The three-year season ticket holder purchased 20 tickets for his own Twitter giveaway in hopes of drawing fans to the event and drawing a large crowd.
Ultimately, the free tickets didn’t draw a crowd: Many of the people who said they would buy tickets didn’t end up showing up, he told Business Insider.
As of 2024, a game between the New York Liberty and basketball star Caitlin Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, was the most-watched WNBA game in ABC’s history and reportedly brought in more than $2 million in ticket revenue.
“The demand for tickets has been incredible,” Rodriguez said of this season, adding, “I can’t believe how excited it is. I’m so happy. I’m so proud.”
Dan Rodriguez (center) with New York Liberty guard Courtney VanderSloot (left) and New York Liberty forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (right). Courtesy of Dan Rodriguez
It’s the type of upheaval that WNBA aficionados, or “W-fans,” as they call themselves, have been experiencing in recent years, accelerated by superstar-caliber rookies and next-gen stars like Clark and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky.
Clark, in particular, quickly rose to fame as her legend spread during her record-breaking performance at Iowa, and she has been a constant presence on ESPN and in the sports media world, with discussions of her stardom and budding rivalry with Reese generating endless online debate.
It showed that fans were willing to pay big bucks to see her play, which raised her profile across the league.
The average price of a WNBA ticket sold on the secondary market has nearly doubled from $49.50 last year to $91.88 before fees, according to data provided to BI by ticket-sales technology company Logistics, which includes all games completed through July 17, when the league suspended its season for the Olympics.
For some fans, it’s bittersweet: Women’s sports are becoming more mainstream, bringing attention, media attention and sponsorship deals to athletes who have traditionally been pushed aside by their male counterparts, but longtime fans worry that soaring ticket prices will leave them behind.
To be sure, the WNBA isn’t the only sports league to have seen ticket prices rise in recent years, as more Americans flock to live events of all kinds, but the WNBA’s growing popularity and unique fanbase are giving fans a special price jolt.
“It’s a byproduct of the immense popularity of the league that’s going on right now, so there are downsides,” Rodriguez said, but added, “I never thought we’d get to a time when the upper tiers would be sold out on a regular basis. Now they are.”
With the hype comes a high price
The price of a Chicago Sky five-game L pass this season has increased from about $300 to about $500, and the team has also implemented “tiered pricing,” meaning partial package holders like the L will have to pay extra to attend some games.
Mr L said many of his friends have decided not to renew their season tickets.
“That’s kind of tricky,” said L, who is known to BI but declined to be named due to privacy concerns. “I actually put together a document outlining the pros and cons of different scenarios.”
Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College, told BI that other fans could find themselves in a similar situation.
“This is America. It’s a market economy, so when something becomes popular and demand increases, the price goes up,” he said.
David Berry, a sports economist at Southern Utah University who studies gender issues in sports, told BI that even if a team chooses not to increase ticket prices, their tickets will likely be sold at market price on resale ticket platforms.
“Either the teams raise the money or the ticket scalpers raise the money,” Berry said, adding that there is “no real solution to this problem.”
Indiana Fever season-ticket holder Katherine Arnold has seen the demand firsthand. Like many season-ticket holders, she sold a few tickets during the season because she couldn’t attend every game. She automated pricing on her ticket-selling platform, and tickets she initially purchased for $65 ended up selling for $450 to $750.
“I actually took it off the list because the tickets sold for so much,” Arnold said. “I felt really bad about it.”
Katherine Arnold and her husband, Jeremy, attend an Indiana Fever game. Photo courtesy of Katherine Arnold.
Berry said the WNBA’s rise has followed a “strikingly similar” pattern to the MLB, NFL and NBA, which he said saw low attendance numbers in their early decades before experiencing rapid growth.
“You can’t blame the teams or owners for trying to capitalize on their popularity and bring in extra revenue,” Arnold said, but she said it’s “really unfortunate” that ticket prices are soaring that some fans can’t attend games.
Rising prices lead to increased fan dissatisfaction with player salaries
Some fans told BI they were willing to pay more for tickets, but they wanted players’ salaries to increase to compensate.
