In November, The Football Association laid out some of its plans for the future of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League as they look to grow the game.
One target was to reach average attendances of 6,000 by 2024, this vision coming off the back of average attendances hovering around 3,000 in the 2019/2020 season prior to the Coronavirus pandemic. That, of course, was the season that followed the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France which bought a boost to attendances in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and some big figures for games at men’s stadiums. Since then, the game has been heavily affected by COVID-19 and the predictable lull following that FIFA Women’s World Cup boost. The attendance figures for this season maybe do not make all that good reading for those at The Football Association hoping to meet that 6,000 target.
The average attendance so far this season is around 1,600, almost half of what we saw in 2019/2020. That estimated figure comes ahead of what is hoped to be a popular round of action this weekend. Of course, The Football Association will be hoping that this summer’s home EUROs will bring another surge in interest to the Barclays FA Women’s Super League that won’t be thwarted by COVID-19. Even with this potential boost, there is some way to go to meet the stated target and to meet it consistently.
So far this season, only two games have come near to this target, both games played at men’s stadiums, Arsenal against Chelsea and Everton against Manchester City – Manchester United’s fixture against Everton should also beat this on Sunday. The answer you might think lies in playing in men’s stadiums but unfortunately, the figures don’t back this idea. Where a club plays a few games at their men’s stadiums, there is usually a positive lift in crowd numbers – Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur all saw their highest attendances recorded at men’s stadiums this season. When clubs choose to play there every week however, it is a different story. This season, Reading and Birmingham City have played all of their games at their traditional homes and are 11th and 12th in the overall attendance figures. Leicester City, playing mostly at The King Power Stadium, have fared better coming in sixth overall.
Which are the teams that fared best? Well, it’s probably no surprise that the top four in terms of home attendance averages were the top four in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League last year. Chelsea lead with an average attendance of 2,769 followed by Arsenal, Manchester City and then Manchester United whose average attendance is 1,866. Interestingly, they are also the top four in terms of away attendances (overall crowd not specifically travelling support) with Arsenal moving above Chelsea at 2,474 but otherwise, the same order with the average attendance at a Manchester United away game being 2,172. This is not necessarily good news in many respects as it seems that the key to attendance is performance on the pitch which isn’t something The Football Association can affect, at least not in the short term, to reach their 2024 target. Factors such as increasing and rebalancing the Vitality Women’s FA Cup prize fund will certainly help in the long run as it promises to address financial disparities but 2024 will come too soon for that effect to be felt.
The make up of the England team is also a potential barrier to growth if indeed The Football Association are hoping for a boost from the home EUROs. With the vast majority of the England squad coming from the same four teams, translating support for the Lionesses into support for the Barclays FA Women’s Super League is a more difficult process as only those living in London and Manchester are likely to be able to relate to members of the squad. A broader net when selecting the team would benefit the growth of the league as well as being a fairer reflection of the players in form.
Another problem in achieving the average attendance goal is the size of the grounds. The teams most likely to hit that target don’t have grounds big enough. Chelsea’s Kingsmeadow holds a maximum of 4,850 while Arsenal’s Boreham Wood holds just 4,500. The capacities of Manchester City and Manchester United’s venues are greater but the key to having a 6,000 average across the league looks to be playing more games in men’s stadiums.
Looking beyond the traditional top four, what can we learn about attendances? Brighton & Hove Albion are an interesting team to look at here. They are fifth in the table for home attendances, always above 1,000 fans and often around the 2,000 mark. They fall to 11th in the away table which indicates two things, one they are less of an attraction as a visiting team than those traditional top four teams but secondly, they have much stronger home support. This is not unusual, most teams do, but there is a possible reason for this. Brighton & Hove Albion play their home games more than 20 miles away in Crawley. Ever since they moved to Crawley, The Seagulls have offered free coach travel to games from a number of south coast locations. In doing this, they bring in the more traditional Brighton & Hove Albion fans but are also able to harness fans local to Crawley. Interestingly for Albion, both their highest and lowest attendances of the season came at the Amex Stadium, proving that the big stadium is not always appealing to fans.
In seventh and eighth are Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United with the former having much more changeable attendances buoyed by a couple of bigger crowds and the later being fairly consistent with just over 1,000. The lowest attendance in the league so far this season was at Everton where only 242 fans attended their fixture against Reading. Aston Villa, Birmingham City and Everton have only had one home game each this season where the attendance was over 1,000.
Another area for consideration in matchday attendances is kick-off times. It’s hard to make a judgement on this across the league based on less than a whole season under the new TV deal but there are some trends at club level. Aston Villa fans, for example, clearly don’t like an evening kick-off with less than 400 coming to these games. Their highest attendance was at their only afternoon game, albeit that was at Villa Park, the remainder of their games being lunchtime kick-offs. Manchester United, on the other hand, seem to play at lunchtime every week with one exception when they had an evening game, perhaps that consistency is part of their success. The highest attendances seem to come with lunchtime or afternoon kick-offs, only West Ham United saw their highest attendance at an evening game and that was a London derby with Chelsea.
Anecdotally, I hear many stories where fans cannot attend games, often evening kick-offs, particularly those which involve travelling the length of the country. Imagine what some of those attendances could have been if kick-off times took into account ease of access to the game at those times.
There are, of course, other areas to consider such as clashes with men’s games and the affect that has on support. The addition of away sections would also assist in working out how best to grow attendances as this would add more colour and atmosphere to the figures. I suspect in itself, it would increase attendances if those away ends were managed by the away team so fans no longer had to register with every club in the league in order to be able to follow their team.
Looking at the figures, it’s clear that The Football Association have a big challenge to reach their target which is likely to be hampered by the continuing dominance of the top four. Though this season has started to see that weaken, it is likely that the traditional top four will finish there once again. Perhaps more effort needs to be made following the example of Brighton & Hove Albion in helping fans to attend games. How many clubs offer any kind of travel to home or away games? Not many. I also think a more consistent, joined up approach is needed. The game is often marketed as a family game and yet the advent of the new TV deal saw the arrival of much more regular evening kick-offs, especially on a Sunday night which is not going to appeal to families. In my opinion, a decision needs to be made on what the women’s game is – is it a family version of the men’s game or is it a quality product in its own right? Whatever the decision, that decision needs to guide all other decisions from kick-off times to facilities on matchday. I hope it is decided that it is a quality product in it’s own right and make decisions in-line with that. Even if the 6,000 average may not be hit by the deadline, I hope that The Football Association work to support match-going fans through better and earlier communication.
Attendance data gathered from WSL Attendances and FBREF
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