The attendance record for the Barclays Women’s Super League was shattered as Arsenal Women secured a 3-1 victory against Manchester United on Saturday 17th February, at a SOLD OUT Emirates.
This historic match marked the first time that Emirates Stadium, renowned as the home ground for Arsenal’s men’s team, reached full capacity for a WSL match.
With an impressive 60,160 tickets sold, this figure surpassed the previous WSL attendance record of 59,042, which was set during Arsenal’s triumphant 4-1 win over reigning WSL champions Chelsea, at the Emirates on December 10th 2023.
Traditionally, Arsenal’s Women’s team played their home games at Meadow Park, which has a capacity of 4,500. However, as part of their 2023-24 season plan, our Gunners scheduled six out of their 11 home league matches at the Emirates.
This move aligns with the club’s ambition, as expressed by manager Jonas Eidevall earlier this year, to eventually host all home matches for the women’s team at the Emirates, leveraging its expansive seating capacity of over 60,000.
Notably, the Emirates witnessed another landmark event last May when a record-breaking crowd of 60,063 attended the Arsenal Women’s Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg, underlining the growing support for women’s football in England.
The UK’s largest attendance for a women’s football match remains the Euro 2022 final, where a staggering 87,192 fans gathered at Wembley Stadium to witness the pinnacle of women’s football. England’s Lionesses won Euro 2022 and pretty much started the ball rolling on dramatically increasing interest in the women’s game. Arsenal Women hold the top 5 WSL attendances:
- 60,160 Arsenal v Man United, 17th February 2024
- 59,042 Arsenal v Chelsea, December 2023
- 54,115 Arsenal v Liverpool, October 2023
- 47,367 Arsenal v Tottenham, September 2023
- 46,881 Arsenal v Chelsea, January 2023
On holding the top five attendances in WSL history, Arsenal‘s head coach Jonas Eidevall is feeling very encouraged, saying:
“It’s a movement. It’s a snowball rolling and it’s a movement. I think the atmosphere that we create and the supporters and the team create together, I think it’s special. And you can see that with the following. We can see how it grows every day, so let’s keep growing and let’s keep making each other better.”
Should Emirates be Arsenal Women’s home next season?
Michelle Maxwell
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No. Build them their own women stadium with pink grass
Stupid and sexist comment
As usual 🥱
Seriously, dgr8xt?
The sensible reply to the question is undoubtedly “YES” and I’m pretty sure “stupid” and “sexist” remarks have no place here anyway!
If Women’s football is selling out at bigger stadiums then the answer is obvious. It’s better for the fans and the club.
Seconded
A feeble attempt at humour, I hope. Pathetic
Oh dear! How self embarrassing a comment !
You must already regret you wrote that tosh, as you presumably must have SOME idea of what normal, decent fans, when reading such nonsense , will think about YOU!
It might as well be. I was there for the CL semi last season and the atmosphere was great.
Spending activities on the men’s team presumably could also be boosted by higher women’s crowds – I assume the financial rules are based around CLUB revenue, not team specific?
Yes that would be great
Especially with the higher crowds
Pink grass?
What makes someone come up with such a comment?
Would having double the amount of games affect the quality of the pitch?
From a supporters view:
If yes, then no they should not.
If no, the yes they should.
But realistically there are many more factors to be considered.
Yes, Borehamwood is way too small for the attendances they are achieving now.
Agree with you to a point but it’s really only the big games attracting the big crowds, though perhaps give it a try with a few lesser opponents and see how it goes. By the way, Borehamwood is the town name whilst the team name is Boreham Wood 😊.
GB
A fair point. However, getting to Boreham Stiff isn’t straightforward whereas the Emirates is well served by public transport. That could impact on the crowds- possibly?
I happened to be on the Piccadilly line last Saturday and even at 10am at Baron’s Court station the train was rammed full of Arsenal supporters en route to the stadium. At St Pancras, the concourse was brimming with families all looking forward to seeing the game.
The women’s game has taken gigantic steps toward and if the ground can be maintained to a proper standard for both teams, then the increased revenue can benefit both the men’s and women’s team and probably the stadium too.
Fixture clashes will make it impossible and of course turf quality maintainance due to over use. The current format is not bad anyway, considering the women team can only manage to sell out only at big clashes.