Can Arsenal's record-breaking fan base take them back to the top?

Shubi Arun

May 2, 2024, 09:00 AM ET

LONDON -- Emily Fox had goose bumps. Arsenal were facing Chelsea at Emirates Stadium on Dec. 10, 2023, and the United States defender was one of 59,042 people in the stands. It was a record crowd for a Women's Super League (WSL) match and the second time in the season that Arsenal had set a new benchmark for attendances. Two months later, they'd break the record again, this time against Manchester United with 60,160.

"Going to that game, I didn't really know what to expect," Fox, who signed for the Gunners from NWSL's North Carolina Courage a month later, told ESPN. "When I was there and I saw the sold-out crowd, people chanting players' names like they do in men's football, it was the exact same. And not just the crowd, the atmosphere, the style of football, it was amazing.

"When I was deciding to come here, it just kind of gave me goose bumps and made me really excited not only for Arsenal and this club, but for women's football and the growth that it's had. I think with Arsenal in particular [what excites me is] what they've done in terms of growing the game, getting fans and creating a community for women's football at Arsenal."

- Stream on ESPN+: NWSL, LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Fox isn't alone in being drawn in by what's been brewing in this part of north London. Defender Laia Codina, a 2023 World Cup winner with Spain and a summer signing from Barcelona, has spoken about the atmosphere at the Emirates being different from anything she's experienced before.

Arsenal Women split their home fixtures between the 4,500-seater Meadow Park, which they share with National League side Boreham Wood, and the 60,704-capacity Emirates. This season, they've played six WSL games at the home of the men's team -- the most they've managed at the venue in a single season -- and have averaged a crowd of 52,029, which would put them eighth among men's Premier League clubs. Indeed, the top six highest attendances in the WSL have all been Arsenal home games.

Women's football in England has seen a remarkable surge in popularity since the national team's triumph at Euro 2022 and no club has surfed this wave of popularity in the manner or scale as Arsenal.

Founded in 1987, Arsenal have been one of the traditional powerhouses in the women's game. They've won the most trophies of any women's side in Europe and hold the distinction of being the only English side to have won the Champions League. The Gunners' crowning glory came in the 2006-07 season, where they won an unprecedented quadruple and went unbeaten the whole campaign. However, that remarkable rate of success has decreased in recent years as Chelsea and Manchester City have used their vast resources to overtake them, and the Gunners have won only two pieces of silverware in the last five years.

The rise in profile hasn't taken place overnight; it's been a process and years of work behind the scenes has gone into putting them in this position. The record attendances are only a part of it as they attempt to reshape the narrative of women's football in the country.

Building the foundation

"One-club mentality." It's a phrase repeatedly referenced by club officials when ESPN asked about the rise of the women's team over the past couple of years. But it's just as much an ethos.

The club makes no distinction in how they run any of their men's, women's, or academy teams. It starts at the top, with sporting director Edu Gaspar taking full responsibility for everything.

"We are one club and our football strategy incorporates all our teams --men's, women's and academy -- when it comes to our preparations, performance, and the players we try to sign. We're proactive and we never stop moving forwards," Gaspar told ESPN.

Each internal department -- including marketing, commercial and communications -- caters to the men's and women's teams. In the 2020-21 season, there were grumblings from sections of the fanbase about the team and questioned if the one-club mentality was just a slogan. It was Arsenal's second successive trophyless campaign -- they finished third in the WSL, lost the FA Cup final 3-0 to Chelsea and were knocked out in the group stage of the League Cup.

The club conducted a review that saw them receive input from players and coaches, as well as internal and external experts. It sparked a host of changes that saw the sports science and medical departments significantly bolstered, as well as an increase in the operations staff.

A source at Arsenal admitted that while it's hard to describe what the one-club mentality looks like in a practical sense, what it isn't is having walls up. The club's openness is one of Gemma Avery's lasting memories from her time. She had the daunting task of filling Arsenal legend Faye White's shoes in 2016; White had stepped in as a marketing officer following her retirement and Avery was hired to take on her role when she went on maternity leave.

"I never knocked on a door and it didn't get answered," Avery said. "I think there's always gonna be those early conversations. It wasn't like you have a meeting and things happen straight away but everybody in the club really believed in that one-club mentality.

