Euro 2022 was by every metric a huge success for women’s football in England.
On the pitch, the Lionesses became European champions – earning England’s first major international honour since the 1966 World Cup, ending 56 years of hurt. Their success drew record crowds and television audiences, and captured the nation’s interest in women’s football like never before.
The official overall attendance across the tournament was 574,975 – more than doubling the previous record of 240,055 set in the Netherlands, in 2017. Nearly 90,000 packed into Wembley to watch England vs Germany in the final, which set the record attendance for any match at a European Championships, men or women.
Mainstream support snowballed with each game Sarina Wiegman’s side won, as the nation at large rapidly started to believe that maybe football would be finally coming home after all.
This momentum climaxed in the jubilant post-match scenes at Wembley. England’s triumphant captain Leah Williamson passionately implored those watching at home to come out to games, and carry on the tournament’s legacy.
17.4 million people watched the final on television – making it the most watched programme in the UK so far in 2022. The record audience will also have watched Williamson’s words echoed by the BBC’s Gabby Logan, who closed the coverage with words that felt iconic as soon as they were spoken – “the Lionesses have brought football home. Now it’s down to the rest of us to make sure it stays here. You think it’s all over? It’s only just begun.” Williamson’s and Logan’s words are stirring – and many stakeholders in the game have since added their voice to their chorus.
This weekend, seven weeks since that triumph at Wembley, the top flight of English domestic football returns.
It is imperative that the strong words spoken in the time since that historic occasion are translated into action, and the momentum gained is transformed into sustained growth of the sport.
The WSL has unfortunately already hit a setback in this venture – although one far beyond the league’s control. The season had been set to begin last weekend, to much fanfare. However, the death of Queen Elizabeth II led to the entire league schedule being postponed, alongside all other football in the UK.
Several WSL clubs had planned to start their new campaigns by hosting their opening fixtures in the stadiums of their associated men’s team. This has been a key strategy identified to advertise women’s football to a larger audience – and although the games last weekend could not go ahead, there are several more of these showpiece events planned throughout the season.
How best to apply that strategy, in order to maximise the potential benefit for the women’s game, is the focus of the discussion ahead.
From Wembley to the WSL
In the WSL, teams typically play in grounds with a capacity of a few thousand, and the average attendance for the whole league in 2021/22 was just 1,924. The average attendance across the Euro tournament was over 18,000 per game, by contrast. These numbers were only possible due to games being hosted in stadiums with larger capacities.
The numbers also proved that if you give people the opportunity, and the matches the adequate promotion, there is more interest in watching women’s football than is being reflected in the WSL’s figures.
The strategy of hosting select fixtures at larger stadia is not a new venture for the league. It has for a couple of years happened with semi-regularity for certain showpiece matches – and some teams like Brighton play the majority of their games at the 31,800 capacity Amex Stadium, the regular home of their associated men’s team.
The weeks since England’s Euros triumph, and the surge in interest since, has seen fresh and increased commitment to the approach for this season coming. Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Reading had all planned to open their league campaigns with fixtures at their men’s teams stadiums – before historic events intervened. Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool have also announced that each of their upcoming derby games are to be held at the Emirates, the Etihad and Anfield, respectively. And the signs are encouraging – over 45,000 tickets have already been sold for the North London Derby on the 24th September, at the time of writing.
❤️ 45,000 TICKETS SOLD ❤️
Thank you for your incredible support, Gooners 😲
Let's keep the momentum going ✊
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 15, 2022
Where should women’s football be played?
The argument for utilising larger stadiums is clear. Theoretically, the different venues advertise the league to a broader audience. It appeals to fans who may not travel to Borehamwood to see Arsenal Women play, but might fancy a trip to the Emirates, and the sense of occasion – with the bonus of typically cut-price tickets.
The goal is that by opening up league games to bigger crowds at the larger venues, the supporter base will grow – and the game alongside it. The long-term hope is to capture new fans who will continue to invest in and support their sides, rather than just being there for the day out.
Another advantage is that the stadiums of men’s teams generally have better accessibility compared to the stadiums used by WSL teams as their regular home grounds. This has been a longstanding issue for women’s football, with women’s teams’ home grounds often being in difficult-to-reach and suburban locations. It is easier to get to Old Trafford – which has a dedicated tram route from Manchester city centre – than it is to Leigh Sports Village, in the Greater Manchester town of Wigan. The latter also demonstrates another drawback for many WSL teams – their so-called home stadium not necessarily being in the traditional geographical locale of the club, and hence struggling to reach the local community.
Staging WSL fixtures in larger stadiums gives more people the opportunity to attend, through both promotion and increased opportunity – and makes WSL fixtures ‘occasions’, as the games of the Euros were successfully advertised to be. If you can get over 20,000 to Bramall Lane to see Netherland versus Sweden, then you can aim for similar (or better) numbers at Anfield to see Liverpool play Man United.
