Business Aspects of WSL Women’s Super League

Football is the most popular sport on earth in terms of popularity, media coverage, stadium and match attendance, sponsorship deals, etc. There are football leagues in more than 200 countries. However, when it comes to football it is mostly if not solely men’s football. Women’s football has a long way to go or a lot of catching up but is gaining momentum. With more top clubs committed to more matches in their main stadiums, average attendance, TV rights, and sponsorship deals are set to rise.

WSL at a Glance

Women’s Super League or Barclays Women's Super League or simply known as WSL is top league of Women’s Football in England. We all know about English Premier League or EPL but most of us hardly know anything about WSL. Right now, there are 12 clubs in WSL and they play against each other on home and away base. So, each team has to play 22 matches (11 home games and 11 away). Chelsea is the titan and then we have Arsenal, Manchester City, and Man United competing for the second position.

The clubs and stadiums

The stadiums of EPL clubs have high attendance capacity. Old Trafford of Manchester United has a capacity of 74000 while Emirates Stadium of Arsenal has a seating capacity of 60,000. However, these stadiums are mainly for their men’s team. For the women’s team, there is a much smaller stadium with a very small seating capacity. It is changing for some teams like Arsenal as the club is committing to host more matches for its women’s team at the Emirates.

Tickets and Attendance

 Arsenal Women used to play most of their matches at Meadow Park with a seating capacity of only 1700 (standing capacity of 4500). During 2024-25 season, Arsenal has decided to play 8 of their 11 home games at the Emirates in WSL. This is a huge change and will have huge impact not only for Arsenal Women but for WSL as a whole.

 While there is a long wait for a season ticket for Arsenal’s men's team, the women’s team has to struggle with selling only a few thousand tickets for most matches. Still, Arsenal is doing much better than other teams in WSL when it comes to attendance.

The price of tickets of WSL matches is quite affordable compared to the matches of men’s clubs. Still average attendance for WSL matches is just around 6700 per match. There is a big mismatch between Arsenal with an average match attendance of almost 29,000 to of Everton with just 1265.

Sponsorship

EPL is the most lucrative for companies when it comes to sponsorship. I am repeatedly comparing WSL with EPL because they are in the same country and the same market. I know that it is not fair but still, I am doing it to give you an idea of how much catching up WSL needs to do.

Sponsorship is bringing more money:

A new three-year agreement has been reached with Barclays to remain the title sponsor of the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship.

The deal is understood to be in the region of £15m a year, including investment and marketing, double the previous arrangement which runs out at the end of this season.

There is still a room for growth for sponsorship in WSL.

Media Coverage

When it comes to TV rights, WSL is miles behind EPL. This is one area WSL and the clubs have to work really hard. Many WSL matches are available on YouTube at free of cost but there is no real effort to promote it.

Things are moving for WSL TV rights: WSL agrees record £65m domestic five-year TV deal with Sky Sports and BBC. WSL clubs have to encourage their supporters to support their women team more. Thanks to YouTube, many WSL matches are available globally and people can enjoy free of cost.

England's team performed well first in UEFA Women's Euro 2022 and then in the Women's World Cup 2023 and it resulted in more people watching the events in England.

Transfer and Salaries

WSL had yet to see a transfer fee of 1 million Pound while EPL has crossed a 100 million pound transfer fee record. Naturally,  compared to EPL, salary is extremely low too compared to EPL and some WSL players reportedly earn as little as £20,000 a year.

A league of their Own?

While I have been a great fan of Women’s Football since 2021, I feel that most of the money coming to WSL is simply because of the club’s reputation and the popularity of the men’s team. I mean, the sponsors of the men’s team often do the same thing for a women’s team as a part of the deal with the club. Of course, they spend much less money for the women’s teams’ sponsorship.

You can read more here: Can women's football stand on its own two feet?

Promising Future

The future looks to be promising for WSL as average attendance is increasing for some top clubs like Arsenal. The clubs are investing more funds to develop women’s football and as more people love to enjoy the matches via TV or the Internet, more money is going to come. What is needed now is some kind of massive TV deals as well as massive investment by a few clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool etc. After all, they can afford to splash 100 million Pounds in a year to upgrade everything related to their women’s team.

Final Words

WSL is moving ahead with more people following the women's teams in England. There is a proposal of: the Women’s Super League to consider scrapping relegation in major revamp. The good news is that England’s women’s national team has been doing quite well in the last few years both in Europe and in the World Cup. That is attracting more girls to women’s football. It just needs some more local-born superstars that would increase fan followings in England.