Above the box office window in Anderson Arena hangs a sign that advertises general admission adult women’s basketball tickets at $5 and men’s basketball tickets at $9.
The difference in ticket price is based on many elements.
Those factors considered include recent BG attendance figures and past prices, as well as ticket costs at other MAC area and comparably-sized schools, in addition to if the sport makes money, said Brian Delehoy, the athletic department’s director of marketing and promotions.
Ticket prices at the University are determined by Delehoy and Greg Christopher, the University’s director of athletics. The director of ticket sales would also participate in this decision, but that position is currently vacant.
Historically women’s basketball teams usually have smaller crowds than men’s teams, so the men’s tickets are more expensive to cover that, Delehoy said.
But the University’s women’s basketball team is ‘special,’ he said. Attendance for both teams last year was almost the same, with the men’s team having a higher season-long attendance figure by less than 200 people.
The women’s team has attracted a following since it won the MAC championship game in 2005 and has won it both years since.
‘We’re riding the momentum when we can,’ Delehoy said, adding the athletic department doesn’t want to gouge the fans, either. ‘It wouldn’t be fair to the fans.’
Even though the women’s basketball team has been doing so well in recent years, team members graduate and change the team’s ability. This reality is also considered by Delehoy and Christopher. Because six seniors graduated last year and only one member of the five-person starting lineup returned, Delehoy said it was hard to set a ticket price for the women’s tickets.
‘We were unsure of the quality,’ he said, but they were fairly confident that the support for the team would still be there.
They also have to consider what the market will pay, especially to come to a facility with limited accessibility and parking. Their goal is to make the prices attractive, fair and affordable, Delehoy said.
This process is called market justification, said Jacquelyn Cuneen, a sport and event marketing professor.
‘Everything is based on what the market will pay,’ she said. ‘Even though we’ve been MAC champion three times [in a row], people will still pay only so much.’
Schools like the University of Tennessee, whose women’s basketball team won the NCAA championship title last year for the seventh time, can charge more for their tickets because of the prestige of the program, Cuneen said.
For instance, a women’s season ticket at Tennessee is $215, and Joe Arnone, UT’s assistant athletic director for tickets, said the ticket prices will most likely be changing to multiple price and seating levels next year.
At BG, a women’s season ticket price varies from $31 to $59. A single-game UT ticket costs $10 or $15 and a single-game BGSU ticket costs between $3 and $9.
Another reason ticket prices are kept lower for women’s basketball is that women’s basketball games are seen as a family event, said Vikki Krane, director of women’s studies and a gender and sport professor.
‘You want to price your tickets so people will buy more than one,’ she said. If tickets are priced out of reach, she said, then multiple customers will be lost.
This year brought a few changes to the women’s basketball ticket pricing. Previously, all tickets were general admission, but now there are multiple seating and pricing levels that match the levels for the men’s basketball games.
Parking, which also cost less for women’s games, is now the same for both sports.
‘Everything you see at a women’s game is the same [as at a men’s game],’ Delehoy said.
Even with this equality, the revenue that the men’s and women’s basketball teams bring in cannot be compared given their difference, Krane said, adding this comparison would be like trying to compare an apple and an orange.
‘[Men’s and women’s basketball] have absolutely no chance of being equal in earnings if there’s a discrepancy in ticket prices,’ Krane said. ‘You can’t say one team is better because of money brought in. It isn’t a reasonable comparison,’ she said.
More coverage of women’s basketball and the success that some teams have had has helped make men’s and women’s basketball more comparable, Delehoy said.
In the end, Krane said the ticket price difference is ‘really not a gender issue completely.’
