Which city has the most season tickets sold in Legabasket?
Which city has the biggest fan base in Italy? Recently Gazzett dello Sport published the stats and they are very interesting. The rankings quoted by Sportando is headed by the city of Bologna who has the most season tickets sold: 4923 for Virtus and 4853 for Fortitudo. On the third sport is Trieste with 4256, then Dinamo Sassari (3773), Umana Venezia (3679) and Pesaro (3471). On the last spot, we find Virtus Rome, the newly promoted this season with a bit less than 1000 annual tickets sold.
Very interesting is that Armani Milano is only on the 7th sport on this category with 3179 season tickets sold, while they are the first team in Italy at spectators per game with 7208. A part of the difference between the season tickets sold and the average attendance could be given by the fact that the Euroleague powerhouse is attracting many tourists for their international games.
Next season if Virtus Bologna will join the Euroleague as it was stated and then their number of spectators will explode even more. They were Euroleague champions back in 2001. On the other side, Fortitudo Bologna returned this season from the Italian second division and is hoping for a growth in the future and to participate in some European cups, which will bring them back the old glory days. Fortitudo was present also in the Euroleague elite in the past and their fan base is huge and growing every day.
I am sure that the next years, Bologna will be back as the most important city of basketball in Italy in spite of the fact the Milan was the most constant participant in Euroleague the last decade thanks to Giorgio Armani investment in the basketball team. The signs are already here and if we look at how much love for basketball the city of Bologna has, the future is very promising.
Photo: Euroleague
Gratian Cormos
