What makes a good women’s football stadium? Everton point the way | OneFootball

“It was a pitch in the middle of a park, basically,” Peter McFarlane, secretary of the Everton Women Official Supporters’ Club, says in describing Walton Hall Park, the 500-seat stadium that eventually held a further 1500 spectators before the team moved to Goodison Park.

Walton Hall Park was the smallest stadium in the Women’s Super League, charming and nostalgic with its railed-off standing space, somewhat isolated outside of the city, and otherwise simply lacking food options and a bar. “It’s worlds apart compared to what Goodison offers us,” McFarlane says. “I mean, it helps we have a roof for the fans.”

If design becomes most beautiful when its form follows function, stadiums can be reworked for different demographics. The relatively new access to large stadiums for women’s football raises questions about how to use these new environments for new audiences. “For a men’s fixture, the routine is familiar: people get there the same way, go to the same pubs with their same friends and then go to the games, with all their rituals,” says Charlotte Read, a senior consultant at Steer, a company that advises organisations such as the Football Association on matchday operations. “For a women’s fixture you have a lot more women and families, or first-time fans. You tend to get earlier arrivals for weekend fixtures. They want to make it an all-day thing.”

Goodison Park, in contrast to Walton Hall Park, is monolithic, industrial, cosied in streets of sprawled-out amenities, well walked by generations of Evertonians. Since Everton Women’s first fixture at the repurposed venue, on 14 September, it has been rejuvenated by fanzones offering face-painting, beer and music. There are even bottomless brunches in what used to be named the Dixie Dean suite. At that first WSL game against Tottenham, 6,473 fans attended, almost triple their previous ground’s capacity. For their second game, last Friday against London City Lionesses, it was 4,313.

Central to the way stadium space is understood in the UK is the Sports Ground Safety Authority’s Green Guide. Established in 1973, and despite its non-statutory status, it is a world-leading influence on venue safety. The issue with renewed demands on stadiums is that these stadium design guidelines have been based on the average male height, and average male preferences, for decades. The next iteration of the document, which will “incorporate larger consideration for female spectators”, is due for the 2028-29 season.

The Taylor Report made British stadiums the global standard and in turn developed a new relationship between fans and football venues for mass consumption. “The old model of a stadium, where it is used 25 times a year, doesn’t work anymore,” says Edward Robinson, an associate director at Steer.

“In the men’s game it’s about increasing spend per head. The women’s game is in a different place; it’s much more about bums on seats. You not only need to retain the existing audience, you need people to convert from ‘this was a nice day out we did once’ to ‘we are going to come every two weeks’. So it needs to be a really good experience.”

Steer’s recent report on the differing demographics attending women’s games argues that stadium organisation, turnstile-processing times, seat configurations and facilities in general are generally inadequate for women’s football fanbases. “In the women’s game, people don’t put up with the same level of discomfort that people just expect from the men’s game,” Robinson says. “Men’s football crowds are much more comfortable standing at much higher densities than women’s. That impacts how much queuing space you need to design. If you have a four-year-old, you’re not going to shove them into someone else’s crotch just to squeeze in.”

The typical 70:30 male-to-female split of toilets in stadiums has led to long queues and requires costly solutions for clubs. Other equitable facilities, like baby-changing or breastfeeding rooms, as well as buggy parks, something Manchester City introduced at the start of this season, are also essential for the future.

As part of the expected 11 spectators-per-minute-through-turnstiles outlined in the Green Guide, the consideration of extra bags for women or family essential items is unaddressed, being based on male crowds. The increase in group tickets, usually on one parent’s phone, is similarly unaccounted for in queuing times. Similarly, social scripts surrounding a stadium, from direction to security presence, are rarely ingrained into crowds at women’s games.

“You now have people coming in that haven’t done the routine before,” Read says. “For families and women, from a safety perspective, it’s important for stewards and signage just to show you are going in the right direction or there are people there.”

Matches in the UK have traditionally been assigned risk ratings in a tiered system, agreed with police based on the level of antisocial behaviour and violence expected. These measures also don’t translate for the heightened sensitivity of safeguarding women and children. “That way of rating things is quite outdated. For the women’s game, it needs to shift,” Robinson says.

“It’s not about having fewer stewards; it’s that their focus is less on confiscating cocaine and booze and more on safeguarding. It’s about making sure kids are OK and happy, and setting a more welcoming atmosphere as people arrive. It’s a different briefing.”

Women’s Professional Leagues Limited, which runs the WSL and WSL2, have partnered with AFL Architects to produce a report into matchday operational standards. It was due in August and no update has been given on when it will be available. The next few months are likely to see further in-depth plans for Brighton’s custom-built stadium, expected in 2027, the first in England to be built for a professional women’s team.

In America, the newly crowned National Women’s Soccer League Shield winners, Kansas City Current, moved into the first purpose-built stadium for a women’s team last year. Specific alterations include universal changing rooms, nursing stations and gender-inclusive bathrooms. “The design of women’s stadiums must move beyond symbolism and deliver spaces that genuinely meet the needs of female athletes and fans,” says Jessica Roberts, an Australian academic in sports fan engagement. “These aren’t luxuries but the foundation of professional legitimacy, ensuring women’s teams are not treated as temporary guests in male-dominated venues.”

In other stadium redevelopments, inclusive spaces such as dedicated sensory rooms are being implemented. Yet while the spatial, planning, and financial requirements of starting from scratch present logistical challenges, clubs can still respond to changing demographics arriving through their gates. And some clubs are more proactive than others. Despite dominating English women’s football on the pitch, Chelsea have shown less ambition in a cohesive partnership with Stamford Bridge than Arsenal have with the Emirates Stadium. West Ham Women, meanwhile, last played at the London Stadium in 2019.

“It’s about the ownership,” says Zoe Draper, the vice-chair of Arsenal Women’s Supporters’ Club. “Meadow Park [Arsenal’s previous WSL home] is owned by Boreham Wood. They made it red-and-white branded with some signs, but the Emirates is home. Arsenal feels like a cohesive club; the women’s team are represented.”

At Everton, there have been no large-scale changes to Goodison. Instead there have been more visual and explanatory reclaimants of the space and history, as well as a promise of patience. And speaking to fans, there is a sense of agency in the active reimagination and responsibility of what the modern women’s football stadium could be for future generations. “With Everton, it’s going to be a lot of trial and error,” McFarlane says. “The club want to know what is keeping you, but also why, if people don’t come back, the reasons for it. We’ve got a big role to play in Goodison Park over the coming years.”

Everton Women Official Supporters’ Club have claimed the Winslow pub on County Road, a renowned haunt for supporters of the men’s team for years, for fans of the women’s team, setting up shop for pre-match catch-ups and a table of merchandise. “So much of the matchday routine is meeting up with people; the community of our supporters club is as important as the match itself,” McFarlane says.

“They club have done a good job of putting the women’s club stamp on Goodison Park without fundamentally changing it. It’s important now that we embrace the history and try to add our own.”

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Header image: [Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA]