One Hot Ticket
Dallas Mavericks cash in among most expensive tickets in NBA right now
Cooper Flagg's Mavericks and Luka Doncic's Lakers have two of the highest priced tickets in the NBA this season.
With a losing record of 13-23 as of Monday, January 5, the Dallas Mavericks probably aren’t the hottest ticket in town. Nonetheless, a ticket to a Mavs game at the American Airlines Center fetches one of the highest prices in the NBA right now.
Based on data from ticket broker SeatGeek, online betting platform eSportstars.io ranks a Mavs ticket as the fifth most expensive in the NBA, with an average price of $215. Ahead of the Mavs are the Los Angeles Lakers ($365.75), Golden State Warriors ($279.47), Boston Celtics ($247.96), and New York Knicks ($238.49).
In the past couple of years, Mavs fans have witnessed two significant on-the-court and off-the-court changes that could have affected ticket prices.
Last February, the Mavs traded point guard and shooting guard Luka Dončić to the Lakers as part of a three-team deal. Dončić now plays under a three-year, $165 million contract whose value could balloon to a record-setting $417 million in 2028. Five years ago, Dončić signed a five-year, $207 million contract with the Mavs.
In 2024, a year before the Dončić trade, Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban sold a majority stake in the Mavs to the family of Las Vegas casino billionaire Miriam Adelson for about $3.5 billion. He retained a 27 percent minority stake along with control of basketball operations.
Months afterward, Cuban revealed the primary reason for selling the $3.5 billion stake.
“Running a professional sports team isn’t always good,” Cuban said. “When you’re winning, it’s great. When you’re going to the finals, everybody loves you. But when you’re having a bad season — you see the hate on social media. I just don’t want [my three children] to put up with that abuse.”
Although both events were momentous, Dončić’s exit from the Mavs and Cuban’s sale of a majority stake apparently haven’t had a big impact on the team’s lofty ticket prices.
In fact, according to eSportstars.io, it’s cheaper to see Texas’ two other NBA teams — the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets — in action than the Mavs. The average ticket to a Spurs game costs $141, putting it in 12th place among NBA teams. The Rockets sit at No. 23, with an average ticket price of $95.50. So far this season, the Spurs and Rockets enjoy winning records.
Just north of Texas, the Oklahoma City Thunder boasted the best NBA record (30-6) as of Monday, January 5. The average ticket to a Thunder game goes for $137, sandwiching it between the Spurs and Rockets.
While a Mavs ticket might be the most expensive among Texas’ three NBA teams, the Dallas franchise isn’t the state’s most valuable. That honor goes to the Rockets, whose value stood at $5.9 billion in 2025, making it the league’s seventh most valuable NBA franchise, according to Forbes.
The Mavs landed at No. 13, with a value of $5.1 billion, and the Spurs ranked 19th, with a value of $4.4 billion. The NBA’s most valuable team? The Golden State Warriors, at $11 billion.
