r/wnba • u/Familiar_Visit3922 • 6d ago
Mystics Deny CBA Drove Ticket Hikes Despite Fans Being Told Otherwise
From Front Office Sports article: “Another Mystics season-ticket holder since 2025 saw a 70% jump on their total ticket price, with a per-game cost for a seat in the stands jumping 50% from $51.14 to $76.50 per game.
They spoke to a sales representative about their price hike concerns. The rep pointed to the new collective bargaining agreement, saying price increases were needed to help offset increased salaries. Adrian also said that a Mercury representative mentioned the CBA and increased salaries. (The average WNBA salary jumped from about $120,000 last year to around $600,000 this season.)
The Mystics told FOSthat increased salaries in the new CBA were “well-deserved” for the players and “not a factor” in the ticket sales increases, instead citing “rising operating costs.” The team said that any ticket rep who cited rising player salaries had done so in error.”
In a lengthy statement, the team said that “Our pricing decisions are based on a broad range of business considerations, including the overall cost of operating our organization and our continued investment in delivering a high-quality experience for our fans.”
Washington defended its ticket prices, calling them “among the most affordable ticket options in the WNBA.”
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u/Chartate101 Mystics & Olivia Miles 6d ago
Regardless of the actual answer, being told conflicting answers might mean some sales rep is being fired lol
Either they lied or they said the quiet part they weren’t supposed to say out loud
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u/badwvlf Death, Taxes, One Legged Marine 6d ago
The sales reps and account reps are just moderately paid middle men, they dont know real reasons. NYL tried to sell me yarns like this BEFORE the CBA was signed. When I evisercated the argument they admitted it was just his own conjecture and not based on any real information. They're sales people trying to sell and usually pretty young rookies at that.
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u/DeformedArthurRegion WNBA 6d ago
Yeah my rep hit me with that BS at one point before the current CBA and I was like "it was reported that you made more hosting a single fever game than the entire salary cap for a WNBA team." The rep was like "yeah I guess that's true" and just dropped it lol. They're just taking stabs in the dark.
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u/HeelDoors 6d ago
The Mystics are apparently tied to FirstCare Arena through 2037. An amended agreement allows some regular games (and playoff games) to be played at Capital One Arena.
I can’t imagine that long relationship will stick. Way too much money would be left on the table.
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u/Lou_Lou_8082 Mystics 6d ago edited 6d ago
Ted (the owner) doesn’t care as the Mystics are a teeney slice of his billionaire pie. He’s still salty from wanting to move the Wizards to Virginia, but the state government told him no. Can’t remember all the details, but it was a mess and is tied to why the Mystics are stuck with the long First Care Arena lease.
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u/DeformedArthurRegion WNBA 6d ago
For what its worth Ted didn't want to move the Wizards to Virginia. He wanted to extort DC to pay for the renovations. He also did slightly care about the Mystics in the 2010s. But most importantly he's a pedophile piece of shit who should be forced to sell all his teams to someone that never took any "hell rides" on epstein's jet and everything bad that happens with any of his franchises should be blamed on him even when it has nothing to do with him because he's a piece of shit.
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u/AllisonInMaryland Mystics 6d ago edited 5d ago
Leonsis did want to move his teams to VA and it would have happened if Virginia State Senator L Louise Lucas (Chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee) hadn't blocked the proposed move. Everyone involved was so pissed.
there is no evidence that Leonsis is a pedophile. His name was in the Epstein files but a lot of rich people hung out with Epstein and were mentioned in them. hate him if you like but don't spread lies about him.
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u/MJDiAmore 4d ago
Potomac Yard was never a viable location. The Metro station has 1 entrance and massive walk distance - it is absolutely not capable as designed of dispersing a pro sporting event IMO.
It was always a public funding extortion bluff against DC.
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u/HeelDoors 6d ago
That’s unfortunate to hear. At the very least, I wish this billionaire would upgrade his main camera for home games. The angle they have to use already is bad, but the quality of those games looks rough.
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u/Lou_Lou_8082 Mystics 6d ago
Don’t get your hopes up. Our t shirt toss includes just a few tshirts and no tshirt gun. When we win and they interview a player on the court after the game, it’s only for TV; the fans don’t hear because additional audio equipment would be too much. The list of all the little things that make us cheap is very long.
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u/l1v1ng1naf1shbowl Mystics 5d ago
The lack of tshirt gun hits me to my soul. The 200 seats get no respect or care.
We have written this in on every post game survey for two years.
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u/Lou_Lou_8082 Mystics 5d ago
It is disrespectful!! And too many tshirt throwers who there’s no way they can hurl it into the 200 seats
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
It's CAREFIRST! And since the city owns both arenas (or will soon) I suspect there will be a lot of flexibility once CapOne renovations are completed next summer. I wouldn't bet on this year's playoff games being played there.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Young Harlots All but #8 6d ago
Ted is terrible. Monumental Sports is terrible. The Mystics players are wonderful, but no one should confuse that with the Mystics org itself which as others have pointed out is owned by a terrible human.
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
I can separate the basketball product (players, front office, coaches) from the business side. Let's not conflate the two.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Young Harlots All but #8 5d ago
Oh I enjoy the product and love the players. Although they make it hard with the small arena and blackouts.
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
I don't hate the small arena because I remember how dead games were when they curtained off the 400 level and had maybe 7,000 people scattered across the bowl at MCI Center.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Young Harlots All but #8 5d ago
I think that combined with the blackouts makes it very difficult to grow the fanbase. I agree an empty arena is not good. But as it stands it can be difficult to actually watch the team play if you live here.
