The NBA’s Business Model

How the National Basketball Association makes money

By Trevir I Nath

Updated August 13, 2025

While Major League Baseball’s (MLB’s) popularity wanes and safety issues plague the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA) continues to shine. Contributing to its growth, the NBA has focused on expanding basketball viewership overseas to Europe and China. On the world stage, basketball is second only to soccer. With expanding viewership, revenue in the NBA has significantly grown. The average NBA team is worth $4.66 billion, according to an estimate by CNBC in February 2025. The most valuable team is the Golden State Warriors, worth $9.4 billion. Basketball‑related income includes broadcast rights, advertising, merchandising, and concessions, among other things. The NBA’s deal with ESPN/ABC, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video for U.S. broadcast rights will bring in an average of $6.9 billion a season beginning with the 2025–2026 season.

Key Takeaways
- Broadcast rights are a key revenue source, bringing in an average $6.9 billion per season as of 2025–2026.
- Licensing agreements include more than $1 billion from Nike for branded basketball shoes and apparel.
- International interest in basketball is growing.

Basketball‑Related Income
Most of the revenue generated by the NBA and its subsidiaries is classified as basketball‑related income (BRI). This includes ticket purchases and concessions, broadcast deals, and merchandising rights from jersey and apparel sales. Not included in BRI are proceeds toward expansion teams, fines levied throughout the season, and revenue sharing. Because BRI contributes to calculating the salary cap, revenue sharing must be excluded from BRI because it would present an economic advantage to big‑market teams. Hypothetically, the highest revenue‑generating teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers or the New York Knicks, would drive the salary cap up, forcing small‑market teams to spend exorbitant amounts to retain players. This leads to an unsustainable system and economic disparity among franchises. For this reason, revenue sharing is not designated as basketball‑related income.

Television Deals
Over the past 16 years, TV viewership in general has steadily declined due to competition from streaming services. However, live sports have remained largely immune to this trend. The networks are paying huge amounts to retain the rights to televise these games. The end of the 2024–2025 season was also the end of the NBA’s nine‑year, $24 billion media rights deal with ESPN and Turner Sports. That deal, announced in 2016, paid the NBA a total of $2.66 billion each season. In July 2024, the NBA announced an 11‑year, $76 billion media rights deal with The Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) ABC and ESPN, Comcast (CMCSA) unit NBCUniversal’s NBC and Peacock, and Amazon’s (AMZN) Prime Video. The deal will bring in an average of $6.9 billion a season from 2025–2026 to 2035–2036 for games broadcast on ABC, ESPN, and NBC and streamed on Amazon Prime Video, ESPN, and Peacock. It left out Warner Bros. Discovery, whose TNT Sports unit held NBA rights since 1989.

Ticket Sales and Concessions
While not a primary revenue stream, ticket sales remain an important way for teams to make money. The Chicago Bulls, who continually have some of the highest attendance rates in the league, had an average attendance of 20,138 people at home games in the 2024–2025 season. The New York Knicks had the most expensive tickets in the league in the 2024–2025 season, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors. The average cost of taking a family of four to an NBA game in the 2024–2025 season was $320.31. This includes the cost of the cheapest available tickets, parking, and concessions.

Licensing Agreements and Sponsorships
In October 2024, the NBA and Nike (NKE) signed a 12‑year extension to their contract for branded basketball shoes and apparel that began with the 2017–2018 season. The original contract was worth $1 billion a year, but the extension is believed to significantly exceed that. It is estimated that Nike brands control 90% of U.S. basketball shoe sales. Many of the NBA’s biggest stars, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, have lucrative endorsement deals with the world’s largest shoe and apparel company. When you attend an NBA game, you can hardly miss the signs of sponsors and brands located around the arena. In the 2024–2025 season, the NBA generated a record $1.62 billion in revenue from these corporate sponsors. Banks and financial services firms are the biggest spenders, but technology firms are increasingly associating themselves with the NBA.

Revenue Sharing
Like MLB and the NFL, the NBA operates with a revenue‑sharing system. As noted above, revenue from this system is not included in basketball‑related income. Revenue sharing in the NBA addresses the inequitable circumstances between small and big markets. As a result, all teams pool their annual revenue and redistribute it from high‑grossing teams to low‑grossing ones. By these means, each team will receive revenue equal to the salary cap that year. To receive the full revenue‑sharing benefits, the revenue structure requires small‑market teams to generate revenue equal to at least 70% of the league average. The salary cap for the 2025–2026 season will be $154.647 million per team.

International Growth
With more international players appearing on NBA rosters, the sport’s global appeal is growing. On the opening night of the 2024–2025 season, 125 international players from 43 countries were active on team rosters. They included two‑time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who hails from Greece. As this number continues to grow, the NBA will look to international markets to promote media broadcasts and merchandise sales. The league has scheduled preseason games in Australia, China, and the United Arab Emirates and regular‑season games in Mexico and Europe for the 2025–2026 season, and we may even see a European‑based NBA league in the not‑too‑distant future.

What Is America’s Favorite Sport? Sorry, NBA. Football has been America’s favorite sport to watch since 1972, when it surpassed baseball for the first time, according to Gallup. Basketball and baseball are now essentially tied in popularity.

Are NBA Games Broadcast Abroad? The NBA’s 11‑year, $76 billion media rights deal with ESPN/ABC, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video will allow games to be televised in more than 200 countries and territories beginning with the 2025–2026 season.

When Was the NBA Founded? The NBA has its origins in the creation of the Basketball Association of America in 1946. In 1949, that group merged with the National Basketball League and was renamed the National Basketball Association.

The Bottom Line
Drawing interest domestically and abroad, the NBA has seen its popularity and revenue streams rapidly increase over the past few years. With a TV deal valued at $76 billion, a Nike deal exceeding $1 billion, an increasing number of corporate sponsors, rapid international growth, and an average NBA team value nearing $5 billion, the NBA is firmly entrenched among the biggest and most valuable leagues in all of world sports.

Article Sources
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The NBA’s Business Model

The article explains how the NBA generates revenue through broadcast rights, sponsorships, licensing, ticket sales, and international expansion. It highlights the league’s recent 11‑year, $76 billion media rights deal, the record $1.62 billion in corporate sponsorship revenue, and the growing presence of international players. It also covers team valuations, salary cap details, and the NBA’s revenue‑sharing system.