The Warriors are the top team for the third straight year, worth $8.8 billion—twice the league average. And with new media deals starting next season, those numbers could soon get much bigger.
By Justin Teitelbaum and Brett Knight, Forbes Staff
With record attendance and record sponsorship, the 2023-24 season was a banner year for the NBA, producing some $13 billion in league-wide revenue. But that number could see another double-digit-percentage jump this season—and that doesn’t even account for the national media deals the league signed over the summer. (The new contracts take effect next season and come with a roughly $4 billion annual raise over the old agreements.)
The relentless rise in revenue is sending the value of the league’s 30 franchises skyward, to an average of $4.4 billion, up 15% from last year. No team would sell for less than $3 billion, Forbes now estimates, and three clubs are worth at least $7 billion: the Golden State Warriors ($8.8 billion), the New York Knicks ($7.5 billion) and the Los Angeles Lakers ($7.1 billion). Only five other teams in any sport—the $7.55 billion New York Yankees and four NFL franchises, led by the $10.1 billion Dallas Cowboys—currently reach that lofty threshold.
In one clear sign of investors’ appetite to buy into basketball, every NBA team now has a revenue multiple higher than 10, and the average stands at 11.7—rising from 10.9 last year and from 6.9 over the last decade.
That Forbes list 10 years ago came on the heels of Steve Ballmer’s $2 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers, which at the time was widely seen as a considerable overpay, in large part because no NBA transaction had carried a revenue multiple higher than 5.1 before Ballmer’s deal came in above 15. Even Forbes didn’t entirely buy the math, pegging the Clippers’ value in January 2015 at $1.6 billion on revenue of $146 million, for a multiple of 11; no other team cracked 10 that year.
Now, as the Clippers settle into their new $2 billion arena, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, their multiple again exceeds 15—only this time, it’s not such an outlier. After spending the past 25 years at what is now known as Crypto.com Arena in Downtown Los Angeles—effectively serving as the building’s third tenant, after the Lakers and the NHL’s Kings—the Clippers are expected to see a massive surge in premium seating and sponsorship revenue, starting with the building’s 23-year naming rights deal for a reported $500 million. (According to Forbes estimates, that $21.7 million annual average is more than $7 million beyond what any other NBA team collected from arena naming rights last season.)
Several other NBA teams are also eyeing new or significantly renovated arenas, and the revenue increase that tends to come with them. The Toronto Raptors’ Scotiabank Arena, for instance, is in the midst of a $350 million upgrade, and Oklahoma City has approved more than $800 million in funding toward a new home for the Thunder. Last week, Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., unveiled the financing agreement for the redevelopment of the Wizards’ Capital One Arena.
For one extreme example of the impact a new arena can have, consider the Warriors, the NBA’s most valuable team for the third straight year, who posted an estimated $440 million in local revenue in 2018-19, their last year at Oracle Arena in Oakland. Last season, Golden State racked up more than $700 million in local revenue at its new home, the Chase Center in San Francisco. The club’s total revenue, including central league revenue and netting out arena debt service and revenue sharing, hit $800 million in 2023-24. Only four other teams in the world—the Dallas Cowboys, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Barcelona—have reached that milestone.
The growth extends all over the league, however. The NBA recently renewed its uniform and apparel deal with Nike for more money and has added partners in several new categories, including Kendall-Jackson wine and Skims shapewear. The league’s credit is also on solid ground—Fitch Ratings this year affirmed its A- ratings on the NBA’s outstanding debt instruments—and the entry of private equity and other institutional investors, which began in 2020, provides a path to greater liquidity for existing team owners. And the NBA is growing even faster internationally than it is domestically.
But the league’s biggest financial driver is its new media deals with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video for a reported $76 billion over 11 years, or an average annual value of $6.9 billion—up from $2.6 billion in the current domestic deals with ESPN and Turner Sports, plus about $500 million from a number of international rights distributors. Many in the sports media world anticipated the NBA’s rights would double in value, an optimism reflected in teams’ rising revenue multiples, but the final agreement came in above the high expectations. That national and international upside is helping override some of the uncertainty around the future of local media rights in the wake of the 2023 bankruptcy filing by regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group.
So just how high can NBA team values go? The Boston Celtics may soon provide an answer. In July, two weeks after the team claimed the league championship, its ownership group shockingly announced it would seek to sell a majority stake, and lead owner Wyc Grousbeck recently told the Boston Globe that the process was “gearing up.”
Sports bankers agree that some legitimate concerns—perhaps above all, Grousbeck’s desire to remain in control until 2028—could mean the initial bids start at a little over $5 billion. But ultimately, the legacy and global brand recognition of the Celtics, combined with the general scarcity of control stakes in NBA teams, could push the price to $6 billion—or more.
