Arsenal breaks WSL record, with 47,367 in attendance for 4-0 rout over Tottenham

What a day at the Emirates Stadium

It’s turning out to be a big year for women’s soccer in England.

Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Tottenham set a new Women’s Super League record for attendance, with 47,367 taking in Saturday’s match at Emirates Stadium.

That figure broke the old WSL record of 38,262, set in 2019 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Arsenal announced during the game that they’d sold 53,737 tickets.

The game itself gave the red side of north London plenty to cheer about. England’s Beth Mead opened the scoring in the fifth minute, while Vivianne Miedema struck just before halftime. Brazilian international Rafaelle ended any real hope of a comeback for Spurs with a goal nine minutes into the second half, and Miedema made it two for herself in the 69th minute as Arsenal ran away with their second straight 4-0 win to start the season.

Normally, a resounding derby win would take the headlines, but when you break the league attendance record by over 9,000 people, it tends to become the main talking point.

“It was incredible what we did in the summer, but now we want to continue this and hopefully this is still just the beginning,” Mead told the BBC after the game. “I’ve never experienced that before, the fans were incredible.”

It’s a prime opportunity for women’s soccer in England to truly take off. Following a triumphant Euro 2022 tournament that drew huge crowds throughout the country, the WSL has never had a better opportunity to grow. Arsenal normally play home matches at Meadow Park, a 4,500 capacity stadium they share with men’s fifth-division club Boreham Wood FC.

There are similar situations with nearly every WSL team this season. Only Leicester and Reading play in the same stadium as their club’s men’s team, and seven teams currently play in a venue whose capacity is under 10,000. Many teams had planned on hosting their first game of the season at their club’s actual home stadium, but the passing of Queen Elizabeth resulted in that round of matches being postponed.

Still, for the most part, teams have looked to restrict giving their WSL sides the big stage to rare occasions like city derbies. It may be a cost-conscious move for the clubs, but the fact is that some of the richest sporting organizations in the world are deciding to place an artificial cap on the possibilities for their women’s team and then citing costs, while simultaneously lavishing the men’s side of their organizations with the best they can afford.

Arsenal in particular may have no way to avoid noticing that they didn’t pack the Emirates with tickets given out for free. 53,737 people gave them money to come to this game. If you can sell that many tickets to your second game of a long season, the sexist and short-sighted revenue-based arguments that come out as a reason to keep women’s soccer small become even more foolish.

Moments like the attention Euro 2022 brought can lead to attendances like this at the club level, which will hopefully provoke teams to start actually showing some ambition when it comes to the women’s game.

Watch Arsenal give a record crowd four goals to celebrate

[lawrence-related id=5458,7421,870]