As expected, the NBA’s Board of Governors has voted in favor of formally exploring adding expansion franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Charania first reported last week that the Board of Governors would be conducting a vote during their March 24-25 meetings on whether to explore potential bids and applicants for teams in those two specific cities. The plan required the approval of at least 23 of the NBA’s 30 team governors and the expectation was that the vote would have no trouble passing.
As Charania notes (via Twitter), momentum has been building toward the NBA expanding to 32 teams, with multiple high-ranking officials around the league referring to it as a matter for “when, not if.”
While some team owners have been wary in the past of reducing their portion of league revenue, expansion fees for new franchises are expected to be in the range of $7-10 billion, per Charania, which would result in massive one-time payments for each current NBA ownership group.
The next step, Charania explains, is for the NBA to spend the next several months vetting the Seattle and Vegas markets and potential bidders in order to determine whether to move forward on expansion at this time or in a few years. If the league opts to move forward with expansion sooner rather than later, the two new teams would likely begin playing in 2028/29, with necessary steps like conference/division realignment and an expansion draft taking place ahead of that season.
Confirming Charania’s reporting, the NBA put out a statement (via Twitter) announcing that the league has hired investment bank PJT Partners as a strategic adviser to “evaluate prospective markets, ownership groups, arena infrastructure, and the broader economic implications of expansion.”
“Today’s vote reflects our Board’s interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle — two markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball,” commissioner Adam Silver said. “We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties.”
Seattle has been viewed as a possible expansion market ever since the SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City and rebranded as the Thunder in 2008. Seattle was part of the NBA for more than four decades and has a large group of loyal fans who still identify with the team.
The city already has a facility in place in Climate Pledge Arena, which was formerly known as Key Arena and serves as home to the NHL’s Kraken. It recently underwent a $1.15 billion renovation and can hold 18,300 fans for basketball. If an expansion team is approved for Seattle, the expectation is that it would reclaim the SuperSonics nickname, branding, and franchise history.
Las Vegas has never had an NBA franchise, but it has formed a strong partnership with the league by hosting Summer League games every July, as well as the semifinals and finals of the NBA Cup. T-Mobile Arena is the home of the NHL’s Golden Knights and hosts basketball games as well, with a capacity of 18,000 people.
While other cities – including Mexico City, Vancouver, Montreal, and Louisville, among others – have been occasionally cited as possible candidates for NBA expansion, Seattle and Vegas have long been considered the frontrunners in a scenario in which the league moves to a 32-team format.
The NBA last expanded in 2004, when Charlotte reentered the league as the Bobcats.
The world game has gotten so much better over the last 20 years, this will actually make sense. All the best overseas players will fill out these teams, easily.
I don’t understand this new media narrative trending now the league doesn’t have enough talent. It’s always been about the difficulty in acquiring talent if you are bad and small market. And it would be the same issue regardless if there were 2 more teams or not. It’s such a dumb new talking point.
I agree, its so dumb and not based in the larger, world reality. There’s literally dozens of pro leagues if not hundreds and almost all the MVPs from those leagues are currently playing at an NBA-level. Plus they are going to get like half their players from actual NBA teams, plus the draft, so its going to be the best of the best world MVPs. Not to mention werido holdouts who want more money and are willing to sit, they can grab them too…there’s plenty of talent.
I think this argument comes from NFL and MLB-focussed people, who disregard that the NBA is actually like 10x less jobs than those sports, for some reason (being dumb).
I think it comes from the fact the league is dumb in terms of how they set up things like contracts and the draft. The league is weird in that you either want to be really bad or really good. But, there’s some easy fixes. For example, if they don’t want the two need teams to be bad for years, guarantee them that no matter where they end up record wise they will get top 5 picks the next 3 years. That would then incentivize them to build a competitive team and get off to a good start with their fanbases since they could compete to be a play in team while still getting the chance at franchise players. The league should learn from the Vancouver Grizzlies mistake.
Why vegas? So far raiders been a disaster and the A’s have been no excitment for them. Just a way to get more gambling on games.
The A’s currently play in Sacramento plus have the 3rd best hitter in MLB behind Ohtani and Judge. LV will be buzzing when they start playing there. A’s have a decent team now btw
The A’s have a decent team because Sacramento is a better market.
