football field.
Michelle Heyman's four goal haul in the first half set the tone for a commanding 10-0 victory over Uzbekistan, and a 13-0 win on aggregate, to secure Australia's passage to the Paris Olympics, their third Games in a row.
They did it in front of their 12th straight sold out crowd on home soil, which stretches back to the last time they played at Marvel Stadium, mere days before the World Cup kicked off with a 1-0 friendly win over France.
Social media was flooded with posts about the game and photos from inside the stadium of packed stands.
For a few short hours, everything was the Tillies and little else mattered.
It's been seven months since the World Cup began and the nation's love affair with the Matildas doesn't feel like a flash in the pan. It has seemingly only gotten stronger.
It's a relationship which reinforces the proof of concept that investing in women's sports is worth every dollar.
For the Matildas specifically, the investment comes in the form of two forces which function in a symbiotic relationship.
There's the financial and commercial investment from the likes of Football Australia and sponsors and the emotional, social, and financial investment from fans of this team. Supercharge that combination with a best ever World Cup run on home soil and together, you get the cultural and economic juggernaut that is the Matildas.
Investing in the Matildas hasn't always been the done thing. Back in 2015, the team's decision to go on strike demanding better conditions and pay caused a stir. Remunerating this team, who had just come off a best ever result at a World Cup, fairly and subjecting them to the same conditions as the Socceroos was seen as a cost the governing body was unwilling to bear.
By 2019, after four years of incredible growth, a joint collective bargaining agreement between the men's and women's national team saw pay parity achieved. In 2023, further changes have seen the Matildas get paid the same way as the Socceroos and the teams receive a bigger portion of the money they help bring in.
The thought of not paying these Matildas fairly, as was the case back in 2015 feels like a distant memory. The economic value of this team has grown in the nine years since the strike and never more rapidly than this last World Cup cycle. In FA's Legacy '23 pre-tournament report, the governing body shared some impressive stats on the Matildas commercial growth.
FA saw an 150% increase in growth in sponsorship revenue between 2020 and 2023. In 2022, only three of the body's 15 commercial partners did not have any rights relating to women's football.
In this same pre-tournament report, FA stated that "industry data suggests the Matildas fanbase have one of the highest per head spend on matchday".
This is a growing fandom, that is highly engaged, and willing to spend money. That was never more present than in the scramble to buy merchandise.
During the six-week World Cup period, Football Australia's online store's revenue surpassed the entire prior financial year by 30%. That demand has not eased up with the purple goalkeeper shirts selling out almost immediately of their limited stock after their release date was brought forward.
Jerseys have been an incredibly hot commodity with Nike, the team's kit supplier, and Rebel Sport, a retailer and FA partner, reaping the benefits too.
Total sales for the Matildas jerseys were 19 times higher than what they were for the last World Cup in 2019, according to FA's post-tournament Legacy '23 report and more jerseys were sold in July, August and September 2023 than before, during, and after any previous tournament.
FA also revealed the Matildas' jerseys for this Women's World Cup outsold the Socceroos' jersey from the Men's World Cup two to one.
On a broader scale, post-World Cup research conducted by Neilsen in October 2023 found the tournament as a whole generated an induced economic impact of $1.32 billion, with the presence of 86,654 visitors in Australia being a major driver of economic activity.
That women's sport -- women's football -- is capable of that kind of impact speaks to the value of investing in it. However, some still need convincing.
In 2023 the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation in Victoria commissioned a report from Gemba which found "for every $1 a corporate sponsor invests into the visibility of women's elite sport, it supports the realisation of -- on average -- $7.29 in customer value for that organisation."
That report also found that "sponsorships of women's elite sporting properties outperform men's elite sporting properties when it comes to brand awareness, brand consideration and customer conversion."
Organisations who are brave enough to commit to women's sport are being rewarded and smashing stereotypes with cold hard numbers.
But even after a record breaking World Cup and a record breaking few years for the Matildas, the wider trend appears to be one of slow uptake on the part of companies when it comes to capitalising on the women's sport growth market, with "industry benchmarks [showing] that the value of women's elite sport properties is currently only 12% the level of men's elite sport properties" according to the OWSR report.
Even at its record breaking best, women's sport is still undervalued and underutilised.
But financial investment doesn't exist in a vacuum. The appeal of a team like the Matildas is the emotional connection fans have to it.
And that's what brings us to the second half of this equation. The often dismissed but indisputably powerful fans and their emotional, social, and financial investment in this team.
True North Research has consistently found that the Matildas are not only one of Australia's most beloved national teams, but one that fans find most relatable, are most proud of, and are most emotionally connected to.