LIVE ON ESPN+ (SELECTED GAMES)

"It was just having to maybe change processes. And there was never a 'no.' I never got a 'no' the whole time. It was more just 'okay, we might just need to make baby steps before we look at this.'"

The 2017 Spring Series -- a one-off summer competition between WSL seasons -- illustrates Arsenal's intention to do right by their women's team from the early years. Engaging the locals in Boreham Wood was a focus area for Avery and ahead of the opening game against Notts County, she organised a family fun day at Meadow Park where there would be a meet-and-greet with players outside the ground. But, two days before the game, Notts County dissolved its women's team due to financial issues.

The easy option would have been to cancel the event, but the club kept it and made it an open training session. Avery remembers Arsenal captain Kim Little and England international Jordan Nobbs, both of whom were nursing injuries at the time, hobbling around and meeting children at the event. "I think there's some people that have been there for such a long time [and they] have championed this work that through 1% here, 1% there, it has just added up over time," she said.

From initiating a conversation with the customer relations team to ensuring there was in-house coverage of games, to implementing feedback systems for match-going fans, Avery laid the first bricks in a structure that would become a monolith.

"One thing I would say is that it's [the women's team] always been at the heart of the football club," Avery said. "It's kind of just needed people being bold enough to push it and make decisions that maybe other clubs around the WSL weren't doing at that time."

The secrets to commercial success

The crowds Arsenal have been able to draw over the last two years, particularly at the Emirates, have been the most visible feature of their success. The most striking aspect of it all has been the speed at which it has been scaled.

In the 2021-22 season, Arsenal had an average attendance of 8,652 across four WSL matches at the Emirates. In 2022-23, that rose to 47,000 in three WSL games before taking a further jump to 52,029 across six matches for this year's campaign. Every home game at Meadow Park this season has been sold out, with the average attendance across both venues double that of the previous year.

The success of England's Lionesses has undoubtedly turbocharged these numbers, but Arsenal's chief commercial officer Juliet Slot played a role too. She had previously held the same post at Royal Ascot -- one of Britain's most prestigious dates in the horse racing calendar -- and the event draws up to 300,000 fans across five days. Slot applied the insights gleaned from ticketing an event of such magnitude at Arsenal. The club has introduced a three-tiered ticketing system -- early bird, in-advance and on-the-day -- that's rare in football but it's common practice in horse racing.

"Our approach across the club has always been test and learn, rooted in data and insights. This keeps us nimble, and gives us the focus we need to both attract a new audience to Emirates for our women's matches, but also keep them coming back," Slot told ESPN.

Families and young adults form a significant contingent of match-going fans and last season, 61% of those who attended a game had never purchased a ticket at the Emirates before. Arsenal have had to adapt the Emirates to cater to their new fans' needs. In some instances, quite literally. They learnt that on Arsenal women's matchdays, hot dogs would sell out quickly while there'd be a surplus of alcohol. A lot of fans would turn up to the ground not realising they had to purchase tickets for their infants, so the club began keeping aside a certain proportion of tickets that could be purchased at the ground for kids. The Arsenal megastore layout is reworked on matchdays, with accessories and products featuring club mascot Gunnersaurus Rex appearing more prominently.

The proportion of 25-34-year-olds attending matches is higher at women's games (34%) than at men's games (27%). Last season, 51% of the audience was below the age of 35. The release of a bespoke women's team jersey that was designed in collaboration with Stella McCartney and Adidas has only furthered their pull with a younger audience and the sold-out hospitality boxes against Manchester United in February further exemplify the team's growing appeal more generally.

"That's something that's happened very quickly," Arseblog journalist Tim Stillman says. "Even at the beginning of this season, the [hospitality] boxes were half empty whereas now they're full. This is like a place to be seen.

"That [hospitality] is not an area that women's football has ever had to sell before. It's just never happened. You've never had to. Most of the grounds they play in don't have executive boxes, so selling out hospitality has not had to figure in anyone's thinking before. Arsenal [doing it for the Manchester United game] shows you that people consider watching them as a premium event."

The prospect of an additional six sell-out games in a season has made it commercially viable for Arsenal to host the women's team at the Emirates.

