The all-time Liberty A-League attendance record for a single round was broken just two games into the 2023-24 season, with more than 17,000 fans attending the F3 Derby and Sydney Derby combined.
Four records were broken on the league’s opening night, headlined by two standalone Liberty A-League Women’s attendance records and two all-time round attendance records set, with four matches to go.
The F3 Derby between the Liberty A-League Women’s newest addition, Central Coast Mariners, and the Newcastle Jets, welcomed 5,735 fans, which broke the regular season attendance record until the Sydney derby broke that record again just three hours later.
11,471 fans attended the Sydney Derby at Allianz Stadium to see Cortnee Vine in her ‘homecoming’, after becoming an Australian national hero during the FIFA Women’s World Cup beating the record set at the 2022-23 Grand Final. That figure set a new record for a domestic women’s football match, surpassing the 9,519 who watched Sydney FC’s 4-0 win over Western United in last season’s grand final at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta.
The total of 17,206 fans breaks a nine-year record, when 15,955 attended in 2014, which included some double-headers and beats the round record for standalone games of 11,595, set in Round 1 of the 2022-23
Records Broken in Round 1
- All-time highest attendance figure for standalone regular season Liberty A-League game: Sydney FC v Western Sydney Wanderers (11,471)
- All-time highest attendance figure of any Liberty A-League game, including finals: Sydney FC v Western Sydney Wanderers (11,471)
- All-time attendance record for any round in Liberty A-League history: 17,206 after just two games
- All-time attendance record for any round in Liberty A-League history, including Isuzu UTE A-League double-headers
Saturday’s late kick-off between Perth Glory and Western United in Perth took the figure even further beyond the previous benchmark, before Sunday’s games between Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne City at Sky Stadium, Adelaide United and Canberra United at Coopers Stadium and Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar at the home of the Matildas added a further 7,927 to the round total.
Reference