THE NBA’S MOST VALUABLE TEAMS 2024
#1. $8.8 billion
Golden State Warriors
One-Year Change: 14% | Operating Income: $142 million | Owners: Joe Lacob, Peter Guber
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
#2. $7.5 billion
New York Knicks
One-Year Change: 14% | Operating Income: $182 million | Owner: Madison Square Garden Sports
#3. $7.1 billion
Los Angeles Lakers
One-Year Change: 11% | Operating Income: $199 million | Owners: Jerry Buss Family Trusts, Mark Walter, Todd Boehly
Ronald Martinez/getty images
#4. $6 billion
Boston Celtics
One-Year Change: 28% | Operating Income: $121 million | Owners: Wycliffe Grousbeck, Irving Grousbeck, Stephen Pagliuca, Robert Epstein
#5. $5.5 billion
Los Angeles Clippers
One-Year Change: 18% | Operating Loss: $96 million | Owner: Steve Ballmer
#6. $5 billion
Chicago Bulls
One-Year Change: 9% | Operating Income: $140 million | Owner: Jerry Reinsdorf
Justin Casterline/getty images
#7. $4.9 billion
Houston Rockets
One-Year Change: 11% | Operating Income: $160 million | Owner: Tilman Fertitta
#8. $4.8 billion
Brooklyn Nets
One-Year Change: 25% | Operating Income: $43 million | Owners: Joseph Tsai, Koch family
#9. $4.7 billion
Dallas Mavericks
One-Year Change: 4% | Operating Income: $158 million | Owners: Adelson family, Mark Cuban
#10. $4.6 billion
Philadelphia 76ers
One-Year Change: 7% | Operating Income: $120 million | Owners: Josh Harris, David Blitzer
Tim Nwachukwu/getty images
#11. $4.4 billion
Toronto Raptors
One-Year Change: 7% | Operating Income: $97 million | Owners: Rogers Communications, Larry Tanenbaum
#12. $4.3 billion
Phoenix Suns
One-Year Change: 8% | Operating Loss: $14 million | Owners: Mat Ishbia, Justin Ishbia
#13. $4.25 billion
Miami Heat
One-Year Change: 9% | Operating Income: $62 million | Owner: Micky Arison
Megan Briggs/getty images
#14. $4.1 billion
Washington Wizards
One-Year Change: 17% | Operating Income: $118 million | Owner: Ted Leonsis
#15. $4 billion
Milwaukee Bucks
One-Year Change: 25% | Operating Loss: $16 million | Owners: Wes Edens, Jimmy and Dee Haslam
#16. $3.95 billion
Cleveland Cavaliers
One-Year Change: 18% | Operating Income: $97 million | Owner: Dan Gilbert
#17. $3.9 billion
Denver Nuggets
One-Year Change: 16% | Operating Income: $57 million | Owner: E. Stanley Kroenke
Patrick Smith/Getty Images
#18. $3.85 billion
San Antonio Spurs
One-Year Change: 18% | Operating Income: $118 million | Owners: Peter J. Holt, Sixth Street
#19. $3.8 billion
Atlanta Hawks
One-Year Change: 14% | Operating Income: $94 million | Owner: Tony Ressler
#20. $3.7 billion
Sacramento Kings
One-Year Change: 11% | Operating Income: $54 million | Owner: Vivek Ranadivé
Michael Reaves/getty images
#21. $3.65 billion
Oklahoma City Thunder
One-Year Change: 20% | Operating Income: $90 million | Owners: Clayton Bennett, George Kaiser, Aubrey McClendon estate
#22. $3.6 billion
Indiana Pacers
One-Year Change: 24% | Operating Income: $94 million | Owners: Herb Simon, Stephen Simon
#23. $3.55 billion
Utah Jazz
One-Year Change: 15% | Operating Income: $89 million | Owners: Ryan and Ashley Smith
C. Morgan Engel/getty images
#24. $3.5 billion
Portland Trail Blazers
One-Year Change: 14% | Operating Income: $81 million | Owner: Paul G. Allen Trust
#25. $3.4 billion
Detroit Pistons
One-Year Change: 11% | Operating Income: $89 million | Owner: Tom Gores
#26. $3.3 billion
Charlotte Hornets
One-Year Change: 10% | Operating Income: $84 million | Owners: Rick Schnall, Gabe Plotkin, Chris Shumway
#27. $3.2 billion
Orlando Magic
One-Year Change: 8% | Operating Income: $82 million | Owner: DeVos family
Jacob Kupferman/getty images
#28. $3.1 billion
Minnesota Timberwolves
One-Year Change: 24% | Operating Income: $72 million | Owners: Glen Taylor, Marc Lore, Alex Rodriguez
#29. $3.05 billion
New Orleans Pelicans
One-Year Change: 20% | Operating Income: $41 million | Owner: Gayle Benson
#30. $3 billion
Memphis Grizzlies
One-Year Change: 25% | Operating Income: $44 million | Owner: Robert Pera
Justin Ford/getty images
METHODOLOGY
Revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are estimated for the 2023-24 season and are net of revenue sharing and arena debt service. Team values are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) and include the economics of the team’s arena (including non-NBA revenue that accrues to the team’s owner) but not the value of the arena real estate itself.
Team values are rounded to the nearest $50 million, and estimated operating income is rounded to the nearest $1 million. All figures are in U.S. dollars based on the average U.S.-Canada exchange rates during the 2023-24 season.
The information used to compile the valuations primarily came from interviews with teams, sports bankers and media consultants, as well as public documents, such as arena lease agreements and bond documents.
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