"One of the things that's underestimated about all this is the prize money [in the women's game] is still very small," Stillman adds. "So it doesn't make an enormous difference like qualifying for the Champions League, winning the league, etc. Gate receipts are a massive financial advantage. So Arsenal are already in that core of big-spending clubs and always have been. But now they're pulling in more money than their competitors because they're ahead of them at the moment."

Growing the game

"It might seem unusual for Arsenal's Chief Commercial Officer to promote tickets to a game in which we're not competing," Slot wrote on LinkedIn a week before Chelsea hosted Barcelona for the second leg of their Champions League semifinal. "But we've always said that a rising tide lifts all boats. After another season of progress, it's critical that we continue to create the best conditions for the game to grow and succeed."

Slot's mentality of championing the women's game is one that seeps through the club.

"We continue to nurture the audience for the women's game and create the best conditions for the game to thrive in the long-term. We want to see more sell outs, and consistently higher attendances, not just at Emirates Stadium but across the WSL. It's important that we continue to collaborate with all stakeholders across the game as we aim for its sustainable growth," Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham told ESPN.

To that end, the north London side have been forthright in sharing their ticketing strategies with other clubs. A source told ESPN that while a lot of work around the women's team was previously borne out of a sense of community, now it's a clear priority within the organisation. Accelerating women's football is one of Arsenal's six key strategic pillars.

Arsenal's women share the training complex at Sobha Realty Training Centre with the men's side. They have a separate building, while the gym is a communal facility. The women's team play on a pitch next to the one used by the men, with training taking place at the same time. A source involved with transfers at the club mentioned how the training facilities have impressed agents and players when they visit, and how it has been a big factor in attracting talent.

"We're given the resources and the opportunities in order to have the game grow and that's really important," Arsenal defender Fox told ESPN. "You have to spend money to earn money as we all know and Arsenal is willing to do that and seize the growth and the excitement in the women's game."

Fox was one of six new arrivals at Arsenal this season, along with Codina, Alessia Russo, Cloé Lacasse, Amanda Ilestedt, and Kyra Cooney-Cross. The Gunners had made a world-record bid of around £500,000 to sign Russo last January before eventually landing her on a free transfer from Manchester United in the summer. To secure the services of Cooney-Cross, Arsenal broke their transfer record and paid Hammarby a reported fee of £140,000, rising to £250,000 with potential add-ons.

The outlay is yet to translate into output as Arsenal were knocked out of the first qualifying stage of the Champions League by Paris FC and, while they did win the Conti Cup against Chelsea, they have fallen away in the title race and sit behind both Chelsea and Manchester City. The Gunners haven't won the WSL since 2019; they've amassed 60 trophies in their history but have won just two in the past five years.

"Arsenal will have to still have star players in their team because that's the culture, it's player-led," Stillman says. "So if they've got the England captain [Leah Williamson] and they've got Alessia Russo and they've got Beth Mead and they've got [Vivienne] Miedema, and players like that, that means they'll do alright on the pitch as well anyway.

"So I guess without wishing to be too complacent, I don't foresee that [dip in popularity] happening to Arsenal. But this is a tough era. So it's ironic that this is all happening at this point. You look at Chelsea, who are incredibly successful in the women's game at the moment, and they're not attracting anywhere near the same numbers."

The one thing Chelsea have been able to attract is trophies. Under Emma Hayes, the west London club have won the past four WSL titles though they appear unlikely to win it again this year. Since joining Chelsea in 2012, Hayes has won 13 major trophies and led the club to the Champions League final in 2021. But at the end of the season, she is leaving to take charge of the USWNT.

"I think it's unlikely anyone's going to absolutely dominate [like Chelsea], but I do think the next couple of years Arsenal should really be looking at -- 'okay, Chelsea are in a different cycle, try and win the league, try and win the Champions League.' Arsenal are going to have this huge financial advantage over everyone because they're selling all these tickets. That has to translate now into on-field success," Stillman says.

"So it has to be not just that Arsenal are brilliantly marketed and that the Emirates sells out. That has to mean they can now get the best players and give them the best contracts and everything like that. It has to become a virtuous circle."

Arsenal's women's team are historically the most successful team in England and, backed up by a lot of hard work behind the scenes, they appear primed to seize control of the future too. Having 60,000 fans regularly packing out a stadium to watch their team is worth its weight in gold, but translating that momentum into trophies will mean more than any balance sheet to the fans.