Women’s Champions League Semi-Final Breaks Attendance Records

Wednesday’s game between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the UEFA Women’s Champion League has seen crowd attendance break several global records.

91,553 people attended the semi-final, breaking the previous women’s club football match record of 60,769 set in 2019.

The turnout has also surpassed the previous overall record for a women’s fixture of 90,185 set in 1999 at the Women’s World Cup Final between USA and China.

The attendance also bested Europe’s previous women’s soccer attendance record of 80,203 set at the London 2012 Olympics in the gold medal match between the United States and Japan.

Tickets for the game were set between €9 (AUD$13.31) and €15 (AUD$22.2), with Barcelona offering 147,000 of their members up to four free tickets for a limited 24-hour period in a bid to increase attendance.

Leading up to the game, Barcelona FC urged everyone who had bought a ticket to attend the event by calling on fans to help the club break the world record.

For many, the record-breaking crowd was a monumental moment for women in football with Barcelona player, Alexia Putellas, stating the turnout was a dream come true.

“I saw a lot of girls, children with that spark in their eyes,” Putellas said.

“It’s amazing to be a part of history,” she added.

The past few years has seen viewership and attendance rise in women’s sports as global efforts are being made to reduce the gender gap in sporting competitions.

An increasing number of broadcasters and streaming services are taking on the TV rights to women’s sports, with previously under-televised sports, like Netball, gaining world traction on the global screen.

Event-day attendance records are repeatedly being broken as women’s sporting games begin to fill up major stadiums.

The MCG’s 2020’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup broke online fan engagement and attendance records with the ICC’s digital channels receiving over 1.1 billion views and the match day attendance seeing over 86,174 fans attend.

At the time, the event became the second highest attended women’s sporting match ever.

Wednesday’s match between Barcelona and Real Madrid has since knocked the event down to third place, nonetheless the attendance numbers being seen are reflecting the sporting industry’s efforts to narrow the gender gap.

Following the announcement of the new attendance record, FC Barcelona tweeted, “More than Empowerment.”