Opening game attendances at FAWSL grounds up by almost a third on 2019/2020 | OneFootball

The average attendance recorded by Barclays FA Women’s Super League clubs for their opening games of the season has increased by almost a third compared to two years ago.

FAWSL Full-Time have analysed the attendance figures of every club’s opening game both in 2019/2020 and in the current season to gauge a fair representation of the level where the league currently finds itself. The figures show that crowds increased by 31.5% for the first opening games with fans present since COVID-19 compared to September 2019, a sign that the popularity of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League product is set to grow post-pandemic.

Firstly, to calculate as accurate a representation of ‘normal’ matchday attendances as possible, we have not included games played at one-off venues. This means that the 55,777 fans who attended the Manchester derby at The Etihad Stadium and the Stamford Bridge game between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 have not been included in our calculations, nor have the 3,041 which went to Ashton Gate for Bristol City’s game against Brighton & Hove Albion. We have also excluded this season’s matches played at Goodison Park, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Emirates Stadium and the Amex Stadium when calculating our opening game averages.

In 2019/2020, the nine opening games played at ‘normal’ home venues attracted an average crowd of 1,292. Four of those matches were played out in-front of three-figure attendances with Everton’s game against Bristol City at Haig Avenue attracting just 441 fans. The largest attendance for an opening home game was recorded at the Leigh Sports Village with 2,530 taking in Manchester United’s first top flight home fixture against Arsenal.

The eight teams to play their first home fixtures of this season at their usual home grounds have helped contribute to a much-increased average attendance of 1,699. Second City pair Aston Villa and Birmingham City have been the only clubs to attract less than 1,000 fans with 741 taking in Villa’s first home match against Leicester City and 525 going to St Andrew’s to watch Birmingham City’s 5-0 mauling by Brighton & Hove Albion. It should be noted that the average attendance figure has been significantly helped by the addition of Leicester City to the top flight with 4,473 witnessing their 3-1 defeat to Manchester United. The Foxes have the club’s off-field backing and it will be fascinating to see whether they can maintain a large core of supporters for their matches at The King Power Stadium as the season goes on.

While almost 60,000 fans watched opening games at their clubs’ men’s stadiums in 2019/2020, this season’s four games played at one-off venues attracted a much-reduced total of 21,648 spectators. That figure is impressive, however, it is maybe a sign that the initial one-off ‘big game’ pull is beginning to lose it’s attraction and growing the game and the fanbase is largely about developing that normal matchday experience in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League going forward. It is fair to say that the game needs to create that week-on-week bond or affinity between fan and club and hopefully, the broadcast deal with Sky Sports and the BBC will play a big role in the development of that link over the next three years.

The growth of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League as a product for the matchday supporter still has a long way to run but the good news is that interest is going up and not down, there is a loyal base to build upon and there is every chance that crowds will go from strength-to-strength in the coming years.

Statistics: FBREF