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Some NY Liberty fans fear they'll be priced out of tickets as WNBA popularity grows
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Sep 5, 2024
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By
Ryan Kailath
Published Sep 5, 2024
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Fans of the New York Liberty are learning to be careful about what they wish for.
After an explosive 2024 that has seen average home game attendance for “the best party in New York” more than double compared to just two years ago, season ticket membership holders – known as Liberty Loyals – are reporting massive price increases for 2025, with the cost of some packages going up by 155%.
Higher demand and a surge in prices on the secondary market are driving the price increase, Liberty CEO Keia Clarke wrote in a statement.
“Ridiculous treatment of the fans,” wrote one Reddit user.
“Doubling the price is absolutely insane,” said a fan account on X.
“It’s still a fair price for a professional sporting event,” Isabel Albee, a 29-year-old season ticket holder in Hamilton Heights, told Gothamist. “But this will likely preclude a lot of people and longtime fans from re-upping their memberships, which is kind of sad.”
The WNBA has broken records for attendance and viewership in recent years in what some have dubbed the “Caitlin Clark effect.” And many fans assumed that would eventually result in higher prices.
But some longtime Liberty fans say they’ve been surprised by the extent of the increases announced last week, and have taken to online forums to commiserate, complain and share information. Some have even created an anonymous spreadsheet to track the different price increases that members are being quoted. Season tickets are priced as a package according to factors including the number of games and quality of the seats and section.
The average season ticket price that members using the spreadsheet reported for 2024 was $55 per game. The regular 2024 season ends Sept. 19, when the Liberty greets the Atlanta Dream at the Barclays Center.
For 2025, the average reported price was $97 per game – a 76% jump.
A Liberty spokesperson wrote that ticketholders in the lower bowl – desirable seats that are close but not VIP or courtside – would see a roughly 59% increase per game.
Clarke, the CEO, wrote that longtime season ticket holders would see their price increase capped at 25%, and that season ticket packages would open to the upper sections for the first time starting at $25 per game.
“We’re not in the trenches anymore.”
“There’s no question that’s a significant price increase,” said David Samson, the former president of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins and host of the “Nothing Personal” daily sports podcast. “Is there going to be a boycott of Liberty Games? No. Is there going to be a change in who goes to Liberty games? Probably.”
Albee has been a WNBA fan since she was 5 years old, watching Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi play for the University of Connecticut before they joined the WNBA. She said sitting through years of games full of empty seats felt like being in the trenches with the players.
“A lot of what we’ve always wanted is to fill the seats and to get the players paid,” Albee said. “We’re not in the trenches anymore.”
Albee paid $30 per game for her full season seats in a lower bowl section this year, and was quoted almost $65 per game for next year, she said. She hopes to be able to renew, but doesn’t yet know if that will be financially feasible.
She fears that the changing price point will change the fanbase as well.
“I always said a WNBA game is the safest space in the world,” Albee said. “It’s a totally different vibe from going to a men’s sporting event.”
Samson won’t be surprised if the audience does change, he said.
“Owners of teams don’t really care who goes to their games,” Samson said. “They care who’s going to pay the most money. So if you’re trying to get your team to be worth money, you may have to change the makeup of your audience.”
In her statement, Clarke wrote that the price increases reflect “the amazing growth in popularity of both the Liberty and the WNBA.”
Where will the money go?
Higher revenue won’t immediately translate into higher salaries for WNBA players, Samson said. Their pay is negotiated by the players’ union, which has until Nov. 1 to opt out of its current contract and kick off a new round of bargaining.
“Employees can point to their employer and say look, there’s all this extra money,” Samson said. “That means we must be healthy, so give us our piece.”
WNBA salaries are dwarfed by pay in the men’s league, with a per-team salary cap of roughly $1.4 million split between 11 or 12 players, putting the average WNBA salary in the low six figures.
Minimum salaries in the NBA start above $1 million for rookie players.
As of Wednesday, resale prices on Stubhub for Thursday’s game against the Seattle Storm ranged from $18 in the nosebleeds to $286 in center VIP. Those were dwarfed by ticket prices for Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Aces, which reached over $1,800 in one VIP section.
Longtime fan Albee, whose section for the Storm game had resale tickets that were priced up to $216, said she thought the ticket price increase was “totally fair.”
“We live under capitalism, so that’s what we can expect,” said Albee. “It might lead me to resell some tickets to recoup what I invest.”
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Ryan Kailath
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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