Introduction
The NBA or the National Basketball Association is a professional basketball playing league of North America. With fans worldwide, the NBA has 30 teams, 29 states in the United States, and 1 in Canada. This league is considered the ground for elites and the level of their game and the skills portrayed, vouch for the perfection they claim to hold. The NBA is the premier professional basketball league in the world. Let’s know How much do NBA owners make?
They play a total of 82 games in each season which starts from October and ends in April. The NBA is a member of the United States of America: Basketball (USAB) which in turn is recognized by the international basketball federation (FIBA). Considering they are a private sector, their revenues are not always made public but what we can say for sure is that it is very high. The NBA has multiple deals and sponsorships for all the teams and the players under them, so they can double whatever they invest into a team. This is mainly why team owners are very handsomely paid.
NBA players are very handsomely paid. In fact, the NBA players are some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. They are also one of the wealthiest professional sports leagues in the United States. The United States itself is a very wealthy country. With athletes paid and taken care of well, their clubs and the team that they belong to are just as elite.
How do NBA owners make money?
- NBA owners are those that own an entire team in the NBA. They make money through various different aspects. They are responsible for the wellbeing of their team and they have a lot of benefits as well. However, the way through which they make money is via tickets sales, the style of their seating arrangement, concession stands, merchandise of the team and its players. Apart from this, they can also produce income through arena sources.
- Team owners also have an interest in magazines, TV channels, and many other media-related segments and they make money through their participation in all this. However, they are not a government-run organization, and therefore their total revenue may not be released to the public but we ourselves can assume a ballpark. From this analysis, the NBA crossed a total revenue of $8.76 billion in the 2018-2019 seasons. This amounts to a whopping $2.12 billion per team.
- There are many ways through which this revenue kicks in and here are a few :
- Arena income
The arena that the team is playing in gets more revenue pouring in through sales and merchandise and such. However, the stadium is also given for other events when the team is not playing there. This is also another source of income. Other than that there are sponsorship deals in the arena that generate a significant amount of money. This again depends on the quality of the players on the team. If a team has more high-profile players, they are likely to get more sponsorships.
- Market income
Market income is also a very important part of the income of the NBA. This depends on the number of people tuning in to watch the game of a particular team. This again depends on the player of a particular team. The more famous the players are, the more people tuning in to watch the game.
- Brand income
The merchandise, that is, the jerseys and such of the team is what generates the brand income. If the jersey of a particular team player is bought, that generates income for the team that he plays for. However, this is something that changes from season to season depending on how well a particular team performs.
- Sport income
Since all the teams may not have the best market, some generate less income as opposed to the others. To prevent this disparity, the NBA further decided that the team that makes more revenue will submit them to the NBA and that will be shared among all the teams, however, if a team wishes to enjoy their own revenue, they have to make 70% of the league average income.
How much do NBA owners make?
- The owners of NBA teams own approximately around $12 – 30 million dollars per season year. Although they make about $100 million a year, this sum is without adding up the taxes and such. Each franchise owner makes enough money each season.
- NBA owners own approximately $ 12 – 30 million per season year however this is not the final sum, although the owner might get this much, he still needs to pay his players, managers, coaches, emergency services, and such. The arena has to be taken care of and all of this comes under the team owner. Although you get paid handsomely, it is still a tedious job to have, however, they do have assistants to carry out daily runs such as these.
- However, this also changes from team to team. As mentioned above, not all teams make the same amount of money. So the income of the team owners will also reduce depending on the quality of the team. The owner of the Los Angeles Lakers will be earning much more than a team that has a much lesser market value.
- Apart from this, their only income is not the NBA, they also dabble in many other sectors of income like real estate and such.
- The players of each team are paid way more than the owner itself, however, he owns the team which is the case for all the money, therefore, he is technically safer for a longer period of time.
- Here are the richest NBA owners.
#1 Steve Ballmer owns the Los Angeles Clippers and his net worth is $76.7 billion
#2 Daniel Gilbert owns the Cleveland Cavaliers and his net worth is $37.6 billion
#3 Robert Pera owns the Memphis Grizzlies and his net worth is $18.6 billion
#4 Joseph Tsau owns the Brooklyn Nets and his net worth is $11.8 billion
#5 Philip Anschutz owns the Los Angeles Lakers and his net worth is $10.1 billion.
- Although there are still live audiences at games, the NBA considers television one of their most revenue-producing sectors. This is because to save the rush of actually going to the game, they choose to watch it on their televisions. Because of this the advertising revenues and television contracts have increased over the years.
- The merchandise also plays a very important role in producing revenues for the teams. Each sale produces revenue. However, in the year 2017-2018, the teams wore jerseys that had advertisements on them.
- The sponsorship of the NBA is another major aspect. The sponsors flood in depending on the team and its players. However, the NBA as an organization also holds sponsors for jersey production and such. In the year 2015, the NBA canceled its contract with Adidas and signed an 8-year long one with Nike for $1 billion. This change alone saw a 245% increase as compared to the previous years.
- Through international revenue, they earn up to $500 million from China as a Chinese technology giant, Tencent has a $1.5 billion deal to be the official digital partner of the NBA. Through deals such as these, the NBA makes a ton of money that is further distributed to the teams, and then given to the players. The team owners generally make less money as compared to the team players but their net worth is much higher than others because their asset holdings are larger.
Conclusion
- The NBA is a professional basketball league played in North America. They are known to have the highest athletes in the world. The NBA consists of 30 teams, 29 from the United States and 1 from Canada.
- The owners of the team are often paid in multiple ways. Apart from the payment from the NBA, they also make money through the sale of the team merchandise, telemarketing, arena revenue, and various other aspects.
- The NBA in turn makes money through sales, ticketing business, sponsorship deals that come, merchandise sales, and the most revenue is produced from the official NBA technology partner that is a Chinese technology giant, Tencent with whom they have a$1.5 billion deal which is hard to match and from this alone, they generate an income of $500 million every year. However, since the NBA is privately owned, their total revenues may not be under discretion but this is all that is clearly available for public access.
- The teams alone also produce a large amount of revenue through sales, concessions stands during the games, merchandise sale, ticket sale, and the premier seating in the arena. They also get paid immensely depending on the sponsorship deal that they have received. Sponsorships depend on the team and its players. If there are more high-profile players, there will be more sponsorship deals coming in.
- The owners of each team are responsible for the well-being and the overall safety of their team members. They are not paid as well as the players but the team, which is the money-making factor will continue in his family.
