The Athletic released an article this past Friday that ranked all 30 NBA teams in terms of the bang-for-your-buck Fan Cost Index (FCI), which summarizes the total costs of a family of four to attend an NBA game:
“The fan costs for the U.S. major sports leagues are calculated annually by Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based sports business intelligence firm that since 1991 has crunched and published the numbers after conducting team surveys. The cost metrics are based on the average cost of four non-premium tickets, two beers, two sodas, four hot dogs, two souvenir hats (as a proxy for merch buying) and parking.
Premium seating isn’t included in the basic FCI rankings. Nor are secondary market ticket sales, which are a litmus test of a team’s popularity as a season progresses.”
The Thunder came in ranked 21st in the league with an FCI of $357.98 total for an outing to attend a home game at Paycom Center this past season. This is a 0.6 percent increase from last season.
Now, the Thunder have a unique case as they were the only team in the league last season who did not allow fans into their home games for the entire 36 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article does not detail if the increase takes into account last season or the 2019-20 season, which was the last time the team had fans at then-Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Either way, while it is more expensive now to attend Thunder home games for a family of four, it is still relatively cheap when compared to the rest of the league. The league average for this season was $444.12.
