A snapshot of the weekly NBA team Web site traffic rankings show that the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers attract the highest number of team page views, with the Lakers also leading the league in average daily unique visitors.
The Lakers.com team site had 1,861,636 page views during the week ended Feb. 1, while the Cavaliers attracted 1,763,416 page views. While it’s little surprise that the marquee Lakers, led by superstar Kobe Bryant, generated the greatest traction, it’s notable that the Cavaliers, even with LeBron James, are a close second given the much smaller Cleveland market size.
“The Cavaliers are very interesting given that they are in a much smaller market, but when you see a team that is not in the top-10 media market but getting that type of traffic, it starts to show that the fan base is no longer found just in the market to where the team lives,” said Pat Coyle, president of Coyle Media and who also runs SportsMarketing20.com, a digital marketing online community.
For the month of January on NBA.com, the total number of team site page views grew by 15 percent compared with last January, league officials said. To date, NBA.com is averaging more than 26 million page views per day this season, an increase of more than 15 percent when compared with the same time period during the 2007-08 NBA season.
The weekly Web site data, obtained by SportsBusiness Journal from an NBA team source, shows that traffic to team sites drops off significantly after the Lakers and Cavaliers. For example, the Boston Celtics had the third-highest page views behind the Lakers and Cavs at 986,064, or nearly half the number as the league-leading Lakers. The Oklahoma City Thunder ranked last in team site page views with 98,087 views for the week, with the Sacramento Kings at 149,995 and the New Jersey Nets at 151,568 rounding out the bottom three.
While the Lakers and Cavs had people drilling deeper in their team sites, generating a greater number of page views, the average number of actual daily visitors, measured as unique visits, propelled the Celtics to No. 2 in the league.
The Lakers led the NBA in average daily unique site visitors with 100,345, followed by the Celtics with 50,968 average daily unique visits for the week. The Cavaliers were third with 50,367 average daily unique visits.
| Traffic to NBA.com team sites |
| The Los Angeles Lakers attracted more than 100,000 people daily to their Web site during the week of Jan. 26 through Feb. 1, with those visitors together looking at more than 1.8 million site pages for the week. |
| Team Site Page Views | Average Daily Uniques |
| Rank | Team | No. of page views | Rank | Team | No. of visitors |
| 1 | Los Angeles Lakers | 1,861,636 | 1 | Los Angeles Lakers | 100,345 |
| 2 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 1,763,416 | 2 | Boston Celtics | 50,968 |
| 3 | Boston Celtics | 986,064 | 3 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 50,367 |
| 4 | Miami Heat | 806,203 | 4 | Toronto Raptors | 33,082 |
| 5 | Toronto Raptors | 674,601 | 5 | Phoenix Suns | 27,224 |
| 6 | Phoenix Suns | 664,444 | 6 | San Antonio Spurs | 27,109 |
| 7 | Orlando Magic | 551,029 | 7 | Chicago Bulls | 26,843 |
| 8 | New York Knicks | 519,473 | 8 | Houston Rockets | 25,482 |
| 9 | San Antonio Spurs | 501,586 | 9 | New York Knicks | 23,905 |
| 10 | Chicago Bulls | 483,585 | 10 | Detroit Pistons | 21,980 |
| 11 | Detroit Pistons | 477,438 | 11 | Miami Heat | 18,057 |
| 12 | Houston Rockets | 414,623 | 12 | Portland Trail Blazers | 17,798 |
| 13 | Portland Trail Blazers | 413,950 | 13 | Orlando Magic | 17,215 |
| 14 | Charlotte Bobcats | 364,412 | 14 | Dallas Mavericks | 14,962 |
| 15 | Memphis Grizzlies | 330,668 | 15 | Denver Nuggets | 13,987 |
| 16 | Dallas Mavericks | 291,794 | 16 | Golden State Warriors | 13,126 |
| 17 | Indiana Pacers | 291,150 | 17 | Philadelphia 76ers | 13,027 |
| 18 | Washington Wizards | 284,340 | 18 | Charlotte Bobcats | 12,544 |
| 19 | New Orleans Hornets | 284,085 | 19 | Indiana Pacers | 12,487 |
| 20 | Golden State Warriors | 280,377 | 20 | Utah Jazz | 12,206 |
| 21 | Atlanta Hawks | 262,445 | 21 | New Orleans Hornets | 12,204 |
| 22 | Denver Nuggets | 250,035 | 22 | Washington Wizards | 11,452 |
| 23 | Philadelphia 76ers | 248,990 | 23 | Atlanta Hawks | 11,250 |
| 24 | Los Angeles Clippers | 242,857 | 24 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 10,840 |
| 25 | Utah Jazz | 228,908 | 25 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 9,558 |
| 26 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 219,835 | 26 | New Jersey Nets | 8,976 |
| 27 | Milwaukee Bucks | 215,717 | 27 | Milwaukee Bucks | 8,847 |
| 28 | New Jersey Nets | 151,568 | 28 | Memphis Grizzlies | 8,781 |
| 29 | Sacramento Kings | 149,995 | 29 | Los Angeles Clippers | 8,624 |
| 30 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 98,087 | 30 | Sacramento Kings | 7,590 |
| | TOTAL | 14,313,311 | | AVG. PER TEAM | 21,028 |
