The NFL has long been the dominant U.S. sport league, raking in far more revenue than basketball, baseball and hockey. But that could change.
It’s only a matter of time until the NBA, buoyed by the league’s global fan base, takes over the top spot, says Wes Edens, part owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and co-chief executive officer of Fortress Investment Group LLC.
“I say that with all due respect -- the NFL, American football, is an amazing product,” Edens, whose sports holdings also include English soccer team Aston Villa and FlyQuest, an esports franchise, told the Bloomberg Business of Sports <meta itemprop="type" content="StoryLink"><meta itemprop="suid" content="PQJ0ZA6JIJV1">podcast. “I don’t think it has the same broad-base appeal that the other sports do.”
The National Football League remains dominant in the U.S., particularly as a TV product. Consider this: 45 of the top 50 telecasts this season were NFL games. The AFC championship game drew almost 54 million viewers, which is more than double the number of people who watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or the 2018 Oscars.
The NFL, however, is still trying to find its footing outside the U.S., staging regular-season games in London as a way to win new fans. The National Basketball Association, meantime, already has a visible and valuable fan base around the world, including China, where basketball is among the most popular sports.
Fans Worldwide
The NBA’s global nature is one reason its team valuations are skyrocketing.
The Bucks are worth $1.4 billion, almost three times what Edens and his partners paid for the team in 2014. More broadly, this year the average value of an NBA team eclipsed that of a Major League Baseball club for the first time. NFL teams are worth an average $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. The NBA average is second at $1.9 billion, $200 million more than MLB.
As for revenue, the NFL generated about $15 billion this past season and is targeting $25 billion by 2027. The NBA, by comparison, is projected to generate about $9.1 billion this season. Edens gave no timetable for the switch that he says is likely to come but sees growth opportunities everywhere.
“We go to Africa; We go to China,” Edens said, referring to the NBA. “The sports you’re going to see are basically soccer and basketball and now esports. And I own franchises in each one of those leagues, and it’s not an accident.”