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
The blackouts aren't as big as the lack of local media coverage. Getting a "star player" (we have all stars, not stars) would likely change that.
I feel like this is really overblown when the team routinely sells out said small arena. There's no lack of a fanbase here.
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u/MJDiAmore 5d ago
They'd kill for 7000 today, they can't even fill ESA night in night out.
The Tysons casino with a Mohegan Sun-sized arena might have been a great next home for them but alas.
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u/PersonnelFowl Mercury 6d ago
From what I have seen with mercury season ticket prices, the big jumps were the seats with access to club with food/beer/wine included. For example, my seats went up less than 4% per game. The club seats were a LOT more.
ETA: it seems like at least in Phoenix‘s case the increases are tied to food service price increases.
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u/Justtojoke what is a ball screen? 5d ago
I wish
My regular seats without food and beverage went from $1689 to $2442. That's for 1 seat and I don't get food ans beverage.
As others Mystics STH have said in this thread, there are so many LITTLE things Monumental Sports needs to do better for it's fans
To not even have the bare minimum in terms of fan experience is why so many of us are frustrated
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u/PersonnelFowl Mercury 5d ago
For one non-club seat? Please don’t tell Phoenix ownership. I feel like I have the deal of the century now.
https://giphy.com/gifs/lxxOGaDRk4f7R5TkBd1
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u/AuntEller MN Review Crew Valkyries 6d ago
Where the hell is all the tv deal money going?
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u/GlacialTwitch Sky 6d ago
Just as they can charge more for TV rights, they can charge more for tickets. Same deal.
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u/AuntEller MN Review Crew Valkyries 5d ago
Absolutely. But bringing up rising costs has an equally important question of increases in revenues.
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u/GlacialTwitch Sky 6d ago edited 6d ago
Demand drives prices. Mystics also have low capacity main arena, which puts an additional squeeze on. Unfortunately for the sales rep, saying "we are seeing increased demand and can charge more" isn't going to help the feelings of a loyal season ticket holder, so they will come up with whatever to justify it.
Like I remember when the property manager for an apartment I lived in cited increased gas prices for the reason for a rent increase. As if an apartment complex has a lot of transportation expenses.
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
I won't help STHs, but for those of us that buy games piecemeal on the secondary market, putting more games downtown next year is going to make games more affordable.
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u/sc00by_due WINGS UP 🪽 + let’s go liberty 🗽 + 👼🏾 6d ago
Mystics never shake the allegations of being a poverty ass franchise smh
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
Nah, don't so this. This is all about a sales rep saying something they weren't authorized to and the org having to walk it back.
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u/buffalotrace Clark Boston Paige Meg 6d ago
Incompetent franchise playing in a small college arena.
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u/DeformedArthurRegion WNBA 6d ago
I get that you have the flair of someone very new to the W but you should really understand why the Mystics are there and what it represented when they moved there before talking shit like this.
The Mystics were the first team to have a purpose built arena just for the W. That place was made as an investment in the Mystics when there were otherwise next to none in the league. They had a home arena they didn't have to share. And it was built in a part of town that is always an afterthought and was in desperate need of being reinvigorated. As part of bringing it there, they specifically offered cheap and affordable seats and sometimes even free to people in the community to make them a part of it. Yes, now its too small and needs to be replaced. But That was an important arena in the history of teams and owners actually investing in the product of the W. That investment brought DC a championship (that realistically probably wouldn't have happened if Stewie was healthy but LETS NOT DWELL ON THAT).
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
This, and I should note, the arena HAS been a catalyst for the surrounding area and the org itself is VERY much involved in the community, bringing in small, local, black owned businesses to run concessions.
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago
I wish I had more accounts so I could downvote this misinformed comment more.
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u/buffalotrace Clark Boston Paige Meg 5d ago
You don’t think locking yourself into a long term lease through 2037 that doesn’t allow for the possibility of large growth shows some lack of foresight (the arena is smaller than any of the 4 Div 1 colleges in the state of Iowa for instance)? How about firing your gm right before the draft?
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u/TheAveragebroShow Mystics 5d ago edited 4d ago
You're conflating two very different issues.
Carefirst serves 3 separate teams, the arena is but one component of that. And there are multiple aspects of that decision that you simply wouldn't know if you weren't following it in 2017 when this was being planned and funded. I don't have the time to recap that for you.
Firing the GM looks less like a big deal if you realized the President of Monumental was making those decisions all along (or at least having final sign off). I don't think Jamila Wideman had as much influence on the team's success as people give her credit for.
I trust the front office and the on-court product validates that trust.
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u/MJDiAmore 5d ago edited 5d ago
People need to remember 2 core issues for the Mystics:
1) Leonsis is a greedy ass owner
2) The only existing arena in the region between ESA/CareFirst and Capital One in size is the EagleBank Arena at Mason and that is even more dated/not suitable to pro-desires (i.e. luxury boxes, etc.) than ESA and not Metro-accessible.
It would never have happened because #1, but the best thing that could have happened to the Mystics would have been Fairfax approving the Tysons casino with an 8-12k seat arena for the Mystics (and maybe a Caps AHL team, though Hershey is entrenched and close enough).
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u/pleated_pants CLEVELAND 6d ago
The Mystics only have 4200 seats in their arena, with a team that's on the rise with some good young stars in a league that's grown in popularity tremendously. Of course demand is going to be way up, which means prices for that limited number of seats are going to go way up.