WSL: Has England’s Euro 2025 win impacted domestic women’s football?

Looking at average attendances over the past four seasons in the Women’s Super League (WSL), there was a clear jump after England won Euro 2022 and reached the final of the 2023 World Cup, but the numbers fell slightly over the past season.

This season the league averaged about 6,500 fans per game. And although it is important to note that the season is still very much in its infancy with most teams playing just six games – and teams including Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham have yet to play in their larger men’s stadiums – it is clear that there has been no bounce back from three years ago.

There have also been two rounds of Premier League matches this season staged on weekends without Premier League matches – compared to one round at this stage last year – which is usually the case when the Premier League targets larger crowds.

Comparing the first six matches of the season to this stage last year, the Women’s Sports Fund confirmed, external It recorded a 1% drop in attendance.

But there are signs of success in some clubs.

Everton now play most of their home matches at Goodison Park following the men’s move to Hill Dickinson Stadium.

The two Women’s Football League matches at their new stadium attracted 6,473 and 4,313 spectators – a significant rise on the previous two seasons, when they averaged 2,000 at Walton Hall Park. Their first match at Hill Dickinson Stadium against Manchester United attracted 18,154 fans.

Meanwhile, Manchester United had a crowd of 8,665 during their 0-0 draw with Arsenal this season, a club record for a Premier League match at the Lee Sports Village Stadium.

There has been a more coordinated drive in women’s football to create a dedicated fan base to consolidate recent success and long-term emergence.

“It’s a really good strategy,” says Nicky Kemp, editorial director at marketing consultancy Creativebrief.

“If we use the men’s game as a blueprint, the women’s game will always lose. It will always be behind the curve if you compare transfer fees or the number of people in the stadiums.

“A lot of clubs didn’t have a strategy for filling stadiums, so they needed to learn how to get fans to experience matches.

“It doesn’t always go linear. You have the post-2022 push in player profiles, but the clubs that benefit are the ones that are ahead of the curve, like Arsenal who put their women’s matches at the Emirates Stadium.”