Arsenal have made history once again, selling out Emirates Stadium for the first time in their history.
Monday’s Champions League semifinal will not be the first time the women’s team has played at Emirates this season, with the club having made a vow to play at least six matches at the venue this season. But it is the first time Arsenal have sold all of the 60,704 available tickets.
For the first time in our history...
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) April 30, 2023
EMIRATES STADIUM. SOLD OUT. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/sTUNFjFOVp
And fans are in for an exciting match, with the club playing the second leg of its Champions League semifinal against VfL Wolfsburg. The two teams are tied 2-2 after the first leg.
“‘Exciting’ doesn’t do it justice,” Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy said when asked about the sellout. “A lot of hard work has gone into this. When you look at the future sustainability in the game for Arsenal Women as a club that’s what’s most exciting for me. I hope every Gooner there will be screaming their hearts out.”
Of course, they’ve sold many seats in the stadium before, having attracted a Women’s Super League record crowd of 47,367 for the north London derby in September when they played Tottenham Hotspur.
Arsenal have bought into marketing the women’s games, with the marketing team remaining as one rather than having a separate team for the women’s side. That has helped bolster a trend of increasing attendance in the WSL in the wake of England’s Euros win.
It’s a step in the right direction for the club. Chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has said that he hopes to see the women’s team play all their matches at Emirates down the road. And with the club now selling out the stadium, that seems more and more likely.
“I don’t see this as an end-point for it. For me this has always been the natural progression that we were going to get here [selling out], whether it was this game or not,” manager Jonas Eidevall said. “I hope when we look back on the day tomorrow, in history, that we can see that was a starting point — to make this a regular occurrence.”