Alex Morgan Bids Farewell As NWSL Attendances Surpass 1.5 Million

The third-highest crowd of the NWSL season witnessed the last-ever game of Alex Morgan’s career on the day total attendances surpassed 1.5 million for the the first time.

A crowd of 26,516 were at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego to see the United States Women’s National Team legend Morgan play for just 16 minutes of the game against North Carolina Courage until she was substituted on her final appearance before retiring from the professional game.

Earlier in the day, total attendances for the regular NWSL season had gone past the 1.5 million mark for the first time in the league’s eleven-year history during the match between Chicago Red Stars and Orlando Pride. It is the third successive year in which the league has attracted more than one million spectators.

Last season, 1,424,208 fans watched the 132 regular season matches in the league. This figure was surpassed last Sunday during the game between Angel City and Chicago Red Stars. With seven weeks of an expanded league campaign left to play, it now seems inevitable that the NWSL will record attendances in excess of two million.

In spite of the increased number of games to be played, the 1.5 million mark was broken in the 132nd match of the season – the same total of games played last year. Average attendances are up for the fourth successive season, currently standing at 11,477 per game.

Morgan’s well-publicised farewell swelled the crowd for San Diego’s 1-4 defeat to North Carolina Courage. In her farewell speech she joked that “95” of her friends and family were in attendance. “I know people have come here from Alaska, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida, all around the country.”

When Morgan played in the first NWSL campaign in 2013, a total of 375,763 attended the 88 regular season games, an average of just 4,270. Her side then, Portland Thorns, had the highest-season average of 13,320, as they would in eight of the first ten years. Now new franchises, like Angel City and San Diego Wave, have surpassed them bolstering the league’s figures.

Despite their lowly league position, The Wave are averaging 20,408 this campaign pulling in four of the the five largest crowds of the year. This has put them on course to become the first NWSL side in history to average over 20,000 in successive seasons.

The largest crowd of the NWSL season was recorded at Wrigley Field when 35,038 saw the visit of Bay FC to Chicago. However this is only one of two matches in this campaign to register among the all-time top ten attendances for the NWSL indicating a more sustained growth of crowds throughout the league. Currently, every club is averaging above 5,000 for the season.

These figures make the NWSL far and away the best supported professional women’s sports league in North America. Crowds in the Mexican Liga MX Feminil averaged at 2,072 in the Apertura and 2,456 in the Clausura.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League in the United States pulled in a total attendance of 392,259 last season averaging 5,448. In 2023, the WNBA averaged 6,615 per match but pulled in a total attendance of 1,587,488 over 212 games. Currently at 1,526,407, this mark will be surpassed by the NWSL next week.

Despite a season of record-breaking attendances in the English Women’s Super League (WSL), the total attendance from the same number of games (132) reached 971,977, an average of 7,363. This marked a 41% increase on the previous season when the total attendance reached 689,297.

After playing six of their eleven games at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal averaged an attendance of 29,999 over the season. It is a figure they are set to break this season with at least eight matches at the club’s main stadium, pushing the WSL also past the one million mark.