The Arsenal women’s team hopes to play at least eleven matches next season at the Emirates, the stadium occupied all year round by the men, the north London club announced on Tuesday, relying on record attendances. “The Emirates stadium becomes the main stadium for Arsenal women,” announced the current third in the Women’s Super League (WSL), the English first division championship.
In detail, the Londoners will play eight league matches for sure, and three in the group stage of the Champions League, the European Cup, if they manage to qualify. In the event of a final third place in the league, the most likely hypothesis, Arsenal will have to go through two qualifying rounds to reach the C1. In this same competition, the knockout matches would also take place at the Emirates stadium, it is specified.
National cup matches, however, will still be played at Meadow Park, the stadium currently used by the women’s team and the Arsenal men’s under-21 team.
This season, Arsenal Women have played six league matches at the Emirates, with an average attendance of 52,029 per match. Two of them were sold out, according to the club. In total, the average attendance has been 32,618 spectators so far this season, with both stadiums combined, knowing that all matches at Meadow Park have been sold out, according to Arsenal.
Other major teams in Europe play Champions League matches and certain championship shocks in the men’s stadiums, which are larger and better equipped, like Lyon and Paris SG in France, or even FC Barcelona, Wolfsburg and Chelsea, among others. But the announcement made on Tuesday by Arsenal constitutes an unprecedented development due to the number of matches which would be played in the same season in a stadium of this size (60,704 seats).
