The NFL flexed its financial muscles this month with several LP-stake sales at rich valuations, including more than $8 billion for both the Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles. The NFL checks two boxes that make it the envy of every other sports league: cost certainty for each team and a $400 million-plus annual check from the league that dwarfs the salary cap. That combo pushes the value of the “cheapest” football teams to nearly $5 billion.
The NBA appears headed down a similar path. Over the last 18 months, the league reached a pair of deals that moved it closer to the NFL’s economic model. The first was a new CBA, which potentially reins in the most aggressive roster spenders based on early evidence from the impact of the second “apron.” Then, the NBA signed a new TV deal in July worth $77 billion over 11 years that will triple the annual payout to franchises from last season by the end of the agreement.
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The average NBA franchise is now worth $4.6 billion, according to Sportico’s calculations, with the Golden State Warriors at the top of the league ranking and the Memphis Grizzlies at the bottom. The total is up 15% versus 2023 and nearly double four years ago, when the average was $2.37 billion. The gains at the bottom of the financial table are even greater, with the current $3.06 billion “get-in” price 127% higher than four years ago.
Golden State ($9.14 billion) has topped all five iterations of Sportico’s NBA valuations, with only the Dallas Cowboys ($10.3 billion) worth more among all sports teams. The Warriors, New York Knicks ($8.3 billion) and Los Angeles Lakers ($8.07 billion) are in a class by themselves in the NBA, with the Lakers worth 42% more than the fourth-ranked Brooklyn Nets ($5.7 billion).
Our enterprise valuation estimates measure a control sale price, instead of a limited partnership transaction. Collectively, the NBA’s 30 teams are worth $138 billion, including real estate held by owners and team-related businesses, such as WNBA franchises.
The 30 NBA teams generated an estimated $11.6 billion last year, or $387 million per club. Team sponsorship rose roughly 15% and non-NBA events boosted club revenues at arenas owned or operated by the NBA franchise.
The concert business has boomed coming out of COVID-19 and can add more than $25 million to the bottom line of teams at top arenas. NBA owners operated 10 of the world’s 20 highest-grossing concert venues in 2024, according to Billboard.
The value of owning an arena was on display in the recent investment by Julia Koch and her family to buy 15% of BSE Global at a $6 billion valuation. BSE is the parent company of the Nets, New York Liberty and Barclays Center. In April, the Barclays Center was the highest-grossing arena in the world, according to Billboard, and it finished the year ranked sixth overall. The value of the Nets is up an NBA-high of 43%.
Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai bought the Nets and rights to the Barclays Center in stages, starting in 2018. The following year they consolidated ownership at a $3.3 billion valuation. It was the highest price ever paid for control of a U.S. sports team.
Ignoring the ongoing Minnesota Timberwolves saga, there have not been any NBA control sales in 2024 after three last year, plus a quasi-control deal with the Milwaukee Bucks where Wes Edens sold his 25% stake to Jimmy and Dee Haslam at a $3.2 billion valuation. The deal transferred Edens’ right to serve as the governor every five years.
All eyes are on the auction of the Boston Celtics, which has bankers, investors and team executives speculating on price tags ranging from $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion. The final value will be influenced by how many people show up at the bidding and how much of the team they have to buy. The sale will give a window into what an elite brand that does not control its building is worth fresh off a championship. It is a unique set-up. The Celtics and Lakers are the only teams among the top 10 in each of the four biggest U.S. sports leagues that don’t run their venues—the Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers don’t technically operate Madison Square Garden, but Jim Dolan controls all three assets.
In 2002, Wyc Grousbeck led a group that paid $360 million for the Celtics, including debt. In June, Grousbeck hired a pair of banks, BDT & MSD and JPMorgan Chase, to sell the franchise for estate planning purposes with a plan for him to run the team until 2028.
The Celtics have won an NBA record 18 titles and are an incredible ticketing business with prices among the highest in the league and a season ticket waiting list of more than 14,000 names. But they are a tenant in the Delaware North-owned TD Garden. Delaware North is controlled by the Jacobs family, which also owns the NHL’s Boston Bruins.
The Celtics grossed $493 million in revenue during the 2023-24 season, according to someone who had reviewed the sales prospectus document from BDT & MSD. Local TV was $70 million, including equity income from the Celtics’ 20% share in NBC Sports Boston.
The playoffs represented $102 million of the total, which is mostly ticket revenue, and the NBA collects 25% of the playoff gate to fund the player playoff pool. Sportico estimates the Celtics’ net revenue after playoff and regular season revenue sharing at $465 million. The team made roughly $30 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization last season with a luxury tax bill north of $40 million.
The sale is also being closely watched because of the possibility of expansion in the NBA and its influence on the fee. The NBA has not expanded since 2004 when Charlotte (then known as the Bobcats) started play and the other 29 owners split a $300 million payment. This round will be decidedly higher with many teams expecting a $5 billion price tag for each entry after the latest TV deal. Las Vegas and Seattle are the longtime favorites, but no expansion committee has been formed.
The Celtics rank sixth overall at $5.66 billion, just behind the Nets ($5.7 billion) and Los Angeles Clippers ($5.68 billion), whose revenue will soar this season with the opening of the $2 billion Intuit Dome.
NBA revenue is a tick below Major League Baseball, but teams are valued 74% higher. TV tells much of the story. MLB historically relied on its contracts with regional sports networks for more than 20% of its annual revenue. NBA faced similar headwinds with the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group that triggered a roughly 15% cut to local TV revenue last year for those teams at Bally Sports channels. Yet, local TV was just 11% of total NBA revenue last year, and the Lakers and Knicks pocketed roughly 25% of the total local TV revenue.
MLB also doesn’t have a TV windfall kicking in next season. The new NBA deal with NBC, ESPN/ABC and Amazon is expected to boost the annual payout to teams by 33% to $137 million in year one, according to three NBA team executives. It then jumps 13.5%, followed by annual 7% increases. The per-team payout in the final season of the contract: $297 million.
That final-year payout still trails what NFL teams banked last year by 10%. Still, NBA investors see the opportunity over its gridiron rival outside North America because of how basketball resonates as a sport globally. Their vision is for the NBA to approach what the NFL does domestically while replicating the massive reach of the English Premier League abroad. This would support the lofty revenue multiples seen in recent NBA deals, which averaged 11 in the four teams sold in 2023. By comparison, the nine teams sold between 2010 and 2012 fetched a tick more than three times revenue on average.
NBA teams generate less than 10% of their revenue outside the U.S., and broadcast rights present an opportunity to bump earnings internationally. The challenge is the time of games, which typically occur after midnight in Europe and early in the morning in Asia. The NBA does have an opportunity as fans consume content in different varieties, and the highlight-heavy league lends itself well to short snippet consumption.
The NBA has resuscitated one of its most important international markets with a pair of games in China in 2025 for the first time since 2019. China was a major economic growth area for the NBA, but the relationship was fractured five years ago when then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted an image supporting protests in Hong Kong. NBA commissioner Adam Silver initially backed the freedom of expression, which triggered state broadcaster CCTV to pull NBA games from its airwaves and sponsorships in China to disappear.
Silver has worked to repair the relationship between the league and China. Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont was a key player in establishing the 2025 NBA China Games.
“The international opportunity is fueled by the partners the NBA has brought on board and the athletes themselves who have a lifestyle appeal that transcends across borders,” Jon Stainer, who runs Nielsen’s global sports practice, said in a phone interview. “The younger consumer is drawn to the athlete and the content they provide. That can be a flywheel effect to turbocharge the league on a global basis.”
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