LeBron James is set to join the Philadelphia 76ers.
Within hours of the announcement, StubHub reported a 207x increase in Sixers ticket demand and a 470x increase in searches. On SeatGeek, the cheapest ticket for Philadelphia’s 16 October preseason game against Boston jumped from $107 to $540 in less than an hour. The first run of adult No. 23 Swingman jerseys sold out on Fanatics in roughly 2 hours.
Very few athletes can move demand around an NBA franchise this quickly. For the next 2 seasons, Philadelphia has one of them.
Forbes now values the franchise at $5.45 billion, while CNBC puts it at $6.1 billion. In 2024/25, despite missing the playoffs, the Sixers generated an estimated $472 million of revenue and $203 million of operating income, equivalent to an extraordinary 43% margin.
There is another major source of value coming.
HBSE already owns 50% of the joint venture developing Philadelphia’s future arena with Comcast Spectacor. The Sixers remain tenants today, but when the arena opens in 2030, HBSE will gain direct exposure to venue and live entertainment economics for the first time.
365247 gets inside the business of the Philadelphia 76ers, the Philadelphia market and how the next few years could reshape what the franchise is worth.