About the WSL (Women's Super League)

[Lunar27]

Apologies for those that aren't interested in football generally but don't know how many here that are, particularly the WSL.

Personally I enjoy it and is a treat to watch live football on terrestrial TV. However it bugs me that the league is full of mega rich teams who have untold amounts of money. Yet whenever the big teams play, they're rarely, if ever at the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford etc.

Does anyone know why? Some say it's because of crowd numbers but my home (men's) team isn't even premier league, has a 40k capacity stadium but is only ever 10k full. Yet a lot of WSL teams play in stadiums that are woeful in comparison.

AIBU to think that Arsenal should always play at the Emirates, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge etc?

Hi OP. I am a keen follower of the WSL as is my daughter. The number of games played at large stadiums is increasing (Chelsea did so recently at Stamford Bridge). As crowds grow we will see more of this over the coming years. Crowds are fast increasing but it will take a little time to grow to fill large stadia and there is no point in having a small crowd in a very large space- it kills the atmosphere.

I think it partly depends on the circumstances of the club. Our woman’s team in Reading used to play at a ground quite a way away, but they’d played there for a while and it had a good train route, with regular fans. They then relocated to another ground the same distance but much harder to get to. As far as I know I think they’re now at the SCL (Reading FC stadium) as their base.

We used to share the SCL with a rugby team, but now they have left there is time for the womens team to play there.

Thanks. Yes, the north London Derby is this evening and am looking forward to visiting the Emirates but it's such a rarity and seems like they'd have a better match on pitches that are of a higher quality.

I appreciate the atmosphere thing but like I say, my local team is well under capacity permanently.

Although I guess the scale is probably different if you've a capacity of 60k and only 5k turn up.

Will be really exciting tonight anyway and especially as we're reaching the end of the season and things are so tight. Chelsea gave spurs a battering recently so not sure if that'll be a good or bad thing!

Increased costs of using a massive stadium? Might need full staffing, police etc
Knackering the pitch by having too many games?
Fixtures clashes with men's games?

In a smaller stadium, the crowd are closer to the pitch and make more noise being closer together. Chelsea sold all their season tickets for this season almost as soon as they went on sale - their WSL ground is purely for them, so it doesn't look as if they're squatting in someone else's ground (Borehamwood 😉)