Women’s FA Cup Final To Create World Record Attendance For Domestic Club Game

When Chelsea play Manchester United at Wembley in the 53rd Women’s FA Cup final on Sunday, May 14, it is likely that the world record attendance for a domestic women’s club match will be shattered as the 90,000-capacity stadium heads toward being sold-out for the first time.

As of March 25, 50,000 tickets have been issued for the game to neutral supporters. With the confirmation this weekend of a meeting between two clubs with among the largest fan-bases in the country, it seems inconceivable that the number will not continue to push towards the first-ever Wembley sell-out for a women’s club match.

Outside of international matches and games in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, the world record for a women’s domestic club match is the 60,739 who saw Atlético de Madrid lose 0-2 to FC Barcelona at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano on March 17, 2009.

After the two semi-finals were completed, both confirmed finalists have received an initial allocation of 8,000 tickets to distrubute among their own supporters. Should the teams – currently first and second in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League – exhaust this supply, it will take the number of tickets sold to over 66,000 which would surpass the 64,000 issued for the Atlético match in 2019.

Playing in their first-ever Cup final, there is concern among Manchester United fans that the 8,000 allocation may be insufficient for a club, who are averaging a crowd of 11,203 for women’s matches this season. There is dismay that after the 1,000+ season ticket holders for the women’s team, priority will next go to season ticket holders and executive club members for the men’s team, the majority of whom may never have watched the women’s team at the Leigh Sports Village, 16 miles outside the city center.

English champions and defending Cup holders, Chelsea are playing in their third consecutive Women’s FA Cup final and with 1,500 seasons ticket holders and another showpiece match in the capital, the London-club are also expected to sell-out their 8,000 allocation. With over 50,000 tickets already issued before the finalists were known, the maximum number each team could receive at this stagisis around 15,000 each. For the men’s FA Cup final, the finalists received 30,500 tickets each.

Launched in 1971, the Women’s FA Cup had always held its final, the showpiece of the English women’s club game, in provincial stadiums with demand never expected to require the need to play at the country’s national stadium at Wembley, which has hosted the men’s FA Cup final since 1923.

Not until 2015, years after the match was first shown live on BBC television leading to eleven five-figure attendances since the turn of the century, was the final moved to Wembley Stadium. The first match between Chelsea and Notts County attracted a new record attendance of 30,710, barely a third of the capacity. An incremental growth in the women’s Cup final attendance saw that record rise to 49,094 for last year’s match between Chelsea and Manchester City.

For over a century, the club record attendance for a women’s match in England has remained the reported 53,000 who packed out Goodison Park in Liverpool to watch the fabled Dick, Kerr Ladies play St. Helens on Boxing Day in 1920. Last September, Arsenal reported that they had sold 53,737 tickets for their North London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur. In the event, 47,367 attended the match – a new record for the Barclays FA Women’s Super League – but still short of the Dick, Kerr Ladies’ record.

Last week, Arsenal claimed that they have sold over 40,000 tickets for their UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final second leg match against VfL Wolfsburg on May 1. With the club selling around 2,500 tickets a day, it seems they may exceed the 53,000 mark for that game, ahead of the Cup final, but their 60,704 capacity means they will not break Atlético de Madrid’s record.

Last season, FC Barcelona drew two world record crowds of 91,553 and 91,648 to Camp Nou in the Champions League, the second of which remains a European club record and is unlikely to be ever beaten by anyone bar the club themselves. They have yet to play a domestic club match at the stadium in front of fans.