{"id":89372,"date":"2025-07-24T19:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89372\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T19:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:08:11","slug":"cleveland-wnba-expansion-franchise-hits-5000-season-ticket-deposits-in-first-24-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89372\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland WNBA expansion franchise hits 5,000 season-ticket deposits in first 24 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleveland\u2019s WNBA franchise<\/a>, just 24 days into its existence and three seasons ahead of its debut game, has accumulated 5,000 season-ticket deposits, half of which are from the age 26-to-41 demographic.<\/p>\n

According to Nic Barlage<\/b>, CEO of Rock Entertainment Group, only 9% of the deposits come from current Cavaliers season-ticket holders, while 85% of the overall deposits are from customers with no ties to Rock\u2019s three properties: the Cavs, the G League Cleveland Charge and the AHL\u2019s Cleveland Monsters. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about that, this is a new fan for us who probably has only attended concerts or other events within our footprint,\u201d Barlage said. \u201cSo to have them raise their hand for a subscription type of product — whether that\u2019s a full-season membership, a half-season membership, or a partial membership for us — it\u2019s an exciting moment in time. Because it means we\u2019re just going to be able to create a wider and larger platform of fan affinity through this addition of the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valkyries, this season\u2019s expansion team, have witnessed a somewhat similar sales trend, considering roughly only 5% of their season-ticket members double as Warriors season-ticket holders.<\/p>\n

The initial cost of a general admission season-ticket deposit at Cleveland\u2019s Rocket Arena is $28 (available at wnbacleveland.com, the $28 price commemorating the 2028 launch of the team) and $100 for a floor seat or premium product. Barlage said the current plan is to cap the deposits at 20,000 tickets, although that number could grow depending on the eventual conversion rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hope to have a conversion rate in the 90 to 95% range,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, you obviously hope for 100. But we\u2019ll look at the rate of it. Maybe [the deposit number] grows to 25,000, I\u2019m not sure. But our North Star as of today is 20,000, and we think that sends a strong message to the marketplace. It also sends a strong message to prospective partners that want to come on this journey with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The franchise\u2019s season-ticket campaign has been a blitz of out-of-home billboards, digital and social media and traditional TV ads. \u201cLetting people know the W is back,\u2019\u2019 Barlage said.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s original WNBA team, the Rockers, were a charter member of the league from 1997 to 2003 and disbanded when then-owner Gordon Gund reportedly put a financial priority on a rookie the Cavaliers had just drafted out of high school, LeBron James<\/b>. Gund tried and failed to sell the team, and there was a pro-Rockers rally outside then-Gund Arena on the night of James\u2019 home debut in October 2003. For those sentimental reasons, there still is a chance the current expansion team will be reprised as the Rockers.<\/p>\n

Barlage — who expects a team name announcement at the end of 2025 or no later than first quarter of 2026 — admitted Rockers is under consideration. But he also said the franchise has initiated focus groups, surveys and fan insights to vet all possible names and color schemes. \u201cWe\u2019re going to take all of those nodes of data and bring it together before we make a decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Either way, he said if the Rockers name is not chosen, the franchise will hold periodic throwback nights when they wear the original Rockers jerseys. \u201cWe want to be thorough and thoughtful around where Cleveland and where Northeast Ohio is going, while still being very connected and paying homage to our past,\u2019\u2019 Barlage said.<\/p>\n

Based on the influx of deposits from younger Millennials and Gen Zs, there may or may not be lingering Rockers nostalgia. All Barlage knows is that there\u2019s palpable interest. When there were early indications Cleveland would get a W franchise — and reports went public — Barlage said the oldest of two daughters (who are age 8 and 10) asked him, \u201cDaddy, do we have a women\u2019s basketball team?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

When Barlage told them yes, he said, \u201cThe squeal that came out of both of them was the most authentic, awesome, most validating moment of anything I\u2019ve seen in a long time. … It\u2019s a young, vibrant fan base that we\u2019re building, that we think could be with us for a long time.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland\u2019s WNBA franchise, just 24 days into its existence and three seasons ahead of its debut game, has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-89372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114909787357563266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}