Featured image credit: Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash
History was made in July as England defeated Germany 2-1 in the final of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 in front of a bumper Wembley crowd of 87,192.
The attendance set a record across the men’s and women’s editions of the European Championship, with goals from Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly securing England’s first-ever win in the tournament.
The match continued the tournament’s trend of smashing attendance records, with the opening match between England and Austria at Old Trafford watched by 68,971 fans. The cumulative attendance record was also broken with 15 matches still to play.
July saw several major venue projects announced, most notably a new $1.3bn (£1.074bn/€1.23bn) arena for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers created a dedicated company to oversee the project, with the arena given the provisional name of 76 Place. It is hoped the arena will be completed in time for the 2031-32 NBA season, with groundbreaking not expected for several years.
Italian Serie A football club AS Roma also detailed plans to build a new stadium in the Pietralata district of Rome, while Nottingham Forest received the green light to redevelop its City Ground stadium.
It was also a busy month on the sponsorship front, with the home stadiums of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlético de Madrid and Brentford all undergoing a rebrand, while Adidas entered the venue-naming rights market through a deal with a new arena being developed for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In other news, football clubs in the Premier League and Championship were permitted to introduce safe-standing areas from the 2022-23 season after the UK Sports Minister approved a wider roll-out.
Wembley will be among the venues that will trial the initiative later in the season.
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