Sports Unites America, and Reaps Big Profits. Brooklyn Nets/BSE Now Worth $7.45 Billion.

I’ll moderate an online discussion, Will Atlantic Yards’ Third Time Be the Charm or a Strikeout? on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 6:30 pm, sponsored by The City Club of New York. Free registration here. (It will also be available on YouTube afterward.)

Panelists include Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, Gib Veconi (Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council/BrooklynSpeaks), John Shapiro (Pratt Institute, City Club), and Ismene Speliotis (Mutual Housing Association of New York, formerly ACORN Housing).

An Oct. 3 New York Times essay concluded that sports brings people together:

Sports might be the last remaining American cultural institution that spans our political divides.

Across a series of national surveys of 50,674 Americans, we found that every fan base in Major League Baseball, the National Football League and top college football programs remains politically diverse. Our team allegiances bring us into contact with people from the other side to cheer together in common cause. We high-five each other along the way. Ohio State versus Michigan? Packers versus Bears? Yankees versus Red Sox? For fans following these longtime rivals, passion for their team often dwarfs their political passion.

Shared fandom may help people talk with those with different politics, but it doesn’t mean they agree politically. As one Times commenter put it, “If you support the same team as I do but think Trump is the second coming, my conclusion is that you are pathetic and not worth my time.”

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Still, it’s notable that, as the authors write, “Seventy-six percent of American adults are sports fans, and about two-thirds of them say their fandom is central to their identities.” That’s about half the country.

Though some Times commenters suggested that concerts and arts organizations also bring people together, I agree that sports has a special pull and supplies extra fodder for discussion. As another commenter pointed out, high school sports are central to many small towns.

Some more skeptical pointed to the corruption of gambling and “the ugly stain of CTE.”

Are professional sports teams parts of civic identity? For many, yes.

Are they public trusts? Not all.

Except for the publicly owned, nonprofit Green Bay Packers, they’re private companies (even if a few are publicly traded), yet they rely significantly on government support. So we should think carefully about what subsidy skeptic Bettina Damiani called privately owned “sports entertainment corporations.”

The New York Knicks, who play in the unconscionably tax-exempt Madison Square Garden, are worth $12.8 billion, according to Sportico, which now suggests the average NBA team is worth $6.64 billion.

Full list: sportico.com/feature/nba-te…

1:14 PM · Oct 9, 2026 · 73.7K Views

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Sportico estimates the Brooklyn Nets and associated businesses are worth $7.45 billion, up nearly 20% from $6.22 billion in 2025. The value was $5.7 billion in 2024.

That’s mainly due to rising NBA team values, driven by competition from investors (for rare commodities), growing media rights deals, and salary caps. The increase in the New York Liberty’s value, most recently estimated at $600 million (see below), surely helps.

As NetsDaily pointed out, that’s more than double what Joe and Clara Wu Tsai paid in 2019, a sum Joe Tsai said was about $3.25 billion.

That reinforces the question I raised in May.

As I’ve written, New York state officials, poised to make the valuable plaza permanent, have leverage to get Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment to pay for the privilege. They just don’t have the will.