Economic Impact of the NBA Season

Economic Impact of The NBA Season

Patrick Cullen

With just five games left in the regular season, the NBA Playoffs are fastly approaching. The NBA season can sometimes be a grueling one being eighty-two games long, but a lot can happen for each team from a game standpoint to the entire organization. Being the third most viewed sport in the United States has it’s benefits from an economic standpoint. In that long season of an NBA team, earnings come from all aspects of the organization. These things range from ticket sales, concessions, apparel sales, television views, and even on court success. For some teams the on court success is not the most important aspect to increase their total revenue.

Two teams who have had a long history of success in the National Basketball Association have had some trouble in recent years. The Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks are two big name teams in big time cities who have had a history of talented players such as Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony to appeal to their large consumer markets. In 2016, the two teams had a combined record of 72-95. Despite these losing records they were the two highest incomes in the league with a combined revenue $5.7 billion. Here is a chart from forbes magazine showing the team’s net income broken down by category and how they match up to other teams in the league:

As you can see the least amount of money was made through the actual play of the sport for the Knicks and Lakers. The majority of money was made in the other three categories of Market, Arena and Brand. This goes to show how much more goes into the entertainment that we take from such a sport as basketball.  The arena makes money by providing things such as concessions and security. With these services are job opportunities. With the job growth within sports organization’s arenas, our country’s GDP is on the rise along with employment rates.

The NBA is more than just a source of entertainment. It is a source of job growth and a service provided to the people. Without sports leagues and associations such as the NBA we would be a much less successful nation with a much lower GDP.

Works Cited

Brautigan, Bailey. "Here's How Every NBA Team Makes Its Money, Visualized." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21 Mar. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

"Sports in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2017. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

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