Whatever the concerns about NBA television ratings — a much more complicated number to get into in the age of streaming — fans are still showing up in record numbers to see games in person.
This past season, the NBA set records in total attendance, average attendance, and the number of sellouts — the second season in a row the league has set records. The NBA had 22.5 million fans stream through the gates for games this season (up from 22.2 million a year ago), and the average attendance for an NBA game this season was 18,322 and there were 872 sellouts, which is 71% of games.
There were 10 teams that sold out every home game: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings.
Unsurprisingly, teams that saw improvement on the court — and, in one case, added a huge third star in James Harden — saw the biggest jumps in attendance. The Oklahoma City Thunder saw a 12.3% increase in attendance and that was followed by the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs.
The In-Season Tournament — now called the NBA Cup — helped boost NBA attendance in November to its highest levels yet.
The task for the NBA to keep this attendance up is to transition from the older generation of stars — LeBron James, Stephen Curry, etc. — to the up-and-coming players such as Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Victor Wembanyama. Part of that is players like Edwards and SGA making their mark in the playoffs, where NBA stars are truly formed.
