Record attendance growth in top four European Women’s leagues

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UEFA Women's football
Image credit: Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com

The 2023/24 season marked a milestone for European women’s soccer, with average attendance across the top four leagues rising by 24% compared to the previous year, according to data from sports marketing agency Two Circles. The growth highlights the increasing popularity of women’s soccer across Europe, with notable performances in England and France.

Record Attendance Growth in England and France

England’s Women’s Super League (WSL) recorded an impressive 41% year-over-year (YoY) increase in attendance, leading the charge among the four leagues. This surge was largely attributed to clubs hosting matches in larger venues.

Arsenal emerged as a standout, with an average attendance of 52,000 at the Emirates Stadium compared to just 3,595 at Meadow Park in Boreham Wood. The Gunners also achieved the highest average attendance per game across the leagues, drawing nearly 30,000 fans per match—almost triple the second-highest figure recorded by Manchester United (10,951).

France’s D1 Féminine also posted strong results, with a 38% YoY rise in attendance. This performance underscores the growing enthusiasm for women’s soccer in France, mirroring trends seen across Europe.

Modest Growth in Spain and Germany

Spain’s Liga F saw an 11% YoY increase, while Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga experienced a smaller 6% rise. Despite having the lowest growth rate, the Frauen-Bundesliga achieved significant progress in reducing low-attendance matches. The league saw a 10% decrease in games with fewer than 1,000 fans, complemented by an uptick in matches drawing between 1,000 and 5,000 spectators.

World Cup Impact and Sustained Growth

The impact of hosting major tournaments close to home on women’s soccer is undeniable. The UEFA Women’s Euros held in England not only attracted new commercial partners but also introduced fresh audiences to the sport, boosting the Women’s Super League (WSL).

Interestingly, the 2023/24 season saw slower crowd growth following the FIFA Women’s World Cup than after the UEFA Women’s Euros in 2022. Two Circles attributed this to the World Cup’s location in Australia and New Zealand, which presented time zone challenges and geographical distance for European fans.

However, despite the slower rise in Europe, Australia’s A-League Women experienced a remarkable 92% increase in average attendance following the FIFA Women’s World Cup, showcasing the powerful influence of hosting a local tournament on fan engagement.

Visa’s Women’s Football Whitepaper, The Compound Effect in Women’s Football, highlights a key insight: in both England and Australia, the leading driver of new fan interest was simply the pride and excitement of hosting a major tournament. Fans recognised these events as historic milestones, further cementing their connection to the sport.

However, the season bucked trends from previous years by maintaining or increasing average attendance from the first to the second half of the campaign across all four leagues. This consistency stands in contrast to the 2022/23 season, which saw a mid-season drop in attendance for the WSL, Liga F, and Frauen-Bundesliga.

Growing Momentum for Women’s Soccer

The consistent rise in attendance across Europe’s top leagues demonstrates the growing appeal of women’s soccer, driven by a combination of strategic scheduling, larger venues, and increased investment in the sport.

Two Circles highlighted that a major factor driving the increase in attendance is clubs’ use of larger stadiums, often owned by their male counterparts.

However, it’s the investment in training facilities, academies and grassroots football that has made the biggest impact in its current surge of momentum.

With these developments, women’s soccer continues to build a strong foundation for sustained growth in the coming years.

Conclusion

Women’s soccer has a uniqueness to it that is started to become celebrated and enjoyed by the masses.

With the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 held in Switzerland, it gives women’s soccer another chance to grow the game in the host country and nearby regions, whilst also attracting a new casual audience.

If the past four years have told us anything it’s that women’s soccer is only going to grow, with increased broadcast rights, developed academies and CBA’s raising the minimum wage for players, it’s assumed that the quality on the pitch will coincide with its popularity surge.

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Football Victoria partners with SportsAid for enhanced player safety

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Image credit: Sports Aid

Football Victoria (FV) has confirmed a partnership with Sports Aid, which has been named the Official Medical Partner for all FV events.

The collaboration will ensure that participants in these prominent tournaments benefit from top-tier medical support and first aid services.

Established in 2023, Sports Aid has rapidly positioned itself as a leading provider of medical and safety expertise in Australian sport. Based in Melbourne, the organisation has expanded nationwide, offering its services at a variety of events, from grassroots sports to corporate tournaments.

With over 70 partnerships across the country, Sports Aid’s team of accredited professionals—including first aid responders, sports trainers, and event safety specialists—plays a pivotal role in promoting athlete welfare and event safety.

Under the alliance, Sports Aid will deliver medical personnel, including first aid responders and sports trainers, at FV’s major competitions and events throughout Victoria.

Their on-site presence will provide immediate medical assistance for injuries or health concerns, mitigate risks associated with physical activity, and enhance overall safety for players and spectators alike.

FV’s Executive Manager – Commercial, Chris Speldewinde spoke about the role Sports Aid will play in improving Victorian football.

“Their expertise ensures the safety of our participants, which is paramount in delivering outstanding sporting experiences.” he said in a press release.

Sports Aid’s founder, James Theodorakopoulos, also commented on the partnership.

