As discussions in the United States turn towards what fans can do to better support women’s basketball, comparisons in pay between the WNBA and the top professional teams in other countries are inevitably made, a discussion that is now a part of the women’s soccer world too. That tends to Americans wondering if women’s basketball is more popular in other countries than the WNBA is in the United States. Even with more WNBA teams operating in smaller arenas or otherwise restricting attendance, numbers are still strong with only a handful of teams around the world are averaging better attendance than any WNBA team. Once ticket prices are taken into account, there is not much of a comparison with WNBA teams taking in more money from fans than those overseas teams.
With the differences in revenue, there are still a variety of reasons that overseas teams can still field WNBA or larger payrolls. The most common is that team ownership is just contributing directly to the club with no expectation of any profit being distributed back to them that season or in the future. For clubs that do not actually have owners, companies in the community or government entities officially sponsor the club to accomplish their goals, which are also not financially motivated.
On the other end, expenses are also different for many of the teams compared to the WNBA. Most leagues do not have minimum or maximum individual salaries so they can pay their star players more while even fielding unpaid players for some of their roster spots. Coaching expenses are generally much lower overseas as teams are not competing with college programs or the NBA for coaches and personnel decisions can rest on a coach or ownership without need for more staff. With lower ticket prices come lower sports business prices without the need to compete with college or big professional teams for experienced staff to operate all of the public-facing aspects of the team and those lower prices mean that fans are not expecting the same level of amenities that are generally available in the United States, keeping facilities costs lower.
Prices listed below are the cheapest season ticket available. They are the sticker price listed as advertised and may or may not include all fees or taxes. Price is for one adult who does not qualify for any special discounts. When there are multiple options in terms of games included, the option listed will be the one that provides the tickets to the most possible women’s basketball games. Exchange rates are from near the time of this article’s publication and are rounded to the nearest US Dollar.
WNBA
| Team | Season Ticket Price |
| Atlanta | 400 |
| Chicago | 119 |
| Connecticut | 210 |
| Dallas | 200 |
| Indiana | 280 |
| Las Vegas | 200 |
| Los Angeles | 300 |
| Minnesota | 369 |
| New York | 500 |
| Phoenix | 420 |
| Seattle | 630 |
| Washington | 306 (half season) |
The Washington Mystics are the only team that did not publicly release pricing information for their full season ticket packages. Chicago has made availability a priority with by far the lowest price for their cheapest season tickets and Las Vegas is still trying to be quite accessible even after a championship. The smaller capacities for Atlanta and Washington do allow for higher ticket prices. New York and Seattle only sold season tickets for their lower bowls and do not always sell tickets above that level, which is reflected in their pricing along with the newness of their arenas. Historically strong fanbases in Minnesota and Phoenix also gave them the ability to charge on the higher side without affecting attendance too much.
Australia
| Team | Season Ticket (Australian Dollar) | Season Ticket (US Dollar) |
| Adelaide | 120.00 | 76 |
| Bendigo | 120.00 | 76 |
| Canberra | 225.00 | 143 |
| Melbourne | 299.00 | 190 |
| Perth | 250.00 | 159 |
| Southside | 140.00 | 89 |
| Sydney | 99.00 | 63 |
| Townsville | 417.33 | 265 |
Season tickets in Australia vary greatly in price with prices being for eight to eleven games depending on the team’s schedule. The defending champion Townsville Fire are riding that success with their ticket prices, but it is worth noting that other than the courtside seats, slightly better seats than the lowest price are not that much more expensive. The Melbourne Boomers quickly sold many of their ticket packages as the next most expensive. Sydney’s prices were the cheapest and also include tickets to four games for the men’s team under the same ownership. The teams in Australia vary in terms of ownership from state government to private ownership with some teams having current or former links to men’s teams.
France
| Team | Season Ticket (Euro) | Season Ticket (US Dollar) |
| Angers | 155 | 166 |
| Bourges | 180 | 193 |
| Charleville | 125 | 134 |
| Charnay | 170 | 182 |
| Landerneau | 150 | 161 |
| Landes | 288 | 308 |
| Lattes Montpellier | 135 | 145 |
| Lyon | 220 | 236 |
| Roche | 150 | 161 |
| Saint-Amand | 70 | 75 |
| Tarbes | 100 | 107 |
| Villeneuve-d’Ascq | 185 | 198 |
All teams in France sell season tickets, but offer vastly different products, leading to different pricing. It is no surprise that the three most expensive season tickets are at Landes, Lyon, and Villeneuve-d’Ascq as those all offer the eleven regular season games and seven EuroLeague games. Bourges is next, being among clubs with the best sustained fan presence in women’s basketball in Europe, but that price is completely inclusive so it could feature anywhere between 14 and 26 games. In terms of teams that cannot also offer three continental games, Saint-Amand and Tarbes, which has been dealing with financial issues, have the two cheapest offers while Landerneau and re-promoted Charnay are on the more expensive side. France historically has the league that is the deepest, behaves the most similarly to a viable commercial entity, and has the most widespread fan support so it is probably the best comparison to the WNBA from a revenue perspective. Even then, no WNBA team would be considered feasible to operate based on the revenue of the top French teams and the corresponding budgets are not particularly large.
