With six months to go until the big kick-off, over half a million tickets have been sold for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, although there are still plenty remaining and no match has yet sold out, including the final in Sydney.
Led by fans from the host nations, tickets have so far been bought in over 120 countries for the tournament which starts on 20 July and for the first time features 32 teams.
Fifa on Tuesday announced the 500,000-ticket milestone was surpassed last week and, with 184 days now remaining until New Zealand kick off the tournament against Norway at Auckland’s Eden Park, said it was a positive start to ticket sales, although still some way off the intended target.
Fifa aims to sell more than 1.5 million tickets for the 2023 edition of the tournament, bettering the mark of 1.35 million set at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. The tournament in France four years ago attracted a total of 1.13 million fans.
Not all tickets have been released to the public, and plenty more are expected to go on sale over the coming months, including for the most in-demand games such as the 20 August final at the 83,500-capacity Stadium Australia in Sydney.
Australia are slated to kick off their campaign against Ireland at the smaller Allianz Stadium, which holds 45,000, but given initial high demand for tickets, Fifa is weighing up a switch to Stadium Australia, a move which has the backing of Football Australia.
Australia’s remaining games in a tough Group B are against Nigeria at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium and Olympic champions Canada at AAMI Park in Melbourne. Both Irish and Canadian fans are among the top 10 purchasers of tickets so far, Fifa said, with US, England, Qatar, Germany, China and France completing the list.
Fifa’s secretary general Fatma Samoura said ticket sales were off to “a great start” and the push to secure seats highlighted the “fantastic pull of the female game and the passion it evokes among the global football fandom”.
