The tiny home of Arsenal's women's team will be replaced permanently next season by the fifth largest stadium in England. And that doesn't necessarily portend emptiness in the stands. The Gunners have already attracted a crowd this season by selling out all their tickets twice.

General rehearsal for the 2023/24 season

This past season, the women's team played at two venues in the Women's Super League: Emirates Stadium and the main home of women Gunners, Meadow Park. The 4,000-seater stadium is also the home of Boreham Wood F.C., playing in the National League, and Arsenal's u21 youth team.

The women's game has had quite an attendance this season. In total, more than 300,000 fans have visited the north London arena for matches. The club has broken the WSL record three times, including twice selling out all tickets, exceeding the 60 000 mark (matches against Tottenham 1:0 and Manchester United 3:1). The average attendance at the arena was around 52,000, and adding the results from the intimate venue brings the total up to almost 28,000. Impressive.

© Dave Frost

Official decision

The Emirates will become Arsenal Women's official venue for the 2024/25 season, with the club announcing plans to play eleven matches at the venue - eight in the Women's Super League, three in the Women's Champions League if they can qualify for the group stage and UWCL knockout stage matches. The rest of the league matches, as well as all national cup matches, will be played at Meadow Park.

We’ve recently seen extraordinary growth in supporters coming to Emirates Stadium for games held here, which include two complete sell-outs this season. We are looking forward to giving more supporters the chance to watch our women's team play - Arsenal general manager Vinai Venkatesham said.

There’s great passion for our women’s team right across our club. We are one club, with a vision to win major League trophies across our men's and women’s teams. This move supports this ambition, and we can’t wait to continue this amazing journey with our supporters - added sporting director Edu Gaspar.

© Hugh Rawson