Spain
| Team | Season Ticket (Euro) | Season Ticket (US Dollar) |
| Araski | 99 | 106 |
| Avenida | 85 | 91 |
| Barcelona | 90 | 96 |
| Bembibre | 70 | 75 |
| Celta | 65 | 70 |
| Ensino | 75 | 80 |
| Estudiantes | 110 | 118 |
| Ferrol | 90 | 96 |
| Gernika | 100 | 107 |
| Girona | 120 | 129 |
| Gran Canaria | 30 | 32 |
| Ibaeta | 90 | 96 |
| Jairis | 65 | 70 |
| Sedis | Not sold publicly | N/A |
| Valencia | 165 | 177 |
| Zaragoza | 145 | 155 |
Sedis is the only team that did not publicize season tickets prices, requiring contact with the club, which also has a membership component. The two most expensive season tickets not only come from EuroLeague teams in the form of Valencia and Zaragoza, but also the two clubs with men’s teams in Spain’s top division. To that end, fans looking to watch both teams can pay an extra 85 euros for the worst seats for men’s games at Valencia while that additional cost would be 75 euros at Zaragoza. Estudiantes’s men’s team plays in the second division and the additional cost for season tickets to both is 50 euros. Avenida, which has long been considered to have one of the best fanbases in Europe, keeps their tickets prices low. That does not quite get as low as Gran Canaria though, which charges 2 euros per game included.
Italy
| Team | Season Ticket (Euro) | Season Ticket (US Dollar) |
| Campobasso | 25 | 27 |
| Ragusa | 50 | 54 |
| Sanga Milano | 100 | 107 |
| San Martino di Lupari | 70 | 75 |
| Sassari | 100 | 107 |
| Schio | 100 | 107 |
| Venezia | 60 | 64 |
Moving on to leagues where not all teams sell or publicize season tickets, prices were collected for seven teams in Italy. One notable team that is not on the list is Bologna, which may be the most ambitious team in the league, but has continued to not charge spectators for tickets at all. Besides them, there are two other teams that also have squads in the top men’s division as an additional 190 euros at Sassari would include season tickets to the other team and an additional 230 euros at Venezia would confer the same benefit. League newcomers Sanga Milano also have some ambition and are charging at the level of two of the stronger teams in the league. Campobasso’s tickets are quite affordable at a shade above 2 euros per game.
Germany
| Team | Season Ticket (Euro) | Season Ticket (US Dollar) |
| Berlin | 115.00 | 123 |
| Donau-Ries | 120.00 | 129 |
| Freiburg | 109.00 | 117 |
| Gottingen | 70.00 | 75 |
| Halle | 90.00 | 96 |
| Hannover | 115.50 | 124 |
| Marburg | 90.00 | 96 |
While Germany would certainly not be included among the strongest leagues in Europe when it comes to basketball, it is a good data point as it is more financially regulated than other places and how ownership works generally precludes the scale of benefactor ownership present in a few of the stronger leagues with prices from seven teams available. Berlin, which is part of the current most famous basketball-only club, is trying to increase the success of their women’s team towards the level of the more established men’s team after getting them to the top division.
Great Britain
| Team | Season Ticket (Pound) | Season Ticket (US Dollar) |
| Caledonia Gladiators | 89.10 | 109 |
| Cardiff Met Archers | 44.00 | 54 |
| Essex Rebels | 76.71 | 94 |
| Leicester Riders | 55.80 | 68 |
| London Lions | 190.00 | 232 |
| Newcastle Eagles | 70.00 | 86 |
| Sheffield Hatters | 35.00 | 43 |
Local professional basketball is far from popular in Great Britain, but data from the league has value given that most of these clubs also have squads in the island’s top men’s league and that teams struggle for sponsorship even with the increase in popularity of the sport itself. Prices for seven of the teams are included, but not listed here are the Manchester Giants, which do not sell a standalone women’s ticket, instead charging 249 pounds or $304 for a season ticket to both teams. The Newcastle Eagles offer that as an option for an extra 235 pounds and the Caledonia Gladiators charge an additional 252.05 pounds. It is no surprise that the latter is second in price in the league as the club has signaled greater ambitions by entering both teams into continental competition this season. Charging more than double that is the London Lions, who continue to have hopes of playing in the top competitions for both genders, amid their share of drama when it comes to ownership. They failed to qualify again this season on the women’s side, missing the opportunity to have some of the top players in the world visit.
Miscellaneous
Data was also collected from a number of other notable teams in Europe that sell season tickets. You can watch every home game, including playoffs, an expected minimum of 27 games for the continental champions Fenerbahce for 3000 lira, around $105, sitting anywhere other than the first two rows of their arena. Their Istanbul rivals Galatasaray charge 1250 lira, around $44. The previous dominant team in the continent Ekaterinburg is free for the second consecutive season. The other teams in Russia with a strong history of bringing in big name foreigners, Dynamo Kursk and Nadezhda Orenburg, charge 3000 and 2000 rubles respectively or $33 and $22. Czech powerhouse USK Praha’s season tickets include their generally uncompetitive domestic league games, costing 800 koruna in total, around $35. Polish champions Lublin have the highest level of continental play to offer their fans for the first time, charging 250 zloty, around $60. Among top teams in Hungary, DVTK and Szekszard charge 19000 and 22000 forint respectively or $54 and $62.
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