IStock Photo 2489006 © Roger McClean

Jim Goldstein is not your typical NBA fan. Known around the league as “Superfan,” Goldstein has courtside seats to both Los Angeles basketball teams, the Lakers and the Clippers, and says he attends between 110 and 120 NBA games each season. He recently told ESPN’s Kenny Mayne that since the 1950s, he has attended about 4,000 games.

Unlike Goldstein, most adults are far more likely to watch an NBA game on TV rather than see it live. The odds an adult will attend an NBA game in a year are 1 in 23.4. The odds an adult will watch an NBA game on TV in a year are 1 in 4.34.

This may be due to skyrocketing ticket prices. The average ticket price for an NBA game in 2008 was $49.47 (not including luxury suites or private clubs), according to an article in Sports Business Daily. For the seventh year in a row the price of a Lakers ticket was the highest in the league, at $93.25. And if you factor in the Fan Cost Index, which includes four tickets, two small draft beers, four small sodas, four regular-size hot dogs, parking for one car, two programs, and two adjustable caps, a Lakers game costs $479.48.

So if most fans are watching basketball on TV, who is watching—and when? It seems the younger the fans are, the more likely they are to tune in. The odds an adult watching an NBA game on TV is 50 - 64 years old are 1 in 4.83; the odds an adult watching is 35 - 49 years old are 1 in 3.79; and the odds the viewer is 18 - 34 are 1 in 2.59.

And nothing boosts ratings more than big market teams competing in the post-season. When the Boston Celtics played the Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals, ABC's ratings were the highest for a Finals series since 2000. The series drew 9.3% of US households, an increase of 51% over the previous year when the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the lowest-rated Finals ever at 6.2% of US households. The fifth and final game of the Celtics-Lakers Final drew 10.7 million viewers.

Of course, not even a championship basketball game between two of the most successful franchises in NBA history can match one night of “Dancing with the Stars,” which averages 17 million viewers.