How Much Playing in the Bubble Cost Each NBA Team

No matter how anyone feels about LeBron James’ conquest of the NBA Championship with his third franchise, all fans should be grateful there was any playoff action at all. When the pandemic put the league on pause in March, it was never certain that there would even be a 2020 postseason.

Each NBA team played between 63-67 games before the shutdown instead of a standard 82 games. That’s an average of 32 1/2 home games each instead of 41 in a normal season. That leaves an 8 1/2 home game deficit for each of the 22 teams that continued on to the bubble when play resumed.

In order to find out how much was lost by playing to empty stands, GOBankingRates added each team’s lost ticket revenue with their lost non-ticket revenue. Lost ticket revenue was calculated by multiplying each team’s average home game attendance, as reported by ESPN, by its average ticket price, as reported by TicketIQ, and multiplying the total by 8 1/2 games not played.

It’s difficult to gauge exactly what each individual team earns per stadium game in non-ticket revenue for things like food, drinks and merchandise. But Sports Business Daily estimated at the start of the shutdown that it’s between $500,000-$750,000 per team per game for an average of $625,000. Multiplied by 8 1/2 games, that’s $5.31 million, which only adds to the enormous amount of revenue already lost due to the pandemic. Teams were ranked from least amount lost to most.

Take a look at how the pandemic — and the missing games — have impacted your team’s finances.

Last updated: Oct. 22, 2020

• Average attendance: 15,857
• Average ticket price: $73
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $15.17 million

• Average attendance: 15,732
• Average ticket price: $85
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $16.70 million

• Average attendance: 17,092
• Average ticket price: $87
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $17.98 million

• Average attendance: 16,646
• Average ticket price: $92
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $18.32 million

• Average attendance: 16,531
• Average ticket price: $94
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $18.49 million

• Average attendance: 16,505
• Average ticket price: $105
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $20.02 million

• Average attendance: 16,795
• Average ticket price: $107
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $20.61 million

• Average attendance: 19,633
• Average ticket price: $103
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $22.48 million

• Average attendance: 18,306
• Average ticket price: $117
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $23.5 million

• Average attendance: 20,061
• Average ticket price: $110
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $24.1 million

• Average attendance: 17,710
• Average ticket price: $132
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $25.2 million

• Average attendance: 18,203
• Average ticket price: $137
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $26.48 million

• Average attendance: 19,089
• Average ticket price: $154
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $30.3 million

• Average attendance: 19,186
• Average ticket price: $154
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $30.39 million

• Average attendance: 19,680
• Average ticket price: $150
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $30.39 million

• Average attendance: 20,628
• Average ticket price: $150
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $31.58 million

• Average attendance: 18,350
• Average ticket price: $177
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $32.94 million

• Average attendance: 18,076
• Average ticket price: $189
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $34.38 million

• Average attendance: 19,795
• Average ticket price: $179
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $35.40 million

• Average attendance: 16,403
• Average ticket price: $242
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $39.06 million

• Average attendance: 19,068
• Average ticket price: $267
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $48.58 million

• Average attendance: 18,997
• Average ticket price: $473
• Food and merchandise revenue per home game: $625,000
• Amount lost playing the remainder of the season in the bubble: $81.73 million

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