San Diego Wave FC aim to break NWSL attendance mark at Snapdragon Stadium

San Diego Wave FC will get three “home openers” in 2022 — one in the NWSL Challenge Cup at Torero Stadium, one in the regular season at Torero Stadium, and one late in the regular season, at their permanent home, Snapdragon Stadium.

It is that upcoming final home opener, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 17, where they will try to make the biggest history, when they aim to break the NWSL attendance record when they host their first game at Snapdragon Stadium, against Southern California rivals Angel City FC.

Snapdragon Stadium, in the final touches of construction at Mission Valley, can host up to 32,000, and Wave FC want to break the league’s attendance record on Sept. 17.

In 2019, Providence Park in Portland hosted 25,218 fans for a game between the Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage, the current attendance record in NWSL history. San Diego are gearing up for even more to christen Snapdragon Stadium.

“We have an incredible opportunity on our hands to not only beat our local LA rivals but to break a league-wide attendance record in our new home,” Wave FC President Jill Ellis said in a team statement. “We’re calling all San Diegans, soccer fans or not, to show up big for their hometown team, cheer us on for this historic night and see first-hand the amazing experiences Wave FC has to offer. September 17th is such an important night for our city, our club and our team, and I hope you’ll join us as we open up Snapdragon Stadium in style.”

Tickets are on sale for the Snapdragon opener now, and honestly, they are very affordable. If you want to bring your family and/or friends to the game and just enjoy a cool night, the price seems right.

San Diego have been averaging something around a sellout at home games so far this season, but at Torero Stadium that amounts to around 5,000, so aiming for upwards of 32,000 is a big leap. But with the tickets being affordable, the club treating this like a real event, and oh yeah, having it be a SoCal derby match and therefore likely to get some Angel City fans driving down the 5 to take in the match, they could very well do it. And as we’ve seen with Angel City this year with The Banc in Los Angeles, if you host it, they will come. So get your tickets now if you don’t have them and hopefully you’ll be part of history on Sept. 17.

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