View: Aston Villa Women’s pre-season schedule plays into the biggest issue at the club
Aston Villa Women have revealed their pre-season friendly schedule and they will not be playing a single home match in front of fans.
Carla Ward’s side take on Oxford United, Coventry United, Liverpool and Everton at Bodymoor Heath during the summer, but no fans will be allowed in.
This is despite Bodymoor Heath having a stand that fans can use, just like they do with Under-23 matches.
Instead, fans can fly out to Marbella to watch them take on Sevilla or head down to Berkshire to see them take on Reading, but that is it for now.
The club’s official website does state that fan admittance is subject to change and they will “host an event” at their usual home ground in Walsall on 3 September, but right now there is nothing for home fans to see.
Plays into a larger issue
The single biggest issue at Villa Women right now is their home stadium, with it being unsuitable for what Villa need.
While it is one of the bigger stadiums in the league, holding the fourth highest number of people in the league, Villa do not come close to filling it.
The Poundland Bescot Stadium holds 11,300 people, but Villa’s average attendance was 1639 for the 2021/22 season, but that number is inflated.
Villa played against Arsenal and Birmingham City at Villa Park, with both games attracting 5000 and over 8000 fans respectively, making the average attendance for regular matches just 542.
This is an increase of just 47 compared to their figures from the 2018/19 season, despite their promotion to the Women’s Super League since then.
The difference is that Villa are no longer playing in Birmingham, with Walsall being a few miles outside the city.
When Villa Women moved to Birmingham-based Boldmere St Michael’s for the 2018/19 season, their average attendance more than doubled compared to when they were playing in Tamworth.
The appetite for women’s football is there, as shown by the attendances against Arsenal and Birmingham, but fans want to watch it in Birmingham.
This has contributed to Villa winning just one home match all season as they cannot build their own support base with fans unwilling to travel.
If Villa could play all their home matches at the men’s stadium, as Reading, Birmingham and Leicester do, then they have a much better chance at building that supporter base.
In other Aston Villa news, Steven Gerrard wants to sign a midfielder this summer.