If they ever do end up in Vegas, that team is going to be downright terrible… Because the money isn’t going to be there, baseball works differently lol
This move is only to increase John Fisher’s net worth and pure politics
You seem to lack a grasp of how MLB teams are built, they dont “get worse” with the same player core. Also Sacramento is NOT a better market than LV, that is insane. The MLBPA hates this, the players hate going to Sacramento to play at a AAA park.
The team will not be worse with the same young core.
I really have no idea why you spout so many outright lies as if they are true.
YDKB.
Davey Most peopel do not travel for baseball games. After the first year you will see attendance go way down. The money for season tickets are not selling at all because of the high cost of tickets.
That’s cap, the Giants sold out so many games based off the high tourist numbers The City has.
when the giants were winning. last year there was a lot of games at the edn of the season where it looked over 2/3 empty.
Raiders were a disaster in Oakland. They at least bring a crowd in LV as opponents fans don’t mind a day in Vegas. The same for when the A’s eventually arrive.
In Oakland the Raiders sold out every game with home town fans. In Vegas over half of the fans are away fans. Vegas tourism is down 15% for the year. taxing people for a stadium they will never go to makes Vegas more expensive is why they are losing tourism.
That’s the idea though, Vegas will draw in away fans more than any other city as folks make it an event/stay.
Tourism is down because Canadians are not travelling to LV. Once things normalize between Canada and the US, tourism numbers will rebound.
Your complete lack of understanding of what the pandemic did to Las Vegas is impressive Arc. Stay in your lane
Uh, you’re 100% wrong on that. I end up in LV four times a year for Trade Shows, and I can tell you this is first year since 2022 where the turnout was down at each show. The reason, less Canadians attended.
If you don’t believe me, watch Fox News, read USA today and see why the decline is. There was YOY growth in 2022, 2023 and 2024, but the 7.5% decline has been caused mostly by the 35% decline in Canadians visiting Sin City.
Don’t be an ignorant American, educate yourself before responding.
its not just Canadian tourist. All foreign tourism is way down in America. Down 22.5% this year and the ONLY industrial country in the world that is in big decline.
i have a cousin that was doing trade shows in Vegas but ended stop doing them because it cost more money than he could make at the shows. He complained for the last 5 years the crowds got smaller and smaller. It wasn’t worth the price they charge for space because it was going up and sells going down. Vegas is no longer a cheap place to stay. Homeless problem is worse than LA. people living in the tunnels under Veags that come out at night and steal everything.
Omg the tunnel people LMAO
If you think any part of Vegas has a worse homelessness problem than almost anywhere in California, especially LA, you are smoking the craziest stuff they’d let you buy.
You’re right about it not being cheap but where is exactly? LA? SF? Cmon dude lol
Per population they do have a worse problem. I would think you understood how stats work. LA area has 8x more people than Vegas area.
So why is Vegas down 15% this year. 5 years later. Come on bonercat explain… Vegas even had to send out advertisements saying the hotels were giving big discounts to get peopel to go to Vegas.
Im asking you how the Raiders moving to Vegas has been a disaster FOR THE F’ING RAIDERS OR THE NFL. Why do you care about the hotel tax dude? Believe me, the big dogs in Vegas are not the ones that are hurting.
You people live in your bubble and take a vacation once a year and think you know the ins and outs of the system. It’s so frustrating.
So explain why Vegas has seen a decrease in visitors. In the last 5 years there has been a steady decrease. higher prices = less vistors. i do take vacations but not to Vegas. Like I want to be in noisy casinos giving my money to casino owners. All the gambling is rigged so you will lose. Hey if you like giving away money go. you should read up on how the casino owners are losing money by lack of tourist.
You seem to really hate the city of Oakland, no matter what the facts.
They “at least” sold out every single game in Oakland.
YDKB.
I hear tent city is nice this time of year!
I think you’re forgetting that the Knights have been a massive success.
As for the A’s, they’re not in LV yet. I don’t think they’ll be as popular as the Knights or a new NBA team, but they’ll definitely be more supported than they were in Oakland.
Raiders are just a bad team, they’re have plenty of fan support.
