May 23 – Women’s professional football is growing like crazy – it must be because everyone is saying it is. So a sobering piece of analysis by Sportscasting.com that finds England’s Women’s Super League matches showed a 5.1% drop in attendances over the 2024/25 season statistically flies in the face of accepted wisdom.
There is no question that the women’s game has a higher profile than it has ever had, with England women’s Euro 2021 win and 2023 World Cup final stimulating interest in the game. Broadcast interest has similarly ratcheted up with six broadcasters in the UK now televising content from women’s professional football competitions.
That interest seems to have bypassed fans and attendances. An average of 6,985 fans attended every WSL game in the 2024/25 season. Fan attendance peaked in the 2023-24 season, with 7,363 fans attended every game on average.
This record was set following a significant 41% increase from the average attendance of 5,222 fans during the 2022-23 season. During the 2021-22 season an average of 1,921 fans attended every game, though it was a season disrupted by COVID-19.
Clearly clubs and the WSL have more to do to get fans in to watch their women’s teams and a deep run by England in this summer’s Women’s Euro in Switzerland will provide stimulus. While there is no doubt that interest in the women’s game and the commitment to it by federations and clubs has grown, either the product, the matchday experience or the marketing needs to change – perhaps all three – if the ambitions for the women’s game are to be sustainable.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1747991439labto1747991439ofdlr1747991439owedi1747991439sni@n1747991439osloh1747991439cin.l1747991439uap1747991439