“We are thrilled to be working with Football Victoria. Our primary focus is on safety, and we’re committed to ensuring that every player and participant has a seamless medical experience at FV events,” he said in a press release.

“It’s not just about responding to injuries, but also ensuring the overall well-being of everyone involved.”

Football Victoria adds Sports Aid on top of recent PILA, VETO Sports and Novotel Preston who all play a specific role in ensuring players involved with FV get the best out of their game.

FV have been focusing heavily on developing local football with facility upgrades, equipment partnerships as well as launching their GO Family football program aimed at improving fitness and building stronger family connections.

This specific partnership with Sports Aid is another that will play a positive role in the sport across the state.

Unite Round: A-League’s Bold Vision Faces Challenges

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Image credit: Western Sydney Wanderers

The second-ever edition of the Unite Round sparked some interesting debates and narratives about whether the A-League can properly host an inclusive event of this scale.

As the contract with Destination NSW expires, the question remains; Is the experiment worth committing to or should it be scrapped?

A potentially unfair comparison would be to NRL’s Magic Round and AFL’s Gather Round who managed to succeed with the concept in its first two seasons. It’s quite simple, the A-League don’t have the wide-ranging committed supporter base to reach those heights just yet.

But will they do so quick enough for this investment to be worth it?

Challenges that undermine Unite Round

It was a weekend that had a few positives, as mentioned in the A-Leagues press release last week but was certainly marred by a slew of negative and/or embarrassing moments.

Whilst match-going fans, who spent the weekend in Sydney, anecdotally seemed to truly enjoy the experience, there simply weren’t enough that flew out to watch their team play.

The 45,000-capacity Allianz Stadium had a rather empty look for most of the games, mirroring Covid lockdown football, and the lack of atmosphere really took away from the experience that was promised when the concept replaced the controversial Sydney Grand Final deal last season.

For a league that has constantly struggled with attendances since the horror 2021-22 season (which saw attendances slashed in half post-covid), the ability to hold a full-scale weekend of football in one city is realistically never going to work, especially in a cost-of-living crisis.

Another issue that is increasingly being brought up in media and fan spaces is the NSW Police releasing a statement before the weekend had started, ensuring that they were going to crackdown on pre-game marches, flares, banners and flags in an attempt to ‘keep everyone safe’.

Baffling for any hardcore fan, it was a truly tone-deaf action that stripped football of its core: intense and passionate tribalism.

Highlights of the weekend

Focusing on the positives, in the A-League press release, they revealed the numbers behind an improvement on last season’s first-ever United Round.

– 33 goals were scored across 12 games between both the Ninja A-League Women and Isuzu UTE A-League Men.

– Attendance was up 50% on the first-ever Unite Round with a cumulative match attendance of more than 71,000 fans. This was certainly helped by an amazing 30,777 crowd to watch the Sydney Derby.

– Over a thousand fans take part in grassroots clinics, tournament and fan zones.

Commenting on the overall feel of Unite Round 2024/25, Nick Garcia, A-Leagues Commissioner, said:

“It was a turbulent build up with a ticketing outage, a change in venue for our six Ninja A-League Women matches and a planned train strike – but we’re really proud to have welcomed 50% more fans from across Australia and New Zealand to Sydney compared to our first-ever Unite Round,” Garcia said in a press release.

“We really believe in the long term potential of this partnership with the NSW Government and Destination NSW, establishing a new tradition and welcoming football fans from across Australia and New Zealand to electrify this incredible city.

“This event really resonates with our young and diverse fanbase and aligns with our drive to unite communities through a shared love of football. It’s the pinnacle weekend of professional football, and we hope this is a tradition that we can continue to build on and grow in the coming years.

“It’s been a really strong start to our 20th season. Crowds have grown by 30% year-on-year across the first four rounds of the Isuzu UTE A-League Men, while the new Saturday night doubleheader on 10 Bold has also increased the free-to-air national audience by 34%. We look forward to continuing this momentum across both leagues as we move into the summer period.”

The path forward for Unite Round

The words from Nick Garcia suggest that the A-League are committed to making this concept work and are hoping the progress made in the last 10 months can be replicated over time.

The direction in which the United Round goes in is still unknown with the expiration of Destination NSW but it also could lead to an innovation that bursts this weekend into life.

Do they try it in New Zealand for a year? Or up in the Gold Coast where people might have more incentive to enjoy a weekend up in the Sunshine Coast?

The chance for experimentation surely has to be attempted considering the trends suggesting that this weekend won’t be considered an outright ‘success’ in the short term.

Conclusion

In the end, the future of the Unite Round hinges on bold experimentation and a commitment to creating a uniquely football-centric spectacle.

Whether it’s exploring new locations like New Zealand or the Gold Coast, or innovating to better engage fans across the country, the A-League has an opportunity to redefine what a national celebration of football can look like.

The league’s struggles with attendance and atmosphere are real, but so too is the potential for growth in a competition that resonates with Australia’s diverse and passionate football community.

The Unite Round has shown glimmers of promise amid its challenges—now it’s up to the A-League to seize that promise and turn it into a tradition worth rallying behind.

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