On the back of a successful home Euros in the summer, crowd attendances across the WSL have dramatically increased for the 2022/23 season already.
With the likes of England winning captain Leah Williamson, euros winning goalscorer Chloe Kelly, the legend who is Beth Mead, England’s other summer heroes, as well as international stars such as Sam Kerr, Ona Batlle and Vivianne Miedema all playing in the WSL, the younger generation are attending in their thousands to see their new found idols play.
Member of the All For United podcast and Manchester United fan Conner Roberts said: “The Lionesses have clearly had a massive impact, I think attendances would have increased this season anyway but not by the amount we have seen so far. We’ve seen particularly at United games this season that a lot of new fans have come to watch the game because of their lioness heroes like Ella Toone, Mary Earps & Alessia Russo.”
The average attendance for a WSL game last season was around 1,924 (this is of course factoring in all the 12 clubs data). This season, by sourcing the average for each club and dividing that by 12, that figure is up by about 244% to 6,625 (so far).
If you look at the breakdown for each club from the 2021/22 season compared to the average attendance so far for each club in the 2022/23 season, you can see how much of an impact the Lionesses victory in the summer has had.
However, it can’t all be put down to the Lionesses, this season and towards the end of last season, many WSL clubs have been or were given the opportunity to play some of their games at the men’s home stadiums.
By doing this we’ve seen the two highest ever attendance records for a WSL game this year.
The highest came back in September where 47,367 fans watched Arsenal face Tottenham at The Emirates Stadium. And recently, on the 11th December Manchester City hosted Manchester United in front of 44,259 people at the Etihad Stadium.
So is it down to whether clubs play at the men’s grounds or not as to why attendances are going up?
Roberts added: “It’s great to see that the women’s Manchester derby had a similar impact on fans just like the men’s derby does. To see United have a packed out away end was brilliant as well because it’s something United in particular have been pushing for.
“I think these WSL clubs playing games at the men’s grounds is a lot easier for fans for the most part to attend – just due to transport links being easier. I don’t think this is the case for all clubs but I know for United playing at Old Trafford definitely has a positive impact because of how difficult it is to get to Leigh Sports Village.”
Women’s football has continuously been on the rise on the back of the Euros, but it’s ultimately about how the governing bodies can keep improving the attendances, keep people interested and mainly stop women’s football taking a massive step backwards.
Roberts concluded: “To me it depends on the type of fan they’re trying to attract. If marketed as it mostly has been about the Lionesses players in particular you are going to get the increased numbers, mostly by families and a younger audience. If they try to convert fans from the men’s game across they need to make some similarities, i.e. playing more often in the mens grounds and making it easier to get tickets by having away ends.
“But in general they should just keep going with the publicity around these players and bigging up the fact that women’s football is on the rise and people should give it a try if they haven’t already.”
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