Fans Flock to Euro 2022 | Record Attendances for Womens Euros

Fans Flock to Euro 2022 - A deep dive into the attendances at the Womens European Championships

With England’s Lionesses uniting the nation, their progress to this year’s European Championship final has been one of, if not, the highlight of the sporting summer and although Sarina Wiegman’s side have been capturing the majority of the focus, 15 other nations have also had a chance to shine.

Because with this year being the second edition of the competition to include 16 entrants, it has meant that momentum within the women’s football is only accelerating further and one of the best ways to measure this, is by tracking how many fans have walked through the turnstiles.

A measure that detractors have used to their advantage in the past, as stadia find themselves with plenty of empty seats. However, the one thing that those same people forget, is that you need time to make progress.

Time that can be measured since the first Women’s European Championships in 1984 and with 12 completed tournaments since then, we can now look at the attendance data for each previous staging before 2022.

As you can see the growth of the tournament has largely been linked to its expansion in terms of entrants and although this is not necessarily an exact science of constant increase, there has certainly been a step change since 2005.

A step chance that came courtesy of England also being given hosting rights and although it was the third occasion in which eight nations would aim to rule the whole of Europe, it was the first time in which the 15 matches generated a total attendance of more than 100,000.

While this total attendance has only grown with each tournament thereafter and although the obvious explanation, is that more matches is equal to more fans through the doors, you still need to have a strong marketing campaign to go with it.

Something which was certainly been in place during 2017 and with the Netherlands laying on a football party five years ago, they were just short of registering 250,000 overall ticket sales for the competition.

Now though, it is time to see just how Euro 2017 compares to Euro 2022 and although this year’s tournament was delayed like many others because of COVID-19, the additional 12-month wait has only built the anticipation further.

While with the same number of finalists, it also gives us the ideal ground for comparison in terms of ticket sales and this how the two fare against each other.

Looking at this, it is fair to say that English fans have really embraced this year’s European Championship and not only has there been more than double the overall attendance, but the overall average attendance is 135% more than five years ago.

A sensational effort by not only those who have marketed this festival of football, but every supporter who has paid their money and allowed themselves to be truly immersed in the women’s game. 

While to put things into further context, here is how the whole of Euro 2017 matches up against just the group stage of Euro 2022

Even with seven games less than five years ago, nearly 125,000 more supporters watched a game in just the group stage of Euro 2022 and even before the knockout phase, the overall average attendance is up by 95% 

A pair of statistics that reinforce just how popular this year’s European Championships have been and part of the reason why so many have taken it to their hearts, is because of the attacking nature of the tournament. 

Because when compared to Euro 2017, this tournament is averaging nearly a goal more per game and although England’s stunning 8-0 win will have gone some way to skewing this figure, it should not take anything away from the other displays that have been on show.

While that 8-0 win would have been a dream for those tasked with keeping ticket sales going and with an interest that was still sizeable before, now turning into something of a groundswell, there is no doubt that England’s Lionesses are riding the crest of a footballing wave.

A wave that although makes for great headlines, may need to be placed into even further context and the best way to do this, is by looking at the percentage of total tickets sold per Women’s European Championships.

Something that we have managed to capture for each of its last four editions:

While this further context only adds more of a positive light to proceedings and although there were nearly 500,000 more seats on sale than during Euro 2013, there was an even greater percentage of overall tickets sold. 

With the previous benchmark of nine years ago being set at 72.01%, Euro 2022’s overall sales of 72.16% should be lauded as another success. While with 574,865 total tickets sold, that in itself should be the thing that stands out the most. 

Then again, a fairer comparison would be how it fared against the other tournament to have 16 finalists. Once again, we compare to Euro 2017 and with there being nearly 22% more overall tickets sold than five years ago, UEFA will hope that this momentum can be harnessed before Euro 2025.

In addition to this, we can also look at every venue from the last four editions of the Women’s European Championships and see how they have performed in terms of ticket sales.

As you can see, the top three highest percentages in our list come courtesy of Euro 2022, with the Brentford Community Stadium sold 92.52% of its available tickets in second, while Old Trafford was not all that far away with 91.98% sold in third.

However, it was Wembley Stadium that recorded the highest percentage of ticket sales per venue. Admittedly it may have only staged one game, but what a game it was. With 87,192 fans in attendance, the showpiece event certainly lived up to its top billing.  

When looking at the top 10, both Brighton’s Falmer and Rotherham’s New York stadiums are also represented, by virtue of each selling more than 70% of their overall tickets. Something that also suggests that the locations for matches have been staged at sensible sized venues.

Take 2009 for example and Finland’s decision to host five matches at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. 200,000 seats on offer to the public and only 64,609 were sold, which meant the overall seats were more than two-thirds empty.

While the reading does not get any better for Finland’s hosting of Euro 2009 and with four of their five venues being found at the bottom of the list above, it was a rather harsh learning curve for UEFA and the tournament as a whole.  

Of course, a home nation going deep into any tournament will always help the buzz stay alive and by reaching this year’s final, England have managed exactly that. Now though, that buzz will only continue further, as the Lionesses reign supreme at last.   

Later in the year we look forward to the World Cup in Qatar, around which we are sure there will be much talk about the stadiums and attendances. We'll do a deep dive into all the figures ahead of and during that tournament so be sure to keep checking OLBG as the site will be full of entertaining content for you to enjoy, as well as all the best tips and latest offers from the top bookies.

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