With the new FIVB Volleyball Nations League tournament, often fans will only get once chance a summer to see their national team play in person. In the women’s tournament, China (including Macau and Honk Kong), Poland, Thailand and the Netherlands will be hosting multiple pools, while for the men’s tournament, Poland, China and Bulgaria will host more than one weekend.
So, if you can only see your team once a year, what would it cost in US dollars when converted from the local currency? Additionally how do these prices compare to that of an average ticket price for an NBA game. According to the website ValuePenguin, they wrote an article about the average priced ticket for each NBA team. With their data the average price for an NBA ticket was $56 for the 2016-2017 season. More often than not VNL tickets have two matches included in the price that you pay.
Now we will go through the data for the women’s tickets for the cheapest and most expensive prices for individual sessions. Some venues for the men’s and women’s matches do offer multiple price levels, but some only offer one or two price levels. Furthermore many venues are offering discounts if you purchased passes for multiple days (weekends only or all three days). Those multiple day passes are not included here. Also, some venues do have a special price for the non-home team matches and those have not been included as the prices are significantly cheaper than that of the home team.
Looking at the ticket prices for the women’s matches shown above, only matches in South Korea, Japan and China (Jiangmen and Hong Kong). Given that the Chinese national team is very popular, it is not surprising that they have the most expensive seats in the women’s tournament before the Finals. As for Japan, they have multiple price levels for their lone home match, but these prices are about normal for Japanese home matches. With South Korea, Kim Yeon-koung as their star player it is easy to see why they charge higher prices. Surprisingly the Russian matches are free in Ekaterinburg. Even in the USA with the volleyball hotbed of Nebraska, the prices are good at $35 for the most expensive seat and many of the USA players have played in Lincoln for the University of Nebraska.
Moving onto the men’s ticket prices.
The only matches that are more expensive than an NBA average ticket are Japan, China, and France (both weekends). With the French national team, they are very popular with their play and swagger, and their most expensive tickets are barely above the NBA average of $56. The Chinese men’s matches in Jiangmen are much cheaper than those of the women’s team because they are not as good a team as the women. Then Japanese men’s tickets are a little more expensive than the women, but this price shown is normal for their national team matches. Additionally there are many different price levels for the Japanese men’s matches.
If you are ever thinking of watching your national team in person, it is a great experience to see some of the best volleyball in the world and the prices are in line or cheaper than an NBA game. When you look at value for the price, two matches on one ticket (excluding for time to watch both), it is a great value.
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