How Much Do NBA Owners Make? - Explained with Tables

NBA-Commissioner-Adam-Silver
(NBA Commissioner Adam Silver) - Image is taken from NBA.com


NBA (national basketball association) is one of the biggest and profitable basketball leagues in the United States.

NBA players earn a hefty amount for playing in the season but how much do nba owners make.

To answer this we look into the hierarchy model followed by NBA, We will look at top management through which NBA is managed and run the day-to-day task and company operations.

NBA also consists of 30 teams having 30 different owners  and each owner are high-end individuals with some background in Real states and other business venture

Hard to gather financial information:

As NBA is a privately owned company So, its financial statement is not public but we can make suggestions based on other information available publically and make a good guess of how much NBA owners really make.


NBA owner's Financials income:

Let's first look at NBA hierarchy (Source nba.com)

NBA owners Position Monthly Salary Yearly Income
Adam Silver Commissioner $ 833333.33 $10 Million
David Stern Former Commissioner $1666666.66 $20 Million

Adam silver is the current commissioner of NBA which means he is the owner and topmost person in company. His net worth is 35 million dollars and annual salary of $ 10 million .according to CelebrityNetWorth.

Other than commissioner NBA has 30 teams in total with 30 owners of individual teams. Their net income is following:


NBA Team Owners

Teams Names

Teams Turn over

Tony Ressler

Atlanta Hawks

$ 199 Million

H. Irving Grousbeck

Boston Celtics

$211 Million

Wycliffe Grousbeck

Boston Celtics

$211 Million

Steve Pagliuca

Boston Celtics

$211 Million

Michael Jordan

Charlotte Hornets

$ 183 Million

Jerry Reinsdorf

Chicago Bulls

$213 Million

Dan Gilbert, Gary Gilbert, Gordon Gund and Usher

Cleveland Cavaliers

$11 Million

Mark Cuban

Dallas Mavericks

$231 Million

Stan Kroenke

Denver Nuggets

$185 Million

Tom Gores

Detroit Pistons

$192 Million

Joseph Steven Lacob, Howard Peter Guber

Golden State Warriors

$258 Million

Tilman Joseph Fertitta

Houston Rockets

$223 Million

Herbert Simon

Indiana Pacers

$179 Million

Steve Ballmer

Los Angeles Clippers

$ 219 Million

Jeanie Marie Buss

Los Angeles Lakers

$ 316 Million

Robert J. Pera

Memphis Grizzlies

$ 186 Million

Micky Arison

Miami Heat

$218 Million

Marc Lasry

Milwaukee Bucks

$212 Million

Glen Taylor

Minnesota Timberwolves

$199 Million

Gayle Marie LaJaunie Bird Benson

New Orleans Pelicans

$181 Million

James Dolan

New York Knicks

$ 298 Million

Clay Bennett

Oklahoma City Thunder

$ 183 Million

Richard DeVos Sr.

Orlando Magic

$ 188 Million

Harris Blitzer

Philadelphia 76ers

$ 236 Million

Robert Sarver

Phoenix Suns

$ 206 Million

Paul Allen

Portland Trail Blazers

$ 201 Million

Vivek Ranadivé

Sacramento Kings

$ 192 Million

Peter Holt

San Antonio Spurs

$ 205 Million

Larry Tanenbaum

Toronto Raptors

$ 194 Million

Gail Miller

Utah Jazz

$ 262 Million

 

 

Average = $205 Million

 

Team Turn over source (statista.com)

The Average revenue NBA team owners make is approx. around 205 Million annually excluding arena expenses, NBA players' salaries, and other maintenance expenses.


We can say NBA top owners make around $10 Million annually and NBA team owners make an average of around approx. $205 Million per year excluding the Player’s salary and other expenses.

 

Majority Revenue Generation Stream :

 

Majority of revenue generated by NBA is through ticket sales, NBA player popularity attraction, advertisement revenue, and Merchandise sales.

 

These help the company going and owners making as much money from these sources. Many of the basketball team owners are businessmen, real state owners and a few are former basketball top stars. 

 

As NBA is a profitable business venture so these top high-end individuals are involved in the ownership of teams. You can see from table above that these teams make million of dollars in turnover per year.


More stars more money:

As NBA makes more stars like Michael Jordon, Stephen curry, and Lebron James these are a few of the top NBA basketball stars we know today.

 

Michael Jordon's net worth is around $1.7 billion mentioned in Forbes. That's more than what owners of NBA are making.

 

These top stars are one of the reasons NBA makes huge money. You can think more of these stars will produce more money for the company and also for its owners.


Conclusion:

 

You can now make a good guess of how much NBA owners be making. In numbers, it seems a lot of money but if you include all the expenses with arena expenses, player's salaries, and others This amount becomes less.

 

But still, NBA is a very profitable business and many individuals try to bid and acquire the NBA teams to create more stars and make money off it.

 

There are a lot of money going through Star power, media presentation, advertisement, sponsorships all these go-to players but also a percentage to the company and its owners.


Learn here how to increase vertical jumps and dunks