Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt opened up talks on a potential new arena for the Oklahoma City Thunder during his State of the City address earlier this month.
Holt announced that the team signed an extension to their lease with Paycom Center — who’s been home to the Thunder since their arrival in 2008 — that will keep the team there for four more seasons.
But after the 2025-26 season, Holt ideally wants the team to have a new arena done or close to done by then to secure the long-term future of the franchise in the city.
A lot of talk has thus occurred from both sides of the fence on how much a new arena should be publicly funded when the franchise is worth over $1.6 billion.
When nuanced dialogues such as these occur, it’s important to look back at history to provide some historical reference on how much arena constructions usually cost. This article will provide a clearer picture of that as it will list out all 29 NBA arenas and how much it costed to construct them.
It’s important to note that most of these costs have an inflation-adjusted 2021 number to correspond with it as it will help provide the full picture for some of the older arenas in the league that were made in the 1990s and early 2000s.
While some arenas have undergone expensive renovations since opening, those numbers will not be reflective on this piece for simplicity’s sake.
With all that clarified, let’s rank the 29 NBA arenas from the most expensive to least expensive in terms of raw construction cost.
1. Chase Center
Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Team: Golden State Warriors
Construction cost: $1.4 billion
Construction cost in 2021 dollars: $1.48 billion
Opened: 2019
2. Fiserv Forum
Team: Milwaukee Bucks
Construction cost: $1.2 billion
Opened: 2018
3. Barclays Center
Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Team: Brooklyn Nets
Construction cost: $1 billion
Construction cost in 2021 dollars: $1.18 billion
Opened: 2012
4. Little Caesars Arena
Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Team: Detroit Pistons
Construction cost: $862.9 million
Construction cost in 2021 dollars: $988 million
Opened: 2017
5. Golden 1 Center
Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Team: Sacramento Kings
Construction cost: $558.2 million
Opened: 2016
6. Amway…
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