The Rise in Attendance at Women’s Sporting Events

It’s probably the most iconic picture in women’s sports history, Brandi Chastain after she scored in the penalty shootout in the 1999 World Cup Final against China. That match at the Rose Bowl saw 90,185 fans packed into the stands and it broke the world record for women’s sports attendance – which it held for over two decades.

There has been a recent eruption in women’s sports with attendance records continuing to be broken as teams take on even larger capacity venues and as women’s sports viewership continues to grow. Just two years ago, in April 2022, that 23-year all time world record for women’s sports attendance was broken by FC Barcelona vs VfL Wolfsburg with 91,648 fans in the stands at the massive Camp Nou.

It only took 16 months for the NCAA to break that record August of 2023 with Volleyball Day in Nebraska seeing an attendance of 92,003 at Memorial football stadium for a double header between Wayne State (Nebraska) vs. Nebraska-Kearney and Nebraska vs. Omaha.

In the past 6 months, we’ve seen 3 other attendance records broken. In September 2023, the US Open Championship match between Coco Gauff vs Aryna Sabalenka at Arthur Ashe Stadium saw a new women’s tennis record attendance of 28,143. In October 2023, University of Iowa hosted a preseason game where superstar Caitlin Clark took center stage making it an all time record for all women’s basketball events with 55,646 fans in the stands of Kinnick football stadium. Just last month, the women’s ice hockey attendance record was demolished when 19,285 people attended to watch PWHL Toronto vs. PWHL Montreal.

While the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland may be too small to break any basketball attendance records, we will be hosting the NCAA Women’s Basketball semis and finals next month and you already know I have tickets…

Sources:

• CNN: Women’s World Cup: The match that changed women’s football
• NCAA: Nebraska volleyball breaks world record for women’s sporting event attendance on ‘Volleyball Day in Nebraska’
• US OPEN: 2023 US Open sets all-time Grand Slam attendance record
• NCAA: History from Kinnick! Iowa’s sets women’s basketball attendance record at 55,646
• PWHL: Professional Women’s Hockey League Breaks All-Time Attendance Record for Women’s Hockey