Follow along here at Beyond Women’s Sports for the weekly attendance updates in the NWSL. This is the seventh report for the 2024 season, as the regular season began on March 16. The numbers reported below are up to and including all games through games on May 5. The NWSL saw an increase in teams for 2024 with the return of the Utah Royals and the expansion team Bay FC. The league is not expected to expand for the 2025 season.
NWSL Attendance: Week in Review
The NWSL saw their first weeknight games of the season. None of the three games drew well with Chicago seeing a season-low of just 2,999 against Washington. The low-attended weeknight games saw the league’s average dip to 11,046. The Portland Thorns saw the highest attendance of the week with 17,039 on Saturday, May 4 against the Spirit. Once again, the 2022 expansion teams, Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave FC continue to lead the league in attendance.
The league is still up slightly from their 2023 final average (+177). Furthermore, heading into the third month of play has eight teams above their 2023 average while four teams are below it (Seattle, Portland, Orlando, and Chicago). Racing Louisville FC (+2,103) has seen the largest increase from last season while Seattle Reigh FC (-5,205) has seen the largest decrease from 2023.
Capacity numbers are provided by each team’s individual stadium’s website. Also reported are each team’s individual high and low games for the season. Finally, all attendance numbers are provided through the ESPN box scores and @NwslNotes on Twitter.
NWSL Attendance Report
The Week Ahead
This week will once again see games on a Wednesday night with six teams in action on May 8. The featured Saturday night ION double header will see Bay FC travel to the league-leading Orlando Pride at 7:30 pm and Seattle Reign FC head to Portland at 10 pm. Finally, Sunday, May 12 will have four games in total with the featured game being the Kansas City Current at home facing the North Carolina Courage.