Gambling, gambling, and…oh yeah gambling! SMH; The NBA wants this soo bad but I agree with Arc89, it just doesn’t compute. Just because every other league has raced to LV doesn’t mean it’s a good move for the L, or a good thing long term; I’m hoping the investigation comes back and says yes to Seattle, and let’s wait for the Vegas market b/c the optics are too bad considering there’s at least three players or coaches tied up in on going litigation. Maybe those issues go away, but the league isn’t doing enough to make me think Vegas won’t turn into a liability at one point
Ahhh but Memphis clearly hasn’t impacted any young guys who play them right? Plain and simple there is no other city with the amount of ties to the NBA other than Seattle. Why does being in Vegas mean people will gamble more? I don’t follow that logic at all. Gambling has been heavily featured without a team in Vegas so what makes you think that having a team there in 3 years is going to amplify that?
These boomers who still think the only way to gamble is by going to Vegas or Atlantic City want you to believe that Vegas will corrupt any innocent souls who travel there. But LA? Chicago? Memphis? Beautiful utopias that never impact the players who live there.
Cry me a river.
It drives me crazy people are suggesting moving Memphis to Seattle or Vegas instead of expansion. The obvious move, if you are going to move them, is keep them in state and move them to Nashville. The city has really built up. They do a great job with football and hockey. There will be a baseball team there eventually. It’s in state so Tennessee fans can still follow the team and it’s still their team. And you can move them east during expansion to have obvious potential regional rivals like Atlanta and Charlotte.
Not suggesting that Memphis gets moved at all. Using Memphis as an example of a location that has put NBA players at a higher risk of off court issues like these people claim Vegas will do.
Vegas is gambling in the zeitgeist and the fact I can gamble from almost any state with my phone doesn’t change Vegas’ image much, jus sayin..do you mean people really go there just to take shrooms and watch cirque de soleil and David Cooperfield? Lol, maybe after they run out of discretionary funds, but as many people echoed, tourism is down everywhere and Vegas is gonna be the numero uno victim of that downturn no? I live in a tourist town myself so I’m not cheering it on; just stating the maths
Honestly if there weren’t so many outstanding investigations into Rozier, Billups, Beasley, etc than the optics would be waaaaay different imo..not to mention Donnaghey, Jontay Porter or any of the other gambling scandals surrounding the NBA
Explain why the Raiders have been a disaster. Wtf does that even mean? Are you saying that the team sucks? Because I can think of a lot of terrible teams that have been raking in cash for years.
Raiders have 8-9 home games to sell, and are what, like a 7-9 hour drive from Oakland? The NFL always makes money so it’s like apples and oranges man
Maybe boner you should look up the history of the raiders and how Al Davis went from WR coach to Owner. Now that is a rags to riches story. Davis family was the poorest owners in the NFL is why they went to Vegas for a free $2 billion stadium.
The As don’t play there yet. And if the As fail it’s because they have one of the top 3 cheapest owners in all of baseball. Look at how the Golden Knights are doing. If you told people 20 years ago there would be a successful hockey team with a good fanbase in the desert they would laugh at you. Vegas will be good as long as they don’t suck for the first 10 years.
Does Vancouver ever get a 2nd thought? Canadian hoops has improved drastically since the Griz moved. I wonder if there is still a clamouring for a pro team there. They have hockey and soccer. Would be a nice natural rival with Seattle of course.
NBA (David stern) screwed Vancouver so hard by making it hard for them to win so that they would have no fan base
The old grizzlies did seem to also have bad ownership but I always felt bad for the Vancouver fans that never even got to see their team for that long they definitely deserve another team
The Vegas choice definitely feels like an owner decision and not “there are fans clamoring for an NBA team here” decision. Wemby described Vegas best during the Emirates Cup – it feels like a dystopian city. lolzzzzz it is trash indeed.
$ talks and Vegas has it. Memphis and Detroit are more dangerous cities with nba franchises already too.
Not a Vegas proponent. Seattle is a no-brainer. NBA should have never left. It’s great to see Seattle will get their history and name with it. That’s also the right thing to do. Next are the Jazz.
So who goes east once this happens?
Memphis?
Even though Memphis is farther East, Minnesota would save the most flight miles by switching to the EC.
Seattle? What a joke.
I can’t wait for the old sonics rivalries with Portland, Utah, Houston, Denver to start again
OKC vs Seattle might become the biggest rivalry in the league in a few years