The average NBA team is now worth $2.4 billion
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The value of NBA teams has been rising at such an incredible pace that even the league's least valuable franchise is now worth well over $1 billion.
What's happening: A new report from sports business publication Sportico found that the average NBA team is now worth $2.4 billion.
Details: "Collectively, the fair-market value of the NBA’s 30 teams, including ownership’s stakes in real estate, regional sports networks and additional team-related holdings, is more than $71 billion," Sportico's Peter J. Schwartz writes.
- "Three franchises—the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers—are each worth more than $5 billion. (For context, each of those teams has a greater fair-market value than any National Football League team except for the Dallas Cowboys, based on Sportico‘s assessment of football team valuations last August.)"
Flashback: In July 2010, the Warriors were purchased for a then-record $450 million.
How it works: Revenues have obviously declined for the NBA with the pandemic limiting in-person attendance at games, but valuations have fallen by just 2% on average, according to Sportico's methodology.
- That's largely because much of teams' value comes from real estate holdings and investment funds or ancillary businesses such as the Philadelphia 76ers' Sixers Innovation Lab that have jumped in value since April.
What it means: While football and the NFL remain the most popular sport in the U.S., NBA teams are quietly taking over as the financial titans of the sports world.
- Axios' Kendall Baker noted last year that according to Forbes' estimates, the average NBA team had seen its value rise by 476% since 2010.
