The All-Ireland Ladies final yesterday drew a record attendance of 46,286 at Croke Park yesterday, representing an increase of 12,000 fans on last year. For any sporting event to attract roughly a 33% increase in attendance is remarkable in itself, but when compared to figures for other women's sporting events across the world, that figure becomes even more impressive.
It far exceeds the crowd that watched the camogie final at Croker: 20,438 people.
The most recent final of the FA Women's Cup between Birmingham and Manchester City attracted 35,271 to Wembley, while 22,433 turned up in Cardiff to watch the UEFA Women's Champions League final between Lyon and PSG.
The final of the UEFA Women's European Championship brought a crowd of 28,182, meaning that only the final of the Women's World Cup outstripped yesterday's attendance at Croke Park. (54,027 saw the United States win a third World Cup, in which the States had the next best thing to home advantage: the tournament was hosted by Canada).
Away from soccer, the Women's Rugby World Cup final at Ravenhill sold 17,115 tickets, while around 24,000 watched England win the Women's Cricket World Cup final at Lords. (This is approx. 6,000 shy of the ground's capacity).
Overall, yesterday's final is the best-attended women's sporting event in Europe, and this is not the first time we've said this: the 2015 final set what was then a record crowd of 31,083.
Yesterday's crowd was befitting of a huge occasion, and they certainly made themselves heard:
In equally good news for the LGFA and Ladies' Football in general, TG4 also hit record viewership for the broadcast of the game yesterday. They recorded an average of 303,800 people tuning in, with a peak of 409,700 watching towards the end of the game. It's easily the highest figure recorded by the station broadcasting a women's game.
