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The NBA has been a business since it started in 1946. Throughout the years, commissioners have done their best to make it the best league in the world, and they've reached that feat for quite a while now. But change is inevitable, and even the association isn't immune to it.
Patrick Bet-David, a podcaster, broke down an interesting take on the revenue that the league has been getting. There's no denying that there's been a decline in viewership for the past few seasons, which has affected their earnings. Despite having major sponsors, they're still on a gradual decline.
Bet-David pointed out that the league has lost half of the U.S. On Christmas, they had five games but only generated $14.2 million. The NFL, on the other hand, only had three games but earned $85.6 million.
He brought up the topic of the views the league had in 2022 compared to the views that the NFL had. The association had 4.3 million views per game while the football league had 21.9 million views per game.
In the past, commissioner Adam Silver mentioned that the decline of cable TV has affected the league's revenue. However, Bet-David believes that it should have affected the NFL since they both rely on views to generate revenue.
In 2022, the league ranked third in revenues among all the major leagues in America. The NFL had $17 billion, which puts them at the top. The second place belongs to the MLB, which had $10.5 billion. The NBA takes the third spot with $9.6 billion. The NHL and MLS take the fourth and fifth spots with $4.9 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.
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What are some of the reasons for the NBA's decline in viewership?
There are a good number of reasons the NBA can bring up when addressing its decline in viewership. Bet-David lists a few of them that have affected the fans losing interest in the league.
They don't cater to fans
According to Bet-David, successful leagues listen to their fans. Unfortunately, that hasn't been what the association has done for the past few years, and has listened and catered mostly to what the players want.
This has caused most stars in the league to be entitled, often getting what they want.
Contracts protect the players more
We are in the age where stars sign massive deals to stay with one team. Fans expect players to stay healthy, keep their bodies conditioned, and play games consistently since they're given massive contracts.
Unfortunately, players play fewer games in this era. This has disappointed fans as they want to see players play games competitively.
The league has become too political
During the COVID-19 pandemic, players became involved in political events that left fans uninterested. Most fans only care about stars playing basketball without having to think about the political stances of players.
The woke charge of the NBA has caused them to lose viewers.
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