With so many attractive benefits, it seems like a straightforward conversation. However, there are some disadvantages of larger stadiums, which provide reasons for caution. Previous experiments in the WSL have allowed opportunity to observe these first hand.
The main drawback is the detrimental effect on the atmosphere in stadiums. The fans who attend games at the standard WSL stadiums are generally the hardcore of women’s football. They are the people who for many years have navigated buses, trains and car shares to get to these difficult-to-reach locations. The season ticket holders who remember when there were just a few hundred at WSL games. The fans who have formed supporter clubs, who hand out song sheets at games, and bring the banners and flags which build the atmosphere and identity of the match day crowds.
𝟱𝟬𝟬 𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗘𝗧𝗦 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗗 👏
A new club-record going into the opening weekend, thank you for your support 🫶 pic.twitter.com/RvkhKwyYab
— Reading FC Women (@ReadingFCWomen) September 6, 2022
By contrast, larger crowds at bigger venues have generally brought a dilution of the atmosphere. The core fanbase becomes a minority whose passion and commitment is not generally matched by fans less invested in the women’s team – who are maybe more there for that sense of occasion, and for the opportunity to go to places like Old Trafford at an affordable price.
Furthermore, although the ticket sales are already looking impressive for the planned showpiece WSL fixtures, it has previously been rare that these games do sell out – which leads to empty seats, and a negative effect on the optics. When watching on television, blocks of unfilled red, white or blue plastic seats are glaringly noticeable – and influences how observers perceive the success of these ventures, and the inferences made about interest in the women’s game.
However, at the Euros, we did see full stadiums with vocal crowds and vibrant atmospheres. In some games there was not even a single Mexican wave… (a sign of a casual crowd which has long been the scourge of the women’s games) – and the television pictures were ones of enthusiasm, not empty seats. This could be an indicator that the fans who came to WSL games for the first time this season may bring a vigour not previously seen on these occasions – so maybe this is a sign of change.
Learning from the past
This is not the first time that a boom in interest in women’s football has stemmed from success at a major international tournament . Previous experiences demonstrate that this momentum has not been successfully translated into an increase in interest in the domestic game.
This was most apparent following the London 2012 Olympics and 2019 World Cup, both of which were labelled as “turning points” for the women’s game in England – and yet ultimately did little to alter the trajectory of the development of the domestic game.
In 2012, over 70,000 fans came to Wembley to see a Steph Houghton-inspired Team GB upset Brazil 1-0 – and set the then-record for the attendance of a women’s football match in England.
Once the players dispersed and re-joined their club sides in the fledgling WSL, which then was still following a summer calendar, the crowds and interest rapidly faded. Similarly, the 2019 World Cup saw a peak audience of 11.7 million people tune in to watch England lose a dramatic semi-final to the USA – and with those figures too came high hopes of a boost in attendances for the WSL, which by then was fully professional, and in a very different place to 2012.
Several WSL clubs in the subsequent 2019/20 season utilised the strategy of hosting games in larger stadiums, which is now being revisited for 2022/23. Numbers were encouraging for the matches in those stadiums – but there was little difference in attendance figures once the women’s teams returned to their dedicated home venues.
The season was then suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and fans did not return to stadiums until the next year (and then at a reduced capacity) – which abruptly halted any potential momentum that may have been gained.
Women’s football has been here before – and the lessons learnt from previous experiences can help inform the approach moving forward. It cannot fail again, especially when the position women’s football is now in following the Euros is stronger than ever before.
Chelsea FC Women – case in point
Chelsea FC Women’s foray into hosting games at their men’s teams stadium can be used as a case study, to further interrogate why the strategy has not previously delivered the desired results.
Chelsea were one of the clubs who planned to kick off their WSL campaign at the stadium of their men’s team. There had been much promotion and well-cultivated anticipation for the visit of West Ham to Stamford Bridge last Sunday. However, as aforementioned, this was unable to take place as advertised.
It would have marked three years since Chelsea last played at the Bridge, for the home game against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day of 2019/20 – in an attempt to capitalise on the interest in the sport generated by the 2019 World Cup.
That was the first time Chelsea had played a WSL fixture at the Bridge – and an event strongly promoted and hyped across social media. The club took the decision to distribute tickets for free – and announced with delight that the game was a sell out before kick off. However, even though the near-25,000 in audience set a record for a Chelsea FC Women home game, it fell well short of the over-40,000 expected – meaning many had simply not turned up.
This led to empty seats, and what is more, a sense of a devaluation of the product. Some detractors (likely with their own agenda) used this and other similar examples as a means to criticise the women’s game – with the implication being that women’s football cannot sell out stadiums even when the tickets are free.
Dean Mears is a prominent figure in the Chelsea FC Women fanbase, and host of the popular Went To Mow Kingsmeadow podcast. He shared his view on how he felt the club got things wrong in 2019. According to Mears, the “scars of 2019 have made the club a bit more conservative in their thinking, whilst other clubs have been bold in their approach”.
