How much $$$ do teams make in the playoffs?

Edrock · Post #1 » by **Edrock** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:55 pm

Considering I just shelled out my $$$ for my playoff tix, it got me wondering how much extra $$$ do playoff teams make? Per game/per series? I figured a lot of their costs are fixed to the regular season, and beyond any incentives for making the playoffs written into players/coaches' contracts, every playoff game played should be $$$ in the bank.

drsd · Post #2 » by **drsd** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:49 pm

A deep playoff run is where and when teams start making BIG money on jerseys and hats. The games themselves are not particularly financially beneficial (players get more salary, more money is spent on upscale travel and increased monitoring of player habits, etc.). Also, some new TV money starts to pile on.

But in the end, teams make the big money from a title by selling hats and T-shirts.

OMPunk · Post #3 » by **OMPunk** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:59 pm

I've seen estimates on this site before that have said a team makes approximately a million dollars per playoff game. Longer they go I guess the more money they make.

Buckeye-NBAFan · Post #4 » by **Buckeye-NBAFan** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:23 pm

drsd wrote:The games themselves are not particularly financially beneficial (players get more salary, more money is spent on upscale travel and increased monitoring of player habits, etc.).

Players don't get paid from teams for playoff games. That comes from a league pool, and its an insignificant amount. Teams rake in huge profits filling up arenas for playoff games. A deep playoff run can earn half again as much as regular season ticket revenue.

lovehoops01 · Post #5 » by **lovehoops01** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:40 pm

From what I understand, all of the profits from the playoffs go to the individual playoff teams. So the amount of money they make depends on how many home games they play, how much they spend on hosting those games and how many seats they fill every game. FWIW, I had two guys sitting behind me at the last Magic game -- one a Kings fan and one a Lakers fan. They said they had gone to many games at many different locations throughout the country this season and that the Magic tickets were by far the cheapest they had seen. They called the tickets ridiculously cheap.

And from what I understand, the amount of merchandise a team sells has no direct benefit to the team. From what I understand in the CBA, all merchandise sales profits go into one big fund that is split equally between all the NBA teams in a basketball-related income fund. So the Grizzlies make as much money from Magic merchandise sales as the Magic do and the Magic make as much money from Lakers merchandise sales as the Lakers do. If someone has evidence that this is not correct, please correct me and show me where I can get the actual details on that.

rcklsscognition · Post #6 » by **rcklsscognition** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:26 am

There was an article on ESPN the other day, don't remember what it was about, but it said the home teams take in a mil a game. Gotta remember they get ticket revenue and TV revenue cause most of the games are on natl. TV, right? Plus all the merchandising stuff and they must get a share of the away game cash, anyone can verify this? I remember back when the Magic made their finals run all of the little mom and pop joints that opened in the shopping centers around the suburbs selling hats, jerseys, shirts, and such out of cardboard boxes. So much fun it was.

lovehoops01 · Post #7 » by **lovehoops01** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:59 am

I don't know if the teams in the playoffs get extra money from the league for being in the playoffs. It might be that every team is given the same amount of money by the league to split up the total broadcast revenue. I had understood that most of the extra money they made was because they got to keep all the profits from their ticket sales for the playoffs. Figure the Magic, for example. If they host just two home games at an average of $40 apiece, with sellouts at about 17,400, they would gross $1.392 million for two games. Ticket prices might average more than that, I don't know (and certainly do in most cities). Then there are the expenses that go along with hosting the games. There might be TV money, too, but I had not heard that in the past.

mhectorgato · Post #8 » by **mhectorgato** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:59 pm

lovehoops01 wrote:I don't know if the teams in the playoffs get extra money from the league for being in the playoffs. It might be that every team is given the same amount of money by the league to split up the total broadcast revenue. I had understood that most of the extra money they made was because they got to keep all the profits from their ticket sales for the playoffs. Figure the Magic, for example. If they host just two home games at an average of $40 apiece, with sellouts at about 17,400, they would gross $1.392 million for two games. Ticket prices might average more than that, I don't know (and certainly do in most cities). Then there are the expenses that go along with hosting the games. There might be TV money, too, but I had not heard that in the past.

Plus the extra consession money - food, drinks and clothing.

Hopefully we'll have more than just 2 game ;-)