Adam Silver on how the value of NBA teams grew 55 times

When Adam Silver first started working for the league in 1992, as an assistant to then-commissioner David Stern, the average value of a National Basketball Association franchise was around $70 million. Today, a decade after Silver became commissioner himself, Forbes places the average team valuation at $3.85 billion, 55 times higher.

The sport benefited as media and technology evolved, Silver said in an interview with Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird Capital Partners, at the Goldman Sachs Alternatives Summit in New York. Sports today are “almost the only programming that people truly care about watching live,” Silver said. People are attending NBA games in record numbers, and high-quality streaming makes it possible to watch live not just on television but on all types of devices.

Though it was once predicted that high-definition broadcasts would mean fewer fans coming to games in person, attendance has soared. “We don’t have enough tickets to sell, especially premium tickets,” Silver said, noting that arenas were 95% full last season. “People want that shared experience.”

Because seats in arenas are limited, the challenge becomes how to replicate the live experience in other ways, Silver said. That means not just passively relying on media companies to broadcast games, Silver said, but looking for ways to personalize and customize the viewer experience. The NBA’s existing television contracts run through the 2024-25 season. As Silver thinks about what comes next, he wants to know who can do the best job producing NBA basketball and who can be the most innovative. 

“Even if you’re watching on your phone, it’s still essentially a lean-back experience, but the future is invariably a much more engaging experience,” he said. Already, people watching a game may be placing bets online at the same time or debating a referee’s call with friends on social media. Activities like those combined with new technologies should make it possible to “bring that community together kind of in the same way we do in an arena,” he said.

Silver also sees significant potential for the NBA as a global brand, with social media reaching 2 billion people when you count the league, the teams, and the players. Something in the range of 1 billion people will watch a portion of a game this season.

The NBA has partnered with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to create the Basketball Africa League, which will have its fourth season next year, with 12 teams. But Silver said he loses sleep over the question of whether the league should be investing more aggressively outside the US. Soccer and basketball “are the two truly global sports,” Silver said, adding that there are multiple elite soccer leagues around the world but only one NBA.

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