Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall admits that Arsenal are ‘at a crossroads’ when it comes to the best place for them to play their home games. This season, they will play five home WSL games at Emirates Stadium and the other six at Meadow Park, the ground they have shared with Boreham Wood FC for many years now.
Their current groundsharing agreement with the National League club runs until 2027. Arsenal Women return there for the first time since May as they take on Manchester City on Sunday, in a game that sold out inside an hour.
Eidevall admits Arsenal are in a holding pattern where Meadow Park is no longer big enough for the majority of the games. “It is a long time now since we have been at Meadow Park. We have always had great experiences there, it is very intimate with a great atmosphere. We really are at that crossroads at the moment where we also have great experiences at the Emirates,” Eidevall explained.
Arsenal sold over 50,000 tickets for their season opener against Liverpool and around 40,000 for their following home game against Aston Villa. They next play at the Emirates against Chelsea on December 10 with over 40,000 tickets already sold.
“I understand that it is not quite as easy for the club to move all of our games to the Emirates because there are a lot of logistics and a lot of know how that needs to transcend into that,” Eidevall cautioned.
“The trajectory in how we are doing that is that we are playing more and more league games at the Emirates every year and that is a natural process and it needs to take a little bit of time.
“As always, we look forward to playing in front of our home fans, it is a sellout again and we know our fans will be incredible again.” Brighton were recently granted approval for a purpose built stadium for their women’s team, given they currently have a sharing arrangement with Crawley Town.
Arsenal investigated a similar purpose built stadium for the women’s and academy teams just under a decade ago but scarcity of land in accessible areas put paid to the project. Eidevall also suggested it wasn’t straightforward to predict long-term demand.
“The hard part is to say what would a good size for the stadium be? How will it look in 5-10 years time? We are at a difficult but exciting time to try to predict the future.
“If somebody would have predicted five years ago what would a good size stadium have been for Arsenal Women? That would have been a completely different answer to what you would say today.
“The answer for what today would be a good size, in five years’ time they might say ‘that’s too small.’ Maybe then the Emirates is the perfect size?
“It all depends on the club, the ability to sell out stadiums is a very important component in football. Because I think it is a feeling to go into a sold out stadium.
“It creates a good atmosphere, it creates intimacy. It becomes easier to drive ticket sales because you have scarcity and you need to act early to get tickets otherwise you miss out.
“For each club to get that decision right for the ideal size to enable growth but also create the best possible atmosphere and be able to entertain partners and so on, it is super important to grow the game.”
Has to be about what is cost effective
Excellent points from JE. We are entering a potentially difficult period in which we are too big for Meadow Park, but not big enough for the Emirates. I don’t know what the costings are, but I would guess that the break-even number of fans at the Emirates is pretty close to capacity, given the ticket prices. And if the ticket prices are increased, some of the demand *may* decrease. A difficult problem and the solution comes down to growing the fan base specifically of the women’s team and winning trophies for them. Loyal fans who will stick with AWFC through… Read more »
Completely agree. However one of the reasons clubs are starting to stick more money into women’s football (and run at a loss) is because it is a growth market, and the overheads are relatively low. The cost of the entire women’s setup is less than Aubameyang’s salary was. And the potential profits down the line, in 5-10 years, are potentially huge. A very different demographic attend women’s football matches, and that’s a largely untapped market in football terms. So whilst I think the club should be growing the women’s team and support structures in an organic way, they should also… Read more »
Absolutely agree. Ive always been an Arsenal fan and could support no other but l know AWFC supporters who support other clubs in the mens game but chose our club for the women because of our history of success and the great players we’ve had in the past
Even the CC group games are selling well.
Just worry about getting results
What’s the fuss about? I swear those woke people ruin everything. If you’re good enough, you get picked. No one cares about your race. If they want more colored players, then make sure they get the formation since young age and if they are good and talented, they’ll get picked.
You may be correct but what has this to do with whether the games are at Meadow Park, The Emirates, or a purpose built stadium?