These feelings have only grown thanks to a combination of factors.
Obviously, winning helps. Watching a team that bangs in goals for fun or takes you on an emotional rollercoaster to ultimately secure victory makes you want to come back and do it all over again.
Then there's the players themselves. Not only are they still accessible in person and online despite their now stratospheric fame in Australia, they're easy to relate to and get behind, collectively and individually.
People see themselves in these women in their TikTok dances, their journeys to motherhood, their struggles with hearing loss, their best friends and partners and pets, their triumphs and tribulations, and boundless enthusiasm for Australian coffee.
The team has key values they choose to highlight because they affect them personally, such is the diversity of the team. Whether that be standing with an Aboriginal flag before Olympic matches in Tokyo, wearing rainbow numbers during Cup of Nations games, or calling out inequality in pay, standards, and treatment, it means something to people.
And of course, the home World Cup factor cannot be overlooked or overstated.
Getting swept up in the hype and the narrative because it is quite literally on your doorstep and standing with thousands of other people who care about the same thing you do, feeling the same way you do, who are as excited as you are about something that means a lot to you is pure magic.
Those 12 straight home sell outs are likely to become 14 after Olympic farewell games against China in Adelaide and Sydney were announced for May and June of this year.
This level of hype and interest felt unfathomable even five years ago and it feels unprecedented in an Australian context. Many have highlighted the similarities between Taylor Swift and the Matildas and with good reason.
Currently, Swift feels like the only point of reference for what this Matildas moment feels like in two key ways.
Firstly, a lot of the ways people express their fandom is directly borrowed Swifties.
Whether that be fans and the Matildas social media team alike making friendship bracelets in green and gold to pass out at games, to Eras Tour TikTok trends being adapted to fit Matildas games, and even the adoption of Swift's song 'Long Live' as just one of the unofficial anthems of the World Cup.
Flying around the country to see the show, buying tickets and merchandise, getting tattoos to commemorate the moment are all as applicable to the Eras Tour are they are the Matildas.
But the other, arguably more valuable, reason why Swift acts as the most relevant comparison for this moment for the Matildas is because there currently feels like no better example of a gateway into a traditionally male-dominated space, that centres and validates the fandom of women and girls particularly.
A dominant force in her own industry that has now more than ever celebrated and been driven by the power, economically and socially, of women and girls, her foray into the NFL via three-time Super Bowl-winning boyfriend Travis Kelce has been just as impactful.
The NFL has seen viewership records set in the United States this season, jersey sales, of the Kelce brothers in particular, spike, and the noticeable introduction of thousands of new fans to the sport has disrupted this traditionally masculine space but to the benefit of sport as whole.
In a not too dissimilar way, the Matildas have acted as that catalyst into football for many people who thought sport was never for them and offered an alternative that is gaining momentum, influence, and followers.
It makes sense though. In the Matildas, fans see people like them or people they could feasibly be. Diverse and inclusive. At Matildas games, people feel safe and accepted, enjoying the passion and atmosphere. The pitch of the roar of the crowd might be higher but that doesn't make it inferior.
And there is no set way to be a fan but plenty of ways to show your fandom. From those who will get up at all hours and travel all sorts of distances, to those who will buy several kits, to those who incorporate their love for the team into their everyday life through water bottles and handbags and phone cases via FA's licensing deals.
This is a team that inspires emotional investment and that in turn manifests itself into dollars spent.
The value of this team, and women's sport more widely, is set to grow even further.
Deloitte is predicting elite women's sport will break the billion dollar mark in global revenues in 2024 for the first time. Football is projected to be the most valuable sport.
The company's sports business group noted women's sport is being viewed as a unique product that is growing exceptionally and has fans and investors engaging. In order to continue that growth consistently and sustainably, investment must be directed in the right places.
In a Matildas context, the success of a home World Cup and thousands of new fans jumping on board will mean nothing if investment doesn't expand.
Sponsors who have already jumped on board will need to fork out more money to continue working with the brand the Matildas have cultivated.
Similarly, FA will need to continue investing in the Matildas to ensure that emotional connection which drives investment grows.
That means heeding the calls of Tony Gustavsson and players in the immediate aftermath of the tournament for more funding and not just continuing the efforts seen in the leadup to the tournament but going further in the hopes that the Matildas will do the same.
Investment must extend beyond the Matildas to the youth national teams and the A-League Women, too. FA will also need to continuing engaging with governments for additional funding to assist with the incredible post-World Cup boom felt at the grassroots level.
If that investment is secured, the ceiling for the Matildas, and for women's sport globally, is sky high.