$100 a ticket for an WNBA game? Caitlin Clark inflation roils L.A. womens basketball
Fast Break
Karen Garcia April 5, 2024
Ticket sales ahead of the highly anticipated start of the WNBA have shot up over last year and many are pointing to the talent expected to join next year’s team
rosters
.
roasters.
Notable college basketball players entering the WNBA draft include NCAA tournament stars
Angel Reese of
Louisiana State University
‘s Angel Reese
and
the
Iowa Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark.
It’s no surprise that professional women’s basketball teams are anticipating crowds. Women’s college basketball has exploded in popularity this year.
ESPN reported 12.3 million people across the U.S. tuned
in tointo
the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, featuring a battle of Clark versus Reese, with Iowa victorious over LSU, 94-87.
“That makes it one of the most-viewed games in any sport other than NFL football over the past year,” ESPN reported.
The 60 women’s tournament games are averaging
viewership of
1.5 million each, a 127% increase over last year.
In-person attendance
has
varied, as womens tournament venues had a lot fewer seats than the arenas for the men’s games. That, combined with increased demand, pushed ticket prices for the women’s tournaments higher compared
withto
tickets for the men’s tournaments.
Will Caitlin Clark accept Ice Cube’s $5-million offer to become BIG3’s first woman player?
The higher average prices for Womens Final Four games is a continuing trend from last year, according to StubHub.
Ticket sales for the womens semifinal has seen the biggest jump in sales for any ticket type among both the mens and womens games since Monday, more than doubling sales from last year, showing the continued momentum for womens basketball,
said
Adam Budelli, spokesperson for StubHub, told CNN.
“Right now, women’s basketball is a movement,”
Isis Young,
broadcaster and analyst Isis Young told ESPN. “And the movement is really riding on the back of these players that we’re watching.”
The women’s tournament is generating as much or more enthusiasm than the men’s, and “unlikely sources like crowd sizes, ticket prices and gushing sports announcers prove it,” Susan Shaw, a women’s and gender studies professor at Oregon State University, wrote in Forbes.
Iowa star Caitlin Clark says she will enter the WNBA draft after this season
The
team’s teams’
investment in their
rostersroaster
and the dedicated fan bases that are flocking to stadiums are pushing ticket demand.
Almost immediately after Clark announced her plans to enter the WNBA draft, the Indiana Fever ticket offices got busier, reported the Associated Press. The Fever, which has the first pick in next year’s draft, wouldn’t disclose how many tickets
they’ve have been
sold, but the likelihood of signing Clark is already boosting the franchise and in turn attendance.
The ripple effect is expected to be felt across the WNBA, including in Los Angeles.
As of Thursday, Los Angeles Sparks fans can expect higher ticket prices for popular events such as a game against the
Indiana
Fever in May that will cost about $112 to $140 on
StubHub
. Stubhub
. That’s a huge increase compared to last season when a Times editor purchased four tickets to see the Sparks battle the Fever in July for less than $16 total, not including tax and service fees.Ben Muessig, Times assistant managing editor for storytelling, was shocked when he checked for tickets to a Sparks versus Fever game and saw that it was $15 not including tax and service fees. Last year, Muessing said, he spent $4 per ticket.
The Sparks ticket prices for next season are comparable or at times higher than current Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavalier tickets on
StubHub
. Stubhub
.
