NWSL
NWSL set to create new season attendance record in U.S. professional women’s soccer
After 18 weeks of the 2023 regular season, over one million fans have attended NWSL games breaking a new US record.
Last week’s Kansas City Current vs. Angel City FC match saw over 11,000 fans showup and in doing so tilted the cumulative attendance for the 2023 regular season past the one million mark. In the same weekend San Diego Wave FC saw 25,000 supporters show up to the new Snapdragon Stadium as they faced Houston Dash, helping the league set a new attendance mark of 1,060,978. This new record, which marks the second-straight regular season to host over a million fans, comes with four weeks of play remaining in the season ahead of the 2023 NWSL Playoffs.
The new attendance mark includes a record 11 regular season matches with more than 20,000 fans in attendance. “Few metrics more clearly demonstrate the growing enthusiasm for our sport than our attendance figures and the numbers we’re currently seeing across the league are extraordinary,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman.
Averaging 20,194 fans per match, San Diego Wave are currently pacing to set a new regular season average attendance mark. The current record is held by the Portland Thorns, who hosted 20,098 fans per match in 2019.
As the NWSL welcomed back the 62 players featured in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the return of the regular season saw season highs in attendance for six clubs: Angel City (22,000), Kansas City (13,455), OL Reign (10,106), Portland Thorns FC (22,107), Racing Louisville (10,214) and Washington (13,048).
With four weeks remaining ahead of playoffs, the league’s average attendance of 9,916 in 2023 is on track to set a new NWSL record and break the all-time U.S. women’s pro soccer league mark, which currently sits at 8,102 from the inaugural WUSA season in 2001.