Arsenal Women have recorded an average attendance of just under 35,000 fans in the Women’s Super League play this season. The impressive number is aided by the club’s decision to play select home matches at Emirates Stadium. Typically reserved for the men’s team, the massive arena holds around 60,000 people on matchdays.

Historically, the women’s team plays their games at nearby Meadow Park. It is currently the home stadium for National League side Borehamwood FC. In a distinct difference compared to the Arsenal arena, Meadow Park has a max capacity of about 4,000 fans.

As a result of moving several matches to The Emirates, Arsenal Women have now averaged more fans in the stands than half of all Premier League clubs. The north London team has played five of their eight home league games this season at the bigger stadium. A recent report shows that ticket sales in these matches have experienced a 63% increase compared to the last campaign.

Arsenal Women recently broke a WSL attendance record

Arsenal Women most recently played bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur in front of a sold-out crowd at the weekend. The Gunners grabbed all three points in the match thanks to a lone second-half goal by Beath Mead. It was the club’s second consecutive sell-out at the huge arena. Arsenal also previously topped Manchester United’s women’s team 3-1 back on February 17th. This particular game set a new WSL attendance record of 60,160 total fans.

“I was thinking about a quote from Dennis Bergkamp when he said you don’t support a team only for a player, or only for history, or only for trophies, you go and support a team because that’s where you found an environment where you think you belong,” Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall said after the recent win over Spurs.

“And that’s what makes me extremely proud to be able to say that I think we have found a place where more than 60,000 people feel that they belong. They feel that this is their home, this is where they want to come and support their football team.”

“I’m so happy that they’ve put one more game at the Emirates — it would have been really sad to sit here and say that this was the last time we were going to the Emirates this season.”

Other women’s teams have opted to play games at main stadium

Although the women’s team is playing more matches at a much larger stadium, this fact does not necessarily tell the whole story. Fans still have to come out and purchase tickets for these games at bigger venues. While Arsenal can fill their main stadium for women’s games, other teams have not been so lucky.

Spurs, Chelsea, and Liverpool have all recently hosted WSL matches at their men’s arena. Nevertheless, none of these teams have been able to even come close to selling out the stadiums. Chelsea hosted Spurs at Stamford Bridge to open the 2023/24 campaign back in October. Despite being the top women’s team in the country, the Blues sold less than 15,000 tickets. The historic west London stadium has a maximum capacity of 40,000 people

Liverpool Women played their Merseyside Derby with Everton in front of 23,088 fans as well. Spurs Women then beat Arsenal 1-0 in front of just over 19,000 people at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December. Both of these huge arenas have more than 60,000 seats.

PHOTOS: IMAGO.