Biggest NBA Arenas 2026: All 30 Ranked by Capacity

The biggest NBA arena is the United Center in Chicago, which seats 20,917 for basketball. The smallest is the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans at 16,867. The entire league fits inside a band of just over 4,000 seats, which is the real story here: NBA arenas are the most tightly standardised venues in major American sport.

All 30 NBA arenas ranked by capacity (2026)

Capacities are the basketball configuration. Eleven arenas also host an NHL team, marked in the final column.

#	Arena	Team	Capacity	Opened	Naming-rights holder	NHL co-tenant
1	United Center	Chicago Bulls	20,917	1994	United Airlines	Blackhawks
2	Capital One Arena	Washington Wizards	20,333	1997	Capital One	Capitals
3	Little Caesars Arena	Detroit Pistons	20,332	2017	Little Caesars	Red Wings
4	Xfinity Mobile Arena	Philadelphia 76ers	20,007	1996	Xfinity Mobile (Comcast)	Flyers
5	Madison Square Garden	New York Knicks	19,812	1968	None	Rangers
6	Scotiabank Arena	Toronto Raptors	19,800	1999	Scotiabank	Maple Leafs
7	Kaseya Center	Miami Heat	19,600	1999	Kaseya	No
8	Ball Arena	Denver Nuggets	19,520	1999	Ball Corporation	Avalanche
9	Rocket Arena	Cleveland Cavaliers	19,432	1994	Rocket Companies	No
10	Moda Center	Portland Trail Blazers	19,411	1995	Moda Health	No
11	American Airlines Center	Dallas Mavericks	19,200	2001	American Airlines	Stars
12	Spectrum Center	Charlotte Hornets	19,077	2005	Spectrum	No
13	Crypto.com Arena	Los Angeles Lakers	18,997	1999	Crypto.com	Kings
14	Kia Center	Orlando Magic	18,846	2010	Kia	No
15	TD Garden	Boston Celtics	18,624	1995	TD Bank	Bruins
16	Frost Bank Center	San Antonio Spurs	18,354	2002	Frost Bank	No
17	Delta Center	Utah Jazz	18,306	1991	Delta Air Lines	Mammoth
18	Paycom Center	Oklahoma City Thunder	18,203	2002	Paycom	No
19	Chase Center	Golden State Warriors	18,064	2019	JPMorgan Chase	No
20	Toyota Center	Houston Rockets	18,055	2003	Toyota	No
21	Target Center	Minnesota Timberwolves	18,024	1990	Target	No
22	Intuit Dome	Los Angeles Clippers	18,000	2024	Intuit	No
23	Gainbridge Fieldhouse	Indiana Pacers	17,923	1999	Gainbridge	No
24	FedExForum	Memphis Grizzlies	17,794	2004	FedEx	No
25	Barclays Center	Brooklyn Nets	17,732	2012	Barclays	No
26	Golden 1 Center	Sacramento Kings	17,611	2016	Golden 1 Credit Union	No
27	Fiserv Forum	Milwaukee Bucks	17,341	2018	Fiserv	No
28	Mortgage Matchup Center	Phoenix Suns	17,071	1992	Mortgage Matchup (UWM)	No
29	State Farm Arena	Atlanta Hawks	17,044	1999	State Farm	No
30	Smoothie King Center	New Orleans Pelicans	16,867	1999	Smoothie King	No

Twenty-nine of the 30 carry a corporate name. Madison Square Garden is the exception, and the reason is that the Garden brand predates the sponsorship era entirely and is worth more to its owner than any tenant would pay for it.

Which NBA arenas are shared with NHL teams?

Eleven, and the sharing is old enough in most cases that the buildings were designed for it. An NHL rink is 200 feet by 85 feet and a basketball court is 94 by 50, so a dual-sport bowl has to work at two very different distances from the action.

Arena	NBA team	NHL team	Opened
United Center	Bulls	Blackhawks	1994
Capital One Arena	Wizards	Capitals	1997
Little Caesars Arena	Pistons	Red Wings	2017
Xfinity Mobile Arena	76ers	Flyers	1996
Madison Square Garden	Knicks	Rangers	1968
Scotiabank Arena	Raptors	Maple Leafs	1999
Ball Arena	Nuggets	Avalanche	1999
American Airlines Center	Mavericks	Stars	2001
Crypto.com Arena	Lakers	Kings	1999
TD Garden	Celtics	Bruins	1995
Delta Center	Jazz	Mammoth	1991

The Delta Center is the live case. Salt Lake City acquired an NHL franchise in 2024, and the Jazz arena was never built for hockey, so Smith Entertainment Group is running a three-phase retrofit designed to remove every single-net-view seat for hockey without spoiling the basketball bowl. Hockey capacity was raised to 12,478 for the 2025-26 season, with upper-bowl terraces and side gondolas following. Jazz capacity is unchanged.

Why are NBA arenas all roughly the same size?

Because the money is in proximity, not volume. The gap between the United Center and the Smoothie King Center is 4,050 seats, or about a quarter of an arena. Compare that with the largest NFL stadiums, where the spread runs from 60,108 to 82,500, or with the biggest stadiums in the US, where it runs past 107,000.

Three forces hold the band tight. National television revenue is shared and does not reward a bigger building. Premium seating, suites and club membership generate a disproportionate share of gate income, and those products sit close to the floor. And basketball sightlines degrade quickly with height, so an upper deck pushed to 24,000 seats would sell the worst inventory in the venue at the lowest price.

The one arena that broke the pattern did so downward. Intuit Dome opened in 2024 at 18,000 seats, privately financed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, with a design built around a single steep supporters’ wall rather than maximum capacity.

Which arenas are the newest and the oldest?

Intuit Dome is the newest at two seasons old, and Madison Square Garden is the oldest at 1968. The Garden needs an asterisk: a rebuild between 2010 and 2013 produced an entirely new seating bowl and concourse system inside the original structure, so the building is 1968 and the arena inside it is barely a decade old.

Nine arenas opened in 1999 or earlier and are still in use. Five opened in 1999 alone, the peak year of the American arena boom.

Which arenas have changed names recently?

Two changed in 2025. Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center became Xfinity Mobile Arena on 1 September 2025 after Wells Fargo declined to renew, under a deal that runs through the 2030-31 season and involves both Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the 76ers. Phoenix’s arena lost the Footprint Center name in February 2025, spent the rest of that season as PHX Arena, and now carries Mortgage Matchup, a brand operated by UWM, the lender run by Suns owner Mat Ishbia.

That churn is why any arena list more than a year old is unreliable. For venues where the names change less often, see the ranking of the largest stadiums in the world, where none of the top 12 carries a sponsor at all. More capacity tables are collected on the stadiums hub.