The Astros de Jalisco women’s basketball team will not participate in the 2024 Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional Femenil (LNBPF) due to a lack of resources.

The LNBPF season starts on May 2, and the ten teams involved are currently playing their pre-season games.

The Guadalajara-based Astros Femenil won the inaugural LNBPF competition in 2022 and were runners-up last year.

According to reports, the Astros directors needed to balance the books and decided to withdraw the women’s team from this year’s competition because attendance figures at their home games in 2023 were well below the men’s team.

The Astros men’s team plays in two competitions each year, and is currently defending its title in the Pacific League (CIBACOPA), which concludes in early June. After a short break, the Astros will then compete in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional, which starts on July 4.

Although some female Mexican players in LNBPF earn as little as 15,000 pesos a month, some imported foreign players demand as much as 100,000 pesos.

After the Astros’ directors decided to withdraw from this 2024 season, many of the players successfully found spots in other teams in the league.

Hopefully, the Astros Femenil will be back in 2025, since the LNBP has ruled that all teams competing in the men’s tournament as of next year must also operate women’s teams.