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, has the north London club announced on Tuesday counting on record attendance.
The Emirates Stadium becomes the home stadium of Arsenal Women », announced the current third in the Women’s Super League (WSL), the English Premier League. In detail, the Londoners will play eight Championship matches, and three in the Champions League group stage if they manage to qualify.
In the event of a third place finish in the Championship, the most probable hypothesis, Arsenal will have to overcome two qualifying rounds to access the main phase of C1. Of this same competition, the knockout matches would also take place at the Emirates Stadium, the club specifies.
The National Cup matches will still be played at Meadow Park, the stadium currently used by the women’s national team and the men’s Under 21 group.
Already two sold out matches at the Emirates Stadium
This season, Arsenal Women have played six league matches at the Emirates, averaging 52,029 spectators per game. Two of them were sold out, according to the club. This season, players played in front of an average of 32,618 spectators, at the two stadiums combined, knowing that all matches at Meadow Park were sold out, according to the London club.
Other major teams in Europe play their Champions League matches and some championship shocks in men’s stadiums, larger and better equipped, such as Lyon and Paris-SG in France, or even FC Barcelona, Wolfsburg and Chelsea.
But Arsenal’s announcement on Tuesday constitutes an unprecedented development given the number of matches that would be played in the same season in a stadium of this size (60,704 seats).