As Leah Williamson and Jonas Eidevall reflected at the Emirates Stadium on Arsenal’s success in reaching the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 10 years, they had more than exciting upcoming fixtures on their minds. Captain and manager were united in stating it was a realistic vision for the team to play every game at the club’s 60,000-capacity ground.
It would be a huge statement for Arsenal to relocate there and the discussion alone demonstrates how quickly the conversation has moved on. In the WSL, Leicester play at the King Power Stadium and Reading at the Select Car Leasing Stadium used by their men’s team, but the impact of one of the top sides – England’s most successful women’s football team – putting their women’s team on the stage previously reserved for their premier product would be enormous.
In many ways Arsenal would be far ahead of the pack. The West Ham defender Lucy Parker criticised her club this week for failing to host a women’s game at the London Stadium since 2019, after it was announced the men’s under-18s would play their FA Youth Cup semi-final there next Thursday.
“Five years ago, if someone would have said that Arsenal’s long-term plan is to move permanently to Emirates Stadium, people would probably have asked: ‘How is that going to happen?’” Eidevall said. “But now I think people understand that might be a realistic vision for the future.”
Williamson echoed those sentiments after Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich had delivered a 2-1 aggregate win. “If you asked me five years ago it would have been completely different again … This is a historic football club, people know about us and have always known about us. We just needed to get them in. So, it feels realistic.”
Reading 8 out of 8
Leicester 8 out of 8
Aston Villa: 4 out of 8
Arsenal: 3 out of 8
Manchester United: 2 out of 8
Brighton: 1 out of 6
Chelsea: 1 out of 7
Everton: 1 out of 8
Liverpool: 1 out of 8
Manchester City: 1 out of 8
Tottenham: 1 out of 8
West Ham: 0 out of 8
She is not wrong and the timing feels right. There is a momentum and vibrancy around Arsenal that every fan has bought into with the men’s and women’s teams flying high. Arsenal attracted 12,232 fans to their midweek Women’s Champions League game against Barcelona last season and got 21,307 on Wednesday, the record for an English team in the competition.
Arsenal have twice broken the WSL attendance record this season, with 47,367 fans attending the north London derby against Tottenham after 40,064 had watched their game against Manchester United.
Now, in just over four weeks the club have two huge games in three days, with the men hosting Chelsea on Saturday 29 April and the women playing their Champions League semi-final second leg against Wolfsburg or Paris Saint-Germain the following Monday at the Emirates Stadium. Tickets for the home leg went on sale almost immediately after the final whistle on Wednesday, with the club going all out to carry the momentum forward. A sell-out crowd is more than possible.
The nature of the crowds has changed too, and that has taken time and persistence from the club. The moment the doors to the Emirates Stadium were opened to the women’s team, new fans were drawn in. People who had never watched a women’s game, let alone an Arsenal women’s game, were introduced to the team, their history and the players. Now, the players are so known that one of Kim Kardashian’s sons was photographed in a Katie McCabe shirt and one of his friends donned a Vivianne Miedema top to watch the men’s team in the Europa League against Sporting Lisbon.
Arsenal play the majority of their home games at Meadow Park, home of Boreham Wood, but they have outgrown it faster than many at the club would have thought possible, particularly those who signed a new 10-year deal with the National League side in 2017 for the women’s and development teams to continue there.
Playing in front of a large crowd invested in every kick helped Arsenal to overcome Bayern. There was a lively, nervous collective energy and an intensity more commonly found in crowds at the men’s games that pushed the team. The tighter the tie, the better Arsenal played, and the more invested each person there and watching at home became. Make it visible, make it accessible and more want to be involved.
“Every time we come here this is a professional environment, the pitch is incredible, the fans, you take so much from that atmosphere as well,” said Williamson. “As much as we can get it here, as much as we can keep pushing, we will keep trying to do our job and win those games and create good football. Then hopefully the club can join us in that as well.”
The trajectory of the growth of women’s football is high. Fortune is favouring the brave. For Arsenal, there is an opportunity to capitalise on a time when everything the club touch seemingly turns to gold. Those moments do not come around often and if you miss them the job is far from impossible but harder and slower.
