A rather significant report by ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst came out on Tuesday, revealing that 14 of the NBA’s 30 franchises lost money before collective revenue payouts last season, and that nine teams were in the red even after those. One of the team’s not included on that list? The Golden State Warriors.
In fact the Warriors finished the 2016-17 with the second highest net income after revenue sharing, raking in $91.1 million according to the report. Golden State’s NBA Finals run played a large part in the team’s profits, making nearly $15 million per NBA Finals game at Oracle Arena, and netting $44.3 million from just nine playoff home games last season. To put those numbers in perspective, the Warriors made more money in one Finals home game than the Memphis Grizzlies made from their local media deal all of last year.
The only team that made more money in 16-17 was the Los Angeles Lakers, who finished with a net income of $115.4 million. The Brooklyn Nets and Detroit Pistons lost the most money after revenue sharing last season, losing $44.3 million and $45.1 million respectively.
This is just the beginning for the Warriors, who are scheduled to move into the Chase Center, a new state of the art arena in San Francisco, when it’s completed in 2019. Also according to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, the Warriors will be “re-setting” their local television deal with NBC Sports Bay Area in the coming years, in what is sure to be a lucrative contract.