By Alasdair Pal&nbsp;and&nbsp;Irene Wang
SYDNEY/AUCKLAND&nbsp;(Reuters) -Co-hosts Australia&nbsp;and&nbsp;New Zealand&nbsp;opened the ninth&nbsp;Women's World Cup with wins&nbsp;and&nbsp;record crowds on Thursday, after a shooting near the Norwegian team hotel in Auckland&nbsp;that left three dead&nbsp;and&nbsp;six injured.
Police said the shooter was among those killed&nbsp;and&nbsp;the danger&nbsp;from&nbsp;the incident was over, while New Zealand&nbsp;Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said there was no risk to national security.
After an opening ceremony celebrating traditional Maori culture including the famous Haka war dance, a slick team goal finished off by Hannah Wilkinson at Eden Park was the difference in New Zealand's 1-0 victory over Norway, their first ever at a World Cup.
The crowd of 42,137 beat the host nation's previous record for an international soccer match.
"To get their first win at&nbsp;home&nbsp;while they're hosting... it's a moment in history, for&nbsp;women's football&nbsp;and&nbsp;for New Zealand&nbsp;women's football," said Kirsten Johnson, a 39-year-old New Zealand&nbsp;supporter&nbsp;from&nbsp;the United States.
Authorities deployed extra police&nbsp;and&nbsp;security outside the stadium following the shooting in New Zealand's largest city.
A statement&nbsp;from&nbsp;football's governing body FIFA said it was supporting teams in the vicinity of the incident.
A fan park in the city will remain closed on Thursday, organisers said.
"Everyone woke up pretty quickly when the helicopter hovered outside the hotel window&nbsp;and&nbsp;a large number of emergency vehicles arrived - at first we didn't know what was going on, but eventually there&nbsp;were&nbsp;updates on TV&nbsp;and&nbsp;the local media," Norway captain Maren Mjelde was quoted as saying by newspaper Verdens Gang.
Australia's Matildas began their campaign with a scrappy 1-0 win against Ireland&nbsp;in front of a crowd of 75,784 fans at Stadium Australia in Sydney &ndash; a record attendance for a&nbsp;women&rsquo;s soccer match in the country.
"It was really entertaining match, fast paced&nbsp;and&nbsp;intense, it was great," said Australia supporter Jacinta Hayde.
"I think we&rsquo;ve just got great momentum at the moment, really looking forward to seeing the rest."
They&nbsp;were&nbsp;dealt a blow before kick-off, however, when talismanic striker Sam Kerr, arguably the face of the tournament, was ruled out of the first two&nbsp;games with a calf injury.
GAME&nbsp;CHANGER&nbsp;
Women&nbsp;were&nbsp;banned&nbsp;from&nbsp;official&nbsp;facilities&nbsp;in&nbsp;England, the&nbsp;home&nbsp;of the&nbsp;game,&nbsp;until&nbsp;1970,&nbsp;and&nbsp;female&nbsp;players&nbsp;faced&nbsp;similar&nbsp;discrimination&nbsp;in&nbsp;many&nbsp;other&nbsp;countries.
But the sport has achieved greater prominence in recent years, with large increases in&nbsp;female&nbsp;players&nbsp;and&nbsp;spectators globally.
Tracey Taylor, a professor of sports management at RMIT University in Melbourne, said&nbsp;many&nbsp;members of grassroots football clubs expected the tournament to have a transformative effect for participation in&nbsp;women&rsquo;s sport in Australia.
"They say it&rsquo;s such a&nbsp;game&nbsp;changer for them in positioning the sport, not only globally, but also within the local community&nbsp;and&nbsp;raising awareness,&rdquo; she said.
Still, conditions for&nbsp;female&nbsp;footballers still remain well behind those for men in&nbsp;many&nbsp;countries.
The Matildas released a video this week criticising the &ldquo;disrespect&rdquo; for the&nbsp;women&rsquo;s&nbsp;game&nbsp;that forced teams to play on artificial pitches in the 2015 tournament&nbsp;and&nbsp;prize money that still lags the men&rsquo;s World Cup.
Several participating nations, including tournament heavyweights&nbsp;England&nbsp;and&nbsp;Spain, have been in dispute with their administrators over working conditions&nbsp;and&nbsp;pay in recent months.
DEMAND&nbsp;DOWN UNDER
Players&nbsp;like Kerr are household names in sport-mad Australia, with tickets for matches involving the&nbsp;home&nbsp;nation selling out months in advance.
"I think that Australians are really realising just how big this event is," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a radio interview with state broadcaster ABC on Thursday.
In New Zealand, whose sporting culture is dominated by rugby union&nbsp;and&nbsp;its famous All Blacks, demand&nbsp;has been lower, with tickets remaining for&nbsp;many&nbsp;fixtures.
Fatma Samoura, FIFA&rsquo;s Secretary-General, said tickets sold had already exceeded the total number sold for the last tournament in France, but sales in New Zealand&nbsp;had lagged its much larger neighbour.
&ldquo;We know that Kiwis are late ticket purchasers when it comes to tournaments that are played on their shores,&rdquo; she told a news conference in Auckland&nbsp;on Wednesday.
&ldquo;We still have tickets available for some matches. So my only plea is don't wait&nbsp;until&nbsp;the last moment.&rdquo;
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal&nbsp;and&nbsp;Cordelia Hsu in Sydney, Irene Wang&nbsp;and&nbsp;Nathan Frandino in Auckland, Rohith Nair in Bengaluru&nbsp;and&nbsp;Philip O'Connor in Stockholm; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Jacqueline Wong, Miral Fahmy, Peter Rutherford&nbsp;and&nbsp;Toby Davis)

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Soccer-Women's World Cup hosts begin with wins and record crowds after shooting rocks Auckland