Playing games without fans has its cost. Not only does it take away the atmosphere from the games but it also has major financial consequences. According to ticketiQ, the NBA teams are estimated to lose close to $1 billion in playoff ticket market value.
That estimate is based on 2019 secondary market value*number of seats*number of games canceled or played without fans. This is not a precise measure, but the simplest way to benchmark the magnitude of losses, by team and conference. For the entire NBA playoffs, the estimated ticket market value is just under $998 million (***This is not reflective of revenue losses for the teams themselves, but an estimate of their overall ticket market value***).
For the NBA, losses from the 56 potential opening round games total $308,335,734 based upon the 2019 opening round average resale ticket price of $294.
With a lesser amount of games (28), the Conference Semifinals ticket market value is $179,338,131 (based on 2019 $342 Conference Semifinals average ticket price on the resale market). This increases for the Conference Finals where average ticket price jumps to $758 totalling $198,740,210 over 14 possible games. Finally, the NBA Finals, which saw a $2,374 average resale ticket price in 2019 equates to a potential $311,219,827 loss over a 7 game series. This totals just under $1 billion in lost ticket revenue – $997,633,901.
