When the stadium announcer reads out the attendance during England home games, the immediate question that follows relates to the drop-off between the number of tickets sold and the number of fans through the doors.

In 2025, on either side of a phenomenal European title defence in Switzerland, the Lionesses played eight home games, including three at Wembley. Across those fixtures, almost 48,000 bought tickets but stayed away.

There has been criticism of the empty seats, at Wembley in particular, especially after games announced as sell-outs. Why does this gap exist? Is the criticism fair? What does the Football Association need to do to start ensuring ticket holders turn up?

England are, in many respects, victims of their own success. A high bar has been set by attendances since the 2022 Euros. Across the world, the attendances for women’s football in England – at both domestic and international fixtures – are envied. The second-tier WSL2 had one of Europe’s highest cumulative attendances last season.

The US women’s national team achieved a peak attendance of 32,303 in 2025, for a friendly against Brazil at the 70,240-capacity SoFi stadium. That was the only crowd at their 15 home matches to break 30,000 and only three others attracted more than 20,000 spectators.

England had a cumulative attendance in 2025 of 302,238 across eight home games, with an average attendance of 37,780 and the final two games brought a combined attendance of more than 94,000 in four days.

England have benefited from increased interest in the team in a Euros year but in 2024, with no major tournament, they had an average attendance of 42,770 across seven home games with a peak audience of 78,346 for a friendly against the US at Wembley.

The US won Olympic gold in Paris that year but across 15 games on US soil their average attendance was 19,269. The lowest attendance was 3,242 against the Dominican Republic in the Concacaf Gold Cup and the highest of 50,644 was achieved in a SheBelieves Cup game against Japan.

Attendances in England are not to be dismissed, with work done unceasingly to grow interest since the huge surge following the 2022 home Euros win. The gap between tickets sold and bums in seats is a problem, but a relatively small one in this context.

On 29 November, the gap was the starkest all year, with 74,611 in a sold-out Wembley for England’s friendly against China. Accounting for ticket holds for broadcast and operational reasons, a sell-out crowd is approximately 85,000.

When you can see large blocks of red seats at a sold out Wembley, it can be frustrating but for a friendly against a team ranked 16th in the world, the attendance was far beyond what many would have imagined even a year ago, with the national stadium usually reserved for higher-profile games against opponents such as the US, France, Spain and Germany.

Had the FA not announced a sellout, which they have to do for operational purposes, there would probably have been little attention paid to those empty seats, but announcing ticket sale progress serves a purpose. As a game edges closer to being sold out it makes fans feel they don’t want to miss out, and if it is a sellout it makes them feel their ticket is valuable.

Gaps between tickets sold and attendances are not exclusive to women’s football. For example, the men’s game between England and Wales in October was announced as a sellout but had a 78,116 attendance.

There are many potential reasons behind the gap for England women games. Tickets go on sale months in advance to reach high turnouts, often capitalising on major tournaments and fans being on a high after other big fixtures. April’s Nations League fixture against Spain is on sale, with the FA hoping to exploit the festive period by enabling people to buy tickets as gifts. There is no perfect formula and the cost of sales opening months in advance is dropouts. The earlier tickets go on sale the more opportunities there are for people’s plans to change or for Premier League and men’s FA Cup fixtures to move and have an impact.

The low price of tickets also plays a part. A family of four could watch England against China for £40 at the lowest price point. However, if the weather isn’t great, there are transport issues, men’s games change and clash or something else comes up, some may feel they can afford to let their low-priced tickets go to waste.

Affordability matters, though. The cost of living crisis is an important consideration and surely some drop-off is a price worth paying for that level of accessibility to top football?

An official resale platform could help address these issues but that would not close the gap fully. In each area the FA is searching for a sweet spot, but these are constantly changing as the game grows and audience tastes and expectations develop.

The Guardian understands a cross-functional group in the FA is across this decision-making process, made up of people from the commercial, marketing, communications, digital, ticketing, events, finance and broadcast teams, with technical and team operations staff also involved. The governing body’s relationship with the Football Supporters’ Association is considered a key part of engaging with and understanding the audience for the women’s games.

There is very far from a simple fix and it is not an issue being ignored. That the numbers through the gates are at the level they are, though, shows a lot is being done right.

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