Spending on men’s collegiate basketball teams in King County reached $22,550,331 for 2024, marking a 46.5% rise over the preceding year, data from the U.S. Department of Education show.
Total basketball funding throughout the county amounted to $32,677,637, with men’s teams accounting for $22,550,331 of this sum.
Since 2010, overall sports expenses in the county have climbed by 181.4%.
Basketball is considered one of the most popular college sports in the U.S. along with football, with leading NCAA programs attracting large crowds and viewership numbers that often rival NBA games. Major tournaments such as March Madness are watched by millions every year.
The landscape for college athletics shifted after a federal settlement enabled schools to directly share revenue with athletes for the first time. The settlement orders the NCAA to pay $2.8 billion in back damages over a decade to athletes who participated since 2016.
In 2022, following legislative and legal actions, athletes were granted the ability to earn money from their names, images and likenesses via state law and a policy revision by the NCAA.
The NCAA brought in approximately $900 million from March Madness and related Division I men’s basketball tournament media rights in the 2024 fiscal year, making men’s basketball the largest revenue source for the association.
| Year | Basketball team’s expenditures | % from grand total sport team expenditures | Total Sport Team Expenditures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $22,550,331 | 10.1% | $222,416,229 |
| 2023 | $15,390,699 | 8.8% | $174,151,704 |
| 2022 | $15,867,705 | 9.4% | $169,359,926 |
| 2021 | $11,112,603 | 9.9% | $112,204,386 |
| 2020 | $14,953,005 | 10% | $149,700,048 |
Information in this article comes from the U.S. Department of Education. The source data is available here.
