How we’re turning fan interest into ticket demand for Women’s EuroBasket 2027

Our goal for Women’s EuroBasket 2027 in Espoo is to deliver a commercially responsible event that leaves women’s basketball in Finland stronger: more people watching, more girls seeing a future in the game, and a deeper connection to Susiladies long after the tournament.

That is an exciting opportunity—and a demanding brief. A major international tournament brings world-class players, national-team pride and a reason for communities to come together. It also involves substantial costs, a fixed delivery window and close coordination between the federation, venue, city, clubs, commercial partners and volunteers. Financial exposure starts well before the first ticket is scanned.

The challenge: build demand across the whole event

Attendance and ticketing have been difficult to make consistent across Women’s EuroBasket games. Our benchmarking of the 2025 hosts recorded reported ticketing income of approximately €75,000 in Italy and €112,000 in Czechia. It also highlighted widespread complimentary ticket distribution, including in Greece.³ Those revenue figures need to be read in their local context; they are not a like-for-like comparison of host profitability.

Free tickets can serve a deliberate purpose: introducing children to the sport, opening doors for communities and developing future supporters. But attendance, paid demand and ticket revenue tell different stories. A busy arena on one day does not automatically establish a sustainable audience across a tournament.

For Espoo, the task is to bring people into the arena with an offer they value, manage the commercial risk and turn a first visit into an ongoing relationship with women’s basketball. That requires audience development, ticketing and partnerships to work together from the beginning.

Different evidence answers different questions

With the Finnish Basketball Federation, we have drawn on several kinds of evidence. Each contributes something different to the strategy:

• International host benchmarks: what previous events reveal about ticket income, attendance patterns, complimentary access and the work required to reach audiences.
• Academic and Finnish women’s sports research: how sporting interest, social experience, community and role models can shape demand.
• The 6. pelaaja brand survey, with 1,030 respondents: an exploration of the Susiladies and Susijengi brands, including how audiences relate to the teams and where that interest translates into live attendance.
• The Women’s EuroBasket 2027 fan survey, now approaching 600 responses: research focused on the tournament itself, helping refine audience priorities, motivations, barriers and ticket offers.

Research also gives us a reason to question familiar assumptions. Agha and Berri’s comparison of NBA and WNBA attendance found differences in the factors associated with demand.¹ Our successful EuroBasket 2025 work provides useful experience, but the women’s event needs its own audience strategy.

Activate the basketball audience already within reach

Among active Susijengi fans who watched the men’s national team live several times a year, 37% had never attended a Susiladies game. That finding from the brand survey identifies a concrete opportunity: people who already enjoy live basketball but have yet to make the connection to the women’s national team.³

The go-to-market response is to activate that connection through existing fan communities, club networks and national-team communications: introduce the players, give people a relevant reason to attend and make the invitation easy to share. Susijengi familiarity gives us a starting point for building a relationship with Susiladies.

The same survey helps distinguish messages. Among respondents who had never attended a Susiladies game, 51% selected success as the strongest driver of increased interest. Among those attending several times a year, 44% selected community or fan culture.³ That suggests sporting stories can help open the door, while belonging and shared experiences can help deepen the connection.

Turn a social experience into an invitation

A friend brings a friend. A parent brings a daughter. A team decides to go together. The social experience of women’s basketball gives us a practical way to turn interest into attendance through trusted relationships.

That direction is supported by Martinson, Schneider and McCullough’s survey of 119 NCAA Division I women’s basketball marketers. Grassroots marketing and referrals were their highest-rated promotional techniques. These were practitioners’ assessments, but they reinforce the importance of community access and word of mouth.²

This is why we created the ambassador programme, with espoo.basket.fi as a hub for getting involved. Ambassadors bring their own relationship with the game and their own networks. Their role is to introduce Susiladies, share experiences, bring friends and groups to games, and make a first visit feel welcoming.

The programme turns a research insight into an activation mechanism: trusted people give their communities a personal reason to come. Ticket offers and the event experience then need to make coming together straightforward.

Build the route to market with partners

A small organising team cannot build every audience relationship itself. Our partnership approach connects the event with communities that already exist:

• Basketball clubs: activate players, families, coaches and supporters through team outings and shared experiences.
• Women’s networks: connect the tournament with professional and community groups through player stories, role models and invitations to attend together.
• Municipalities, including Espoo: connect with local residents, schools and community activities, and make the tournament part of the city’s wider sporting life.
• Adjacent sports and other partners: reach people beyond basketball through organisations they already know and trust.

These relationships are routes to participation as well as communication. Each activation needs an audience, an offer, someone responsible for delivering it and a way to understand what it achieves. Shared materials and repeatable offers make the coordination manageable, while leaving partners room to speak in their own voice.

Connect the commercial plan to the legacy

The ticketing strategy has to support that approach: understandable products, ways for friends and groups to attend together, and pricing grounded in research and realistic demand assumptions. Paid sales, complimentary allocations and actual attendance need to be tracked separately so we understand both the economics and who the event reaches.

The unusual part of this methodology is how closely the pieces are connected. Research identifies an audience opportunity. That insight shapes the offer. Ambassadors and partners bring the offer into trusted networks. What happens in practice feeds back into the next decision.

We will judge success through revenue and attendance, but also through first-time visitors, participation across games and the relationships that remain afterwards. Does interest in Susiladies continue? Do clubs and communities stay involved? Does the tournament help more girls see a place for themselves in basketball?

A commercially responsible event and a lasting legacy belong in the same plan. We will be closely following the results.