How EuroBasket 2025 Finland increased attendance by 35% and revenue by 60%

Together with the Basketball Finland local organising committee, we designed a ticketing and marketing strategy around fan motivation, perceived value and the full tournament experience. Here is what changed.

Figures reported in my original case study. These compare two editions of the event; they do not isolate the effect of the strategy from other changes.

My first memory of EuroBasket was 2001 in Türkiye. I was glued to the TV watching Hidayet “Hedo” Türkoğlu help kick-start what would become the country’s golden generation. Two years later, Šarūnas Jasikevičius became my point guard idol in Sweden in 2003. The MVP! MVP! Then came Dirk’s German national team: Hamann, Ademola Okulaja, to name a few. What a fun team that was to watch.

As a young basketball fan and player, these tournaments defined my summers.

In 2017, I finally watched EuroBasket live in Helsinki. I saw Susijengi and Finnish fans in full glory. But I also saw the empty seats during visiting team games. And it wasn’t just Helsinki. Georgia had it even worse in 2022, which led to Sergio Scariolo’s iconic line:

“I am sure there were more Lorenzo’s relatives watching online than people in the arena.”

That question stayed with me: Is this just the fate of EuroBasket events?

Some years later, I got the opportunity to help answer it. Together with the Basketball Finland LOC, we designed EuroBasket 2025 Finland’s ticketing and marketing strategy.

The result: attendance increased by 35%, from approximately 85,000 in 2017 to approximately 115,000 in 2025, and ticketing revenue grew by nearly 60%. Same tournament format. Different outcome.

Why EuroBasket in Finland is a harder task

Here’s what most people don’t realise about hosting EuroBasket in Finland.

We cannot rely on travelling fans. Unlike Central European hosts, Finland is geographically isolated and relatively expensive to reach. The immigrant population is smaller, meaning limited diaspora-driven demand.

In practice, Finnish fans must carry the event.

For 2025, the challenge was even bigger. The event moved from Helsinki to Tampere, a city with a significantly smaller population and less tourism infrastructure.

While I acknowledge that Tampere is one of the most advanced sports cities in Finland for hosting major events, the sparsity of the population in the region compared to Uusimaa meant that we had to convert local and regional demand with almost zero margin for error.

The structural problem every EuroBasket faces

EuroBasket is not one game. It is a 15-game group stage.

Five games feature the host nation and typically approach sell-out levels. Ten games feature only visiting teams and historically struggle.

In 2017 in Helsinki, Finland’s games averaged 92% capacity. Visiting-team games averaged 22%.

That demand asymmetry is not random. It is rooted in fan motivation.

What we did differently

The standard playbook for struggling games is predictable: release session tickets early for flexibility, price visiting games aggressively low, and run heavy discounts as the event approaches.

We took a different route.

Instead of letting fans cherry-pick Finland games from the start, we anchored them inside bundles that included visiting-team matches. This is essentially mixed-leader bundling: using high-demand games to carry lower-demand ones, but framed in a way that made sense to fans.

We were selling a multi-day basketball experience.

Day Passes and Weekend Passes became central products. By framing commitment around availability rather than team preference, we reduced friction. Fans were not asking, “Do I want Montenegro vs Sweden?” They were asking, “Am I free this weekend?”

We sold close to ten times as many Day and Weekend Passes in 2025 compared with 2017. The Weekend Pass itself did not exist in 2017.

Non-Finland game occupancy increased from 22% to 40%. Finland’s games moved from 92% to 99%.

On Saturday, August 30th, Lithuania vs Germany drew over 10,000 spectators—a record for a non-host-nation game at EuroBasket in Finland. That did not happen by coincidence. It was anticipated months in advance and built into the product design.

Designing around perceived value

We did not solve this with price cuts. Finland games commanded premium pricing and we protected that value.

What made bundles work was the perceived value of the full experience. The incremental cost of adding two visiting games was small relative to the feeling of getting a full day at the arena.

A Day Pass was positioned as immersion in a basketball festival: a holistic offering that guaranteed access to Finland games and more.

We also staged releases over ten months. Higher-commitment products came first. Flexibility was introduced later. Single-session tickets were only released two months before the event.

The applied research difference

This project is grounded in research on fan motivation, perceived value and willingness to pay. We benchmarked past EuroBasket editions. We analysed historical ticket data. We built the framework, tested it and adjusted in real time.

Every event has its own constraints: the sport, the market, the geography, the fan base. Finland is different from Germany. A domestic league is different from an international championship. A capital city is different from a regional host.

One principle runs through the work: a ticketing strategy rooted in fans’ motivations shapes perceived value. Perceived value influences behavioural outcomes, including attendance and revenue.

The same logic applies whether you are preparing a major tournament, redesigning a season-ticket structure or trying to activate underperforming fixtures in a domestic league. If that sounds like you, I would be happy to connect.

A personal note

Contributing to Finnish basketball and to the EuroBasket franchise is something I am deeply proud of. Seeing the crowds at Nokia Arena and knowing the structure behind the event was intentional is something I won’t forget.

The Local Organising Committee at Basketball Finland took a risk. They trusted data-driven decision-making over conventional wisdom. They gave space to test, adjust and challenge assumptions. Credit is as much theirs as it is mine.