Sports

Forbes’ NBA Team Values 2020: Where The Atlanta Hawks Rank

Forbes released its 22nd annual valuations of the NBA's 30 teams. Here's how our hometown team fared.

The New York Knicks earned the top valuation in the National Basketball Association for the fifth straight year.
The New York Knicks earned the top valuation in the National Basketball Association for the fifth straight year. (Photo Credit: Shutterstock)

Winning games may be one of the best ways to lift a National Basketball Association team’s value, according to Forbes’ 2020 franchise valuations, but nothing beats the impact of a major market.

The Atlanta Hawks was ranked 23 out of 30 NBA teams in current value, according to Forbes’ “The Business of Basketball,” which the business magazine released this week.

The Hawks are currently worth $1.52 billion. The figure represents a team valuation up 17 percent from the 2018-19 season.

Find out what's happening in Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Here’s other important information about the Atlanta Hawks basketball team.

  • Price Paid By Current Owner For Team: $730 million
  • Revenue Per Fan: $20
  • Media Partners: Tv: Fox Sports Southeast; Radio: Entercom 92.9 The Game
  • Average Ticket Price: $72
  • Player Expenses: $95 million

The New York Knicks rank as the current highest valued team in the NBA. The Madison Square Garden franchise is valued at $4.6 billion, with only the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors joining the Knicks in the $4 billion club.

Find out what's happening in Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Toronto Raptors, the reigning NBA champions, enjoyed the biggest boost in value, according to Forbes. The Raptors are now worth $2.1 billion, a 25 percent increase from last year’s figure.

It is the first time in league history that the average NBA team is worth more than $2 billion, Forbes reported. Additionally, NBA franchises overall increased by 14 percent during the last year, compared to an 11 percent increase for NFL teams and an 8 percent increase from Major League Baseball franchises.

Since 2010, the average NBA team value is up nearly sixfold.

The Memphis Grizzlies are the lowest currently valued team in the NBA at $1.3 billion. The bottom five are rounded out by the New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons.

Forbes compiled the 22nd annual version of its NBA valuation list by using “revenue multiples to calculate our team values (equity plus net debt) based on the economics of each team’s current arena deal,” authors of the Forbes study wrote in a section labeled “Methodology.”

You can read more about how the business magazine calculated the valuations of each NBA franchise on its website.

Here are the current top 10 highest valued teams in the NBA, according to Forbes:

  1. New York Knicks: $4.6 billion
  2. Los Angeles Lakers: $4.4 billion
  3. Golden State Warriors: $4.3 billion
  4. Chicago Bulls: $3.2 billion
  5. Boston Celtics: $3.1 billion
  6. Los Angeles Clippers: $2.6 billion
  7. Brooklyn Nets: $2.5 billion
  8. Houston Rockets: $2.475 billion
  9. Dallas Mavericks: $2.4 billion
  10. Toronto Raptors: $2.1 billion

The full list of NBA franchise valuations is available on Forbes’ website.


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