Women’s World Cup ticket sales set a new record with nearly 1.4 million tickets sold on the eve of the 2023 tournament

Ticket sales for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand set a new record on the eve of the tournament. Nearly 1.4 million tickets had been purchased for the 64 games through August 20, surpassing the record set at the Canadian Games eight years ago.

The Matildas’ group three games have been virtually sold out, but FIFA ticketing sites report “low availability” (mainly wheelchair-accessible tickets) for the match against Nigeria in Brisbane on 27 July.
There are only a few tickets left for England’s three group stage games. Interest in the U.S. match was also high, but there are multiple categories for reigning world champions Portugal on August 1 at Eden Park (43,217 seats) in Auckland.

Tickets for all five games at Australia’s Stadium in Sydney, including the final on 20 August, are nearly sold out. The old Olympic stadium in Homebush has a capacity of just over 80,000, but FIFA said on Wednesday that the tournament’s capacity is 75,784.

1,353,506 tickets were sold for the 2015 tournament in Canada, a new record at the time.
Only 1.3 million tickets were available for France 2019 due to the small stadium. FIFA said more than 1.2 million copies were sold, but another estimate puts attendance at closer to 1.1 million. Both the French and Canadian tournaments featured 52 matches, with tickets available for 64 matches due to the extension draw for 2023. 29 from New Zealand and 35 from Australia.

In response to weak ticket sales, 20,000 free tickets to the game in New Zealand were handed out last week, with prominent New Zealanders including former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern using their profiles to encourage people to watch the game. urged.

FIFA women’s football head coach Saray Behrmann said on Tuesday that more than 1.5 million people are expected to attend the tournament in both countries. At this point, 1.3 million tickets had been sold, 350,000 of which were in New Zealand.

The United States had the highest average attendance at the Women’s World Cup in 1999 with 37,319, followed by China in 2007 with 37,218. In France in 2019, 40% of participants were foreigners supporting the team. Based on pre-tournament estimates, it is unlikely that this tournament will have a significant percentage of international visitors.

New South Wales Roads Minister John Graham said on Monday he expected 16,000 international tourists to visit the state this month, based on Destination New South Wales statistics.
The New South Wales government said 79,000 tickets (less than a fifth of the tickets) sold in Sydney on Tuesday went to fans abroad. People from 182 countries bought tickets.