FC Bayern Chase World Record Attendance In Opening Bundesliga Game

German champions FC Bayern have sold over 50,000 tickets for their opening Frauen Bundesliga game and could break the world record attendance for a women’s league match.

With two days still to go until their opening game of the Frauen Bundesliga season at home to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the match is set to enter the top ten attendances for a women’s league match. There is still the outside chance that it could surpass the world record for a domestic women’s game set six years ago when 60,739 saw Atlético de Madrid host FC Barcelona at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Despite the explosion in popularity of the women’s game since 2019, that figure has remained unbeaten since then. English side Arsenal have recorded four of the eight attendances over 50,000 but the 60,704-capacity of their Emirates Stadium means they can never surpass the world record for a league game. Cup matches have attracted bigger crowds. The world record for any club match is the 77,390 who saw the 2023 Women’s FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.

Saturday’s game will be the fifth time that the FC Bayern women’s team has played at the 75,000-capacity stadium in the Fröttmaning district of the city. In March 2022, they attracted a crowd of 12,000 for a UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final match against Paris Saint-German.

Later that year, against FC Barcelona in the same competition, the stadium pulled in a club record crowd of 24,000. They saw FC Bayern win 3-1, the first-ever occasion in which the Spanish champions were defeated in a group stage match. 20,000 attended another quarter-final against Arsenal a few months later.

Only once before have the club opened the doors to the Allianz Arena for a Frauen Bundesliga game. The stadium’s landmark exterior was lit pink to raise awareness for research into Breast Cancer as part of ‘Pink October’ in October 2023. However, there were no goals during a scoreless draw with Eintracht Frankfurt which drew a crowd of 19,000.

At the time, that figure was a record for a Frauen Bundesliga game. This has since been broken and the highest attendance in the German league is currently 38,365 when 1. FC Köln hosted Eintracht Frankfurt in April 2023. In terms of ticket sales, FC Bayern has now comfortably surpassed that record.

The record for a women’s game in Munich was set back in 2012. That year’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final between Olympique Lyonnais and 1. FFC Frankfurt was played across the city at the Olympiastadion two days before the men’s final at the Aliianz Arena. A crowd of 50,212 saw the match which was a European club record for a decade until broken by FC Barcelona at their Camp Nou stadium.

That figure of 50,212 was also a German club record for thirteen years until it was broken this year in the DFB Pokal. For the German Cup semi-final, second tier Hamburger SV pulled in a remarkable 57,000 fans to their Volksparkstadion for their game at home to Werder Bremen which their lost 3-1 after extra time.

After winning the German Supercup in first official match in charge, the match at the Allianz Arena will be the first Bundesliga game for new head coach José Barcala. He admitted “I’m particularly looking forward to my first match at the Allianz Arena. It will be my first official Bundesliga game with my team. And my very first ever in this magnificent stadium. We can expect an incredible atmosphere, a record crowd. It will be special.”

The club have been eager to pull in as many supporters as possible for their first showpiece game at the stadium in two years. The Bavarian Football Association (BFV) is offering special packages to all clubs registered in the southern German state allowing teams from the region to watch the game at the arena at a discounted price if they purchase a minimum of 30 tickets.

Klara Bühl said “our fan base is growing and growing and pushed us in every game last season – especially in top games, both at home and away. Therefore, I’m very confident and already looking forward to it being a huge football festival, with the Bayern fans cheering us on in large numbers!”