It is true that in the years since that fixture, several other WSL clubs have utilised their men’s stadia relatively frequently. Then there is the example of Barcelona, who drew over 90,000 to the Camp Nou to watch them beat Real Madrid in the Women’s Champions League in March this year – setting a new world record for a women’s football match. They then went on to sell out Camp Nou again for their Women’s Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg.
Barcelona Femeni have sold out Camp Nou again for their Women's Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg 👏 pic.twitter.com/THb6PWeXGy
— GOAL (@goal) April 5, 2022
Chelsea by comparison, have stayed away from Stamford Bridge – and have preferred to play at the just-under 5,000 capacity Kingsmeadow instead. Mears highlights the failure to translate the tickets distributed to actual numbers through the turnstiles, and the impact that had on the atmosphere.
More so, and especially from the perspective of the fan who has been part of the hardcore Chelsea fanbase for many years, it was a disappointment to Mears that “the club made no effort to ensure those who create the atmosphere at Kingsmeadow were sat together at the Bridge”. There was a sense that the dedicated fans were being overlooked by the club’s ambition.
The supporters at Kingsmeadow, and the “extra lift” they bring to Chelsea games is frequently acknowledged by Chelsea manager Emma Hayes – who often tweets after home games to praise the couple of thousand fans in attendance, and has been quoted praising “how amazing our fans are every week”.
“Every week” is the operative phrase – these are the fans who sing for the team come rain or shine on a regular basis, rather than just for these sporadic showpiece events. However, Hayes herself recognises the importance of these “big stadium events” in growing the game – and believes that these should become regular features of Chelsea and other WSL clubs’ fixture lists, arguing six or eight games a season should be hosted in the larger venues. Hayes does not want these showpiece events to be sporadic, anymore.
Dean Mears does agree that ultimately this strategy has to be the way forward for Chelsea and other WSL teams, but advises a caution that is missing from some of the more excited discourse.
“Chelsea have to do more things like this game at Stamford Bridge because of the huge wave following the Euros win – but, most importantly, they must do it right. The game is growing, but that growth can easily be stunted if the wrong decisions are made.”
Mears advocates for the hybrid approach that looks likely to be the strategy for most WSL teams in the coming season – “these events are important to help attract more supporters to come to games, but in order to keep them for the long term, the environment at Kingsmeadow must be the selling point”.
Meaning, showpiece occasions should be used to sell women’s football to a broader audience. The strategy can only be considered a success if it helps to convince the fans who come to the Bridge that it is also worthwhile to make the trip to Kingston-Upon-Thames the following week – with the hope that experiencing the environment there will help to keep them as match-going fans.
The club announced that the West Ham game (the first fixture of the WSL season which was set to take place at Stanford Bridge) has been rearranged to play at Kingsmeadow – whilst this is unfortunate, it is unlikely Chelsea will allow the opportunity to play at Stanford Bridge slip entirely, even if it means using a different fixture. Chelsea’s first home game at Kingsmeadow this season, on September 25th against Manchester City, has already sold out – a scenario the club will hope soon becomes commonplace.
Anyone else pick up the Metro today? 📰😉 pic.twitter.com/1ynemx3wlM
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) September 5, 2022
Conclusion
The consensus is moving only one way.
More WSL matches at bigger stadiums may mean some empty seats, and it may dilute the hardcore support – but ultimately would be for the gain of new fans, who are hoped to become the loyal fans of the future.
The goal is that, in time, growing the fan bases would build an atmosphere in the larger venues to rival that which has been cultivated over many years in WSL stadiums. The atmosphere for many of the games at the Euros showed that it is feasible for this to be brought to larger venues.
You cannot believe it until you see it – and as the Euros showed, when the English public went to matches and saw the football, they believed in the quality and entertainment of the game. We need to use WSL games as an opportunity to keep advertising women’s football.
“Selling out” is a phrase with some negative connotations, but we can use it in the literal sense here – the WSL selling out would not only be a good thing, but it should be the goal.
This approach does need to be taken in a considered manner – and the decision-makers in the game must learn from previous oversights to ensure that momentum is captured to grow the domestic game, but not to the detriment of what has given the sport in this country its character and identity.
The sale figures thus far for the upcoming games are impressive – but we have been here before with record crowds for banner fixtures. The true measure of success will be in not just how many fans were attracted to Anfield and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but how many of those fans stayed in the dreary winter days, and made the journey to far-flung locations to keep following the team. That is where the true sustained growth of the women’s game will be measured.
We have been here before – but this time does feel different. We know the mistakes of the past, and the scenes of the summer surpassed anything seen before in the women’s game in this country. We can be optimistic that maybe this time, the change is for real.
Written by Rebekah Grassby
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