The study’s authors say their prediction for 2018 has been “driven by a huge increase in media coverage and awareness of women’s sport; the introduction of new, professionally-organised events across football, hockey, netball and rugby union and the success of hosting the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup”.
And the upward curve in attendances is backed up by new records being set across several sports.
In 2014, a record crowd of 45,619 watched the England football team lose 3-0 to Germany at Wembley and in 2017 the FA Cup final, also hosted at Wembley, had a record 35,271 fans in attendance.
In rugby union, England’s most recent autumn international at Twickenham – against Canada in November 2017 – had a record crowd of 12,000 and their most recent home Six Nations fixture, versus Wales at the Twickenham Stoop, had a record attendance of 4,000.
England’s Cricket World Cup win last summer was attended by a sell-out crowd of 26,500 people at Lord’s – a record for a women’s cricket match in the UK.
Joanna Adams, chief executive of England Netball, said: “In recent years, we have seen record attendance figures for the Vitality Netball Superleague and for England Roses’ international games, with more than 5,000 fans routinely packed into arenas at major domestic finals and England matches.”
Attendances in netball’s Superleague rose to record levels after the number of teams was increased from eight to 10 in 2017.