Annual salaries in the WNBA range from about $64,000 to $252,000, compared to about $1 million to $50 million in the NBA. However, games in both leagues have recently drawn similar viewership figures. Over the course of the 2023-24 regular season, the NBA averaged 1.6 million viewers across its major television partners. The first month of the current WNBA season averaged 1.3 million viewers per game.
Despite fan discontent, it may still be some time before players reap the full financial rewards.
Berry said the current collective bargaining agreement estimates that only 10% of league revenue goes to player salaries, compared with 50% in the NBA. There has been speculation that players could opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement after the 2025 season, which could set the stage for negotiations on issues such as the league’s revenue-sharing model.
Zimbalist points out that in the days when the league’s revenues were low, it wasn’t financially prudent for teams to give players big cuts, but times are changing.
“Eventually, that should get them up to the 50% range that NBA players are in,” he said.
Despite the pay disparity, WNBA players are enjoying some improved amenities this season. In May, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the league would begin using charter flights to travel for teams.
Will the Caitlin Clark craze continue?
The Indiana Fever’s recent midseason report shows just how significant Caitlin Clark’s impact has been. Here are some highlights:
100% season tickets sold out 264% increase in total attendance 1,193% increase in jersey sales compared to last year 700% increase in team store transactions compared to 2023 225% increase in corporate partnerships More social media views since April than any team in the WNBA, NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB
But Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross, told BI that it remains debatable whether the WNBA can build on this momentum.
“The real question for the WNBA is whether Caitlin Clark fever will last,” he said, adding that it remains to be seen how many of the fans who paid big bucks to see Clark play will regularly attend games against other opponents.
According to Logitix, the average price of tickets sold on the secondary market this season, before fees, was $66.69 if Indiana Fever games were excluded from the data. It was $91.88 if Fever games were included.
Some WNBA teams are playing popular games in larger arenas to accommodate more fans, and larger venues could theoretically lower ticket prices because they increase ticket supply, said Patrick Risch, a sports business professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
“It’s a little bittersweet because it would be great to have a new arena that’s a little more professional than what we have now,” said Dave Elsey, a season ticket holder for the Las Vegas Aces, the reigning W champions and home of MVP candidate and W legend A’ja Wilson. He said he first got hooked on the team with $10 tickets, but that season tickets now cost about $25 per game.
Holy Cross’s Matheson said ticket prices could stabilize in future seasons if there’s strong fan backlash against price increases because teams use dynamic pricing models that adjust prices based on supply and demand. But as long as demand remains strong, prices are likely to rise, he said.
“Sports teams are not businesses that waste money,” he said.
But even if prices increase, teams need to ensure tickets remain affordable for a sufficient number of spectators, Smith College’s Zimbalist said.
“For the WNBA to be truly successful as a popular spectator sport, it needs to engage middle-income Americans,” he said.
Dan Tamburro, director of ticket sales and services for the Connecticut Sun, told Business Insider that the team’s ticket prices have risen across the board this season due to strong demand and could rise further next season, though prices have yet to be finalized. He said the team is trying to make tickets worth the price by offering perks like access to special team events for season-ticket holders and giveaways and other perks for casual fans.
Preserving a unique culture
The influx of new fans means more than higher ticket prices. It’s a bittersweet paradox for fans who have taken solace in W’s uniqueness in the sports world: It’s a predominantly black, proudly queer league. Now it’s breaking into a mainstream that doesn’t always look the same.
Emma, a young professional player from Chicago and a Sky season-ticket holder, said she is excited about the possibilities the influx of attention and money will bring to players and the league.
Next season, the price of her seats will increase by 50 percent. It’s important to her to see a concerted effort to focus on and retain diverse fans and players.
“It doesn’t feel like the same weird, perfect, weird group of people that it always was,” said Emma, who shared her last name with Business Insider but asked not to be identified for privacy reasons. She thinks it’s important for the league to continue to address racial justice and LGBTQ+ issues, something players and fans have been calling for for years.
“I think the most important thing is to make sure that that identity, that pride and openness doesn’t disappear and get replaced by something that’s easier, better, more seamlessly commercialized,” she said.
Are you a sports fan frustrated by high ticket prices? Have you come up with a creative way to attend sporting events on a budget? If so, contact us at jzinkula@businessinsider.com and jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
