Published on July 27 | Last updated on July 30
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Now that LeBron James has officially signed with the 76ers, experts expect he’ll have a sizable economic impact on the Philadelphia region. And that’s on the heels of a banner summer for Philly.
Just as the city was beginning to cool down from a summer filled with FIFA World Cup games, the MLB All-Star Game and other America 250 events which generated major revenue, the King decreed he would finish his reign here in Philly.
“It’s Christmas in July for local businesses in Philadelphia. “We’re projecting an economic impact between $250-to-$430 million,” said John Boyd, principal of the Boyd Company, a corporate site selection firm. The company owns BizCosts.com, which does economic impact projections.
“This number reflects increased attendance, and higher ticket demand in prices, more luxury suites and premium ticketing sales, longer hotel stays by fans and media.”
According to Boyd, the most relevant comparison to draw in the wake of James’ arrival goes back to 2023, when Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami.
“We’ve seen billions of dollars of new business activity,” Boyd said, “the emergence of Miami truly as a global sports powerhouse.”
And Boyd says the Sixers likely need to make the deep playoff run that has eluded them for a quarter-century to reach the high end of that revenue projection. “Keep in mind, every home playoff game represents tens of millions of dollars in economic impact,” he said.
Even still, Boyd said the “LeBron effect” is pretty bankable, considering how stable the NBA is, even in shaky economic times. “[The] sports industry and franchises tend to be less vulnerable to swings in the economy,” he said, “and less vulnerable to changes in consumer preferences.”
But as far as economics go, Boyd argued James’ fame carries as much weight as Philly’s title odds.
“It brings incalculable branding value to Philadelphia, and to the region. It creates new business networking opportunities for businesses to invest and create new relationships.”
Merch fit for a “King”
Try to purchase a LeBron Sixers jersey on the official NBA store website, and you’ll likely be prompted to “reserve” one that may take more than a month to ship.
Fanatics says more people bought his Sixers jersey than any player on any team in any sport.
The company wouldn't say how many #23 jerseys it sold in that 48-hour timeframe after the announcement, but it did break the previous record held by Shohei Ohtani.
Fanatics told the Philadelphia Business Journal that it sold more Sixers-James merch in a day than it did in the first week after LeBron announced in 2018 that he was joining the Lakers.
Marquan Nesmith, who works at the Mitchell and Ness on 15th and Walnut streets, said customers started pouring in after Friday’s announcement.
“People are hungry. They want LeBron stuff. They want some jerseys, they want some t-shirts, they want the hats,” he said.
It wasn’t even until Sunday that the store released a LeBron t-shirt which read, “THE KING IS HERE.”
Allen Zhao was browsing because there were no jerseys to be found online. “I’m thinking the first time I go to a game I might go early and see if they have any jerseys there,” he shared.
For Ali Perelman, the LeBron merch release is a special event.
“Buying a LeBron Sixers jersey almost feels like buying championship merch,” she said. “There’s an aspect to it where you’re buying it for posterity, because you’re like, ‘I don’t know how many more times in my life something like this is going to happen.’”
In fact, Perelman has predicted “King James” will rival or even surpass Sixers legend Allen Iverson’s popularity in the city.
“Threes and 23s are going to be the two most popular jerseys we see for the rest of our lives, by far,” she said.
