July 25 – FIFA have said that the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be the best-attended edition ever of the tournament after selling more than 1.5 million tickets five days into the tournament.
As the Football Ferns faltered against the Philippines, FIFA assuaged concerns that Kiwis have not shown much interest in the tournament.
Canada staged the best-attended Women’s World Cup to date when in 2015 1.35 million supporters passed through the turnstiles. Australia has seen the lion’s share of ticket sales with an uptake of more than 1.1 million.
“This tournament is creating history and we are delighted as host nation,” said Football Australia chief executive James Johnson in a statement. “We are seeing a surge in support for women’s football, not just in ticket sales, but also in broadcast viewership, fan festival participation and merchandise sales.”
The total attendance for the first 16 games at the tournament was 459,547, an average of 28,721, an 54% increase on the 21,756 from the first 16 games of the previous tournament in France in 2019.
The opening day of the tournament was already record-breaking with 75,784 supporters attending the Matildas’ curtain raiser against Ireland at Stadium Australia, the largest crowd for an Australian women’s national team game.
“The Australian public has demonstrated how much they love the game and the CommBank Matildas and have come out in numbers at all matches across the country and we thank them for their exceptional support,” Johnson said.
Ticket sales in New Zealand were sluggish ahead of the tournament and on the eve of the finals, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the organisation’s secretary general Fatma Samoura urged Kiwis to get their hands on tickets. The opening game saw 42,137 fans pack Eden Park, an all-time high for a football match in New Zealand.
In a statement, Infantino, who has been touring New Zealand during the group stages, thanked both host nations.
“I would really like to express a huge thank you to New Zealand and to Australia for hosting us here. We often say that football unites the world. New Zealand and Australia are uniting the world Down Under. They welcome all of us – every single person – the volunteers, the police officers, all the employees; everyone who is connected somehow with the (FIFA Women’s) World Cup has done a tremendous job. It’s welcoming, it’s warm, it’s smiling, and this is really priceless.”
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