DENVER — The National Women’s Soccer League’s newest franchise established an unprecedented league benchmark for single-match spectator numbers during its debut home fixture on Saturday, when 63,004 attendees gathered at Empower Field at Mile High on a remarkably mild March afternoon to witness the newly formed Denver Summit FC compete against the Washington Spirit.
This attendance comfortably surpassed the former league record, which was set barely twelve months earlier, by more than 20,000 spectators.
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“The managing consortium held lofty hopes for this community, but this community has surpassed all anticipations we had regarding attendance figures and admissions purchased for the game,” Denver Summit control owner Rob Cohen stated prior to the contest.
“And it unequivocally demonstrates that our city is worthy of this club, and this is something the community has desired for an extended period.”
Denver became part of the league this season in conjunction with Boston Legacy FC, expanding the NWSL to a total of 16 clubs.
The Summit was merely publicly unveiled as the league’s sixteenth franchise in January 2025.
“As a local athlete, it’s astonishing,” Summit winger Janine Sonis, who resided in the southern Denver area during her formative years, commented on Friday.
“I’m not astonished; Denver turns out in force for its athletic clubs. I’m deeply appreciative that the community intends to lend us their backing.”
Saturday’s contest took place at Mile High, the venue for the NFL’s Denver Broncos, as a singular occurrence that the Summit dubbed “The Kickoff.”
Denver is awaiting the finalization of its interim arena south of the city, which will function as the team’s base until a fixed ground is complete in 2028.
Washington, featuring prominent American attacker Trinity Rodman, was the adversary against the league’s unprecedented attendances in 2025 and on Saturday.
“I frequently recall how my debut season, obviously with COVID proving unhelpful, transitioned from a few thousand attendees to completely filling Audi Field,” Rodman told ESPN.
“I think it’s exceptionally gratifying and quite remarkable to simply observe the extent of its expansion over the last five years, let alone a decade.
“So, it’s quite extraordinary for me to witness, and for individuals with shorter tenures in the league, I think it’s impressive to almost enter this environment when it’s already so expansive and we are afforded these chances. To me, it’s just truly thrilling. I no longer experience significant apprehension now.”
The single-game NWSL attendance record has now been surpassed in four consecutive campaigns.
Each of the past three years has witnessed the benchmark being exceeded in different locations from the squad’s usual grounds.
The Chicago Stars eclipsed the record in 2024 with a game at the legendary baseball arena, Wrigley Field, when they reported an attendance of 35,038.
Last year, Bay FC exceeded that benchmark in another baseball stadium when a reported attendance of 40,091 fans convened at Oracle Park, the home of MLB’s San Francisco Giants.
The mean spectator count marginally declined last year throughout the NWSL to 10,669 fans per game.
There still remains a broad disparity in attendances across the 16-team league, with initial home game turnouts of fewer than 6,000 fans in Chicago and Louisville by way of illustration.
“I think the largest gathering supporting me, my specific squad, has been about 7,000-10,000, so that’s a considerable increase,” Summit defender Kaleigh Kurtz said on Friday as she contemplated the scale of her team’s first home game.
Among the prominent figures present on Saturday were 1999 World Cup champions Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain, and Olympic gold medalist gymnast Aly Raisman.
Renowned Hall of Fame signal-caller Peyton Manning and Olympic gold medalist skier Mikaela Shiffrin are also secondary stakeholders in the Summit.