Following the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings in Las Vegas this week, league commissioner Adam Silver stated in a press conference that the idea of expansion is being formally explored, per Kevin Pelton of ESPN. Still, Silver offered plenty of caveats before committing to a timeline.
“A lot of analysis still needs to be done and nothing’s been predetermined one way or another, and without any specific timeline,” Silver said. “We’re going to be as thorough as possible and look at all the potential issues.”
Silver had previously indicated that, after the league negotiated its new media rights deals in 2024, expansion would be studied more thoroughly. A year after the deal was agreed upon, adding teams is at last on the table.
“We’re now engaging in this in-depth analysis, something we weren’t prepared to do before,” Silver said. “But beyond that, as I said, it’s really day one of that analysis. In terms of price, potential timeline — too early to say. And again, I think that also assumes the outcome of this analysis. It is truly a complicated issue.”
The new media deals — splitting broadcasting rights between ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon — will begin during the 2025/26 season. While the 11-year agreements with those partners have locked in the league’s national broadcasting plans for more than a decade, the long-term local regional broadcast rights for teams remain an area of concern, the commissioner cautioned.
“We would be malpracticing if we didn’t figure out how local regional television is going to work before expanding,” Silver said. “The notion that we would hand over a team into a city where we’re not currently operating and say, ‘You’re going to have to figure out how you’re going to distribute your games to your local fans’ doesn’t make sense.”
Silver added that the impending sales of two top NBA franchises, the Lakers and Celtics, for a combined valuation of $16.1 billion, have helped affect the league’s value, even with local TV deals being so tenuous, notes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
“There’s no question that those purchase prices have an impact on any economic analysis of teams, so it doesn’t necessarily complicate it more, but it certainly is an indication of value,” Silver said. “And one other factor we have to look at: we’re trying to think what is the value of expansion, what does it mean to dilute the existing equity, and how additive is this potentially to the league by adding an additional team.”
Another NBA franchise, the Trail Blazers, is currently up for sale. As Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report (Substack link) relays, Silver made it clear he wouldn’t want a new owner to relocate the franchise.
“It is our preference that that team remains in Portland,” Silver said. “We’ve had great success in Portland over the years. I don’t have a specific update on the process, but I know it is underway and there are groups that are actively engaged with the estate. One of the factors there is that the city of Portland likely needs a new arena, so that will be part of the challenge for any new ownership group coming in. But it would certainly be our preference for that team to remain in Portland.”
And this is why they won’t expand. The league benefits from the threat of Seattle. Portland will be sold and an arena built, New Orleans and Memphis will get arenas renovated with county or state money before expansion is approved.
Wow Just like that Portland is losing its team. Approve a new arena or we leave.
This was the MLB playbook for a long time. But when you over-expand, you lose that threat.
The idea of “over-expanding” is an interesting theory, but all the major sports leagues benefit from population growth and the never-ending emergence of viable new cities. Expansion wil go on, and on, and on.
Recently, it was OKC and Toronto. Now it’s Vegas and Seattle. Next decade, it will be Montreal and Mexico City and Tampa Bay and Austin.
Any team that wants a new arena can easily create a stalking horse from any number of cities. Sacramento used Anaheim, and then Virginia Beach, and then Seattle at a time the league said Seattle didn’t have a suitable facility. It worked. There are almost unlimited credible options.
That’s a lot of pressure on Portland. Pretty much using them as a scapegoat to avoid expansion currently. The owners don’t want to share any of their money. And they can’t just drop a team in and have their city figure out how to show games? Seattle and Vegas both have ready made markets. Excuses. NBA owners really are some of the worst. Cuban got out just in time.
> Excuses. NBA owners really are some of the worst.
It helps to think of all decisions as purely economical and made by business entities. Gone are the “owners” in the way you use the word.
Now that NBA franchises are worth $4B to $12B, decisions aren’t made by individuals but by ownership groups managing other folks’ money. There are only a few individual majority owners left, and even they are beholden to their minority investors.
And the joke of it all as someone an hour from Seattle is they said out arena was no longer good enough, that it couldn’t be retrofitted to be enlarged for hockey. They were wrong as it was remodeled and the hockey team is playing in the same arena. Doesn’t seem the league feels too bad about the part that played in us losing our team. We continue to be a place with an awesome arena that is just good for putting a gun to other teams heads. It happened with Sacramento.
An hour from Seattle is … Olympia if you drive fast to the south … Everett 90 minutes to the north .. PORTLAND? Three hours in good weather.
Relocation is a possible option. Look at the bottom 5 teams in attendance for the answer to keep the NBA at 30 teams and make the Las Vegas and Seattle the destination of … perhaps the Hawks and …
The Warriors are so far from San Jose, who is it’s own city with more money and people than San Francisco or Oakland. SJ has some of the best fans in USA pro sports with the Quakes and Sharks, and also have taken on the 49ers (although they don’t claim it by city name, which should not be allowed btw, they are the San Jose 49ers, who play a 5 minute drive from the San Jose Sharks), they have proven their mettle that SJ should be a full 5 pro sports city, with an NBA and MLB team being added soon.