Last month, Aston Villa Women announced that all 11 of their home WSL fixtures were to be played at Villa Park, this is a significant increase for the club as they only played five games there last season.
The move to Villa Park will see the women leave behind the Poundland Bescot Stadium (the home of Walsall FC) where they’ve been since 2020 after winning promotion to the WSL.
However, it’s not a full goodbye to Bescot as the remaining home games in competitions such as the Women’s FA Cup and League Cup will still be played there.
Founder of the Villa Bellas fan club Sarah Breslin said: “I’m very happy with this move. To me it makes sense that we play our home games at the club stadium, it’s home, it’s an exceptional stadium with the best pitch in the country and it also provides both Villa and football fans with an opportunity to visit and watch a game at Villa Park if they’ve not been able to before.”
Co-founder of the Villa Bellas, Dani added: “It’s such a brilliant move by the club – it means we can grow attendances at the Women’s games.
“Coming to watch the women’s games now means that families can sit together in the Holte end and visit the club shop together and buy a shirt with their favorite player on. We’ve seen how this benefits Arsenal when they sell out the Emirates so I feel that our owners are right in backing our women to hopefully achieve the same one day.”
Over the last few seasons, we’ve seen lots of WSL clubs playing more games in the main stadiums, such as Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Leicester City and Arsenal.
Arsenal are also one of the other clubs to have moved 11 of their games, in all competitions, to the Emirates for the upcoming season. So did Villa have to follow suit?
Sarah added: “I believe this decision had been made some time ago and other teams moving had no bearing on the decisions made by Villa. I’m very fond of Bescot and there’s a friendly history between the two clubs, but I do feel the right decision was made.
“The owners and senior leaders have demonstrated their intent and expectations of the women’s team and one way to demonstrate that is through playing our home games in the club stadium.”
Dani said: “We needed to make the move to show we are serious about continual investment in our women’s team and our position in the WSL. Last season we struggled in the league, so it’s about time we brought the women home and hopefully, that’ll give us a bigger home advantage.
“From a commercial point of view, it makes sense too. It’s an opportunity for more ticket sales, more merchandise, etc.”
For the five games Villa played at Villa Park last season, their average crowd attendance was 8001, for the remaining six games played at Bescot, the average attendance was only 2682.
The biggest attendance at Villa Park was against Manchester United on the opening weekend as 12,533 fans attended, while the highest attendance at Bescot was 4,086 and that was when they faced Chelsea.
All of the crowd attendance for last season can be seen below:
As you can see, all of Villa’s biggest attendances came against the top sides in the division, but the move to Villa Park will almost certainly attract even more fans this season, especially with the best players in the world on show.
Sarah said: “We (Villa) didn’t quite hit the heights of expectation last season, but starting fresh, knowing our WSL games will be at Villa Park, hopefully we’ll see some great performances and that will encourage more people through the gates. It’s an accessible stadium with great facilities and I fully expect attendances to be higher this season, particularly with the growth of spectatorship in the women’s game.
“Teams like City, Arsenal etc… in themselves are big draws and one thing about women’s football is the high number of neutral supporters. There will be Lionesses fans throughout the region who will have an opportunity to see their favourite players play, for both Villa and other teams.”
Dani added: “The women’s games feel more wholesome and friendly, and family-friendly. The environment naturally lends itself to being more inclusive and Villa Bellas are an inclusive fan group for female and non-binary supporters. Last season, we had a handful of women’s games at Villa Park, where normally they’d only open the Trinity Road Stand, but last season they also opened the Lower Holte which was amazing to see.
“Young children, in particular, want to see their Euro-winning champions from the England women’s team no matter what jersey they’ve got on – they inspired a whole generation of young girls to participate in football and it’s quite amazing to see the likes of Leah Williamson, Chloe Kelly, Ella Toone, Alessia Russo etc. We have played the ‘big’ clubs at Villa Park before and our attendances keep growing time after time. It’s slow, but we’re getting there.”
Just in case you didn’t know, Villas’s squad is stacked with hugely talented international players such as Lioness Jordan Nobbs, upcoming talent (who they’ve just signed) Missy Bo Kearns, Scotland captain Rachel Corsie, French star Kenza Dali, Canadian star Adriana Leon and of course fan favourite Rachel Daly.
Ticket prices for the upcoming WSL season are yet to be revealed, however, season tickets are now available to be brought here. Tickets start from £50 for an Under 14, to £100 for an adult.
However, tickets to attend a single women’s game are substantially cheaper than the men’s, an average adult ticket for Villa women last season at Villa Park cost around £12 per person (depending on where you sat and the game you went too).
One thing is for certain both Sarah and Dani will be attending every Villa WSL game they can this upcoming season, starting with Tottenham on the 29th of September.
Sarah concluded: “I’ve been going to Villa Park since the early 1990’s so to now see the Women playing professional football on the Villa Park pitch which could only ever be a dream to me is so heartwarming. It’s also easier for me to get to than Walsall!”
Dani concluded: “Me and my partner both have season tickets for the men’s team and normally attend a few Women’s matches each season, however now we have a baby, we’ll be taking it in turns so we’ll see how many we can do. But we are both looking forward to when our daughter is old enough to take an interest in football and we can all attend the games as a family.
“Taking her to her first Women’s match at Villa Park will be an emotional and proud moment to look forward to.”
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