Operating the three-month completion of the NBA season at Walt Disney World will cost the NBA more than $150 million, multiple sources told ESPN.
The league is housing 22 teams plus support staff at three different resorts, has arranged for seven practice courts and is playing games at three different arenas during the quarantine. They are also providing meals, daily coronavirus testing and other medical support, security, transportation and entertainment for more than 1,500 people during the height of the event.
“It comes into play that we feel an obligation to our sport and to the industry to find a new normal,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told Time Magazine earlier this week. “It doesn’t come into play in terms of dollars and cents because frankly, it’s not all that economical for us to play on this campus. It’s enormously expensive.”
Not included in this expense is the loss of revenue because teams won’t be selling tickets. The league is projecting to lose more than $1 billion in revenue because of the coronavirus, sources said, before considering the cost of finishing the season in Orlando.
However, by playing 88 regular season games and four rounds of playoffs the league is sheltering itself from more extended losses. The players will retain more than $600 million in salary that could’ve been lost if the season was canceled and NBA teams protected hundreds of millions in potential loss of television revenue.
