The NBA will vote later this month on whether to explore adding expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The vote will take place at the Board of Governors meeting from March 24-25, and if approved, the two new franchises are expected to begin playing during the 2028/29 season. Charania cites “momentum” for the league’s stakeholders to approve examining expansion, with bids expected to fall in the $7-10 billion range for each new team.
The upcoming vote is the first step in the expansion process, Charania adds, with a final vote to officially add the new teams potentially taking place later this year. Both rounds will require approval from at least 23 of the 30 governors.
In an appearance this morning on ESPN’s Get Up (Twitter video link), Charania states that there’s a “growing majority of owners” who are in favor of expanding.
Seattle has been viewed as a possible expansion market ever since the SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City 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.
Las Vegas has never had an NBA team, 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.
Adding two new teams in the Pacific time zone will likely force a realignment to balance out the conferences. The Timberwolves or Grizzlies are viewed as the most likely candidate to move from the West to the East, Charania writes in a full story.
Expansion has been an on-and-off issue for the NBA over the past few years, with commissioner Adam Silver sometimes making encouraging remarks but also stating that other priorities had to be addressed first. He brought up the topic at his All-Star Weekend press conference, indicating that the league didn’t have a set number of teams in mind and that would be decided after exploring the marketplace.
There was speculation that the NBA’s focus on developing a new professional league in Europe might delay the expansion process, but it now appears to be on the front burner as the Board of Governors prepares to gather. The NBA continues to move forward on the European project, and final bids for prospective teams are due by the end of March, sources tell Charania.
Pittsburgh Pistol Shrimp
Oil City Oilers
They definitely have the fan base there
I’m interested in how the history of the Sonics/Thunder organizations will be sorted. Cutting off at the move date and selling the Sonics history back to Seattle seems easy enough, no NBA championships would be exchanged, however one giant Kevin Durant sized hole would remain. If he could hang on and retire as a Sonic his last year that would be something else.
I could see something similar to what the Hornets and Pelicans worked out.
I believe the Sonics history reverts to Seattle when we get a team back.
I don’t think OKC cares about that. As far as I know, they don’t celebrate any Seattle history there.
I thought it would be so cool if Durant or Jeff Green came back for their final years to show how long Seattle has been out
2 more west teams?
I wonder if that moves the Grizzlies and Pelicans to the East?
only 1 would have to move to make 16 in each conference. id say grizzlies
If you add two to the West you would have to move two to the east to balance it.
15 in each conference. West gains 2, 17-15. You move 1 from West to East to make 16-16.
And or* sorry yall. The Monday fog got me! You’re right only 1 team would have to move
Wow me too. Math, amirite.
It would make the biggest difference to Minnesota. They are closer to 5 or 6 EC teams than they are to any WC team.
You’re correct under the current alignment but if you add Seattle and Las Vegas you add two teams closer to Minneapolis than Memphis. Minnesota would benefit the most but Memphis would be penalized the most. They’re farther from SF/Vegas/Portland/LA(2)/Sac/Utah/Denver/Seattle than Minnesota is too.
Let the fight for Vegas began!!!
Somehow Seattle should get their championship back along with their franchise.
Give a team to San Jose, who can put them next to the Shark tank. With traffic, Warriors play like 2 hours away. Too far. Give SJ an NBA team. Expand basketball in the Bay Area.
Northwest Portland and Seattle
California Teams
Southwest Las Vegas,Phoenix,Utah
Mid Central
Midwest Denver,KC expansion team,OKC,Memphis
Texas Teams
Northcentral Minnesota,Milwaukee,Chicago
East
Centraleast Indiana,Detroit,Cleveland
Northeast Toronto,Boston,New York,Brooklyn
Mid Atlantic Philadelphia,Washington,Charlotte
Southeast New Orleans,Atlanta
Florida Orlando,Tampa Bay Expansion team,Miami
Why? Are we going to have a 24 team playoff soon? Playoffs start after All star break???? This is absurd. Why can’t you relocate a team? Memphis is DEAD last in valuation and attendance as of this year. They should relocate to Seattle since there’s already history with them being from Vancouver.
Then for Vegas, couldn’t you just relocate the Jazz? It’s near by so the fanbases stay the same for the most part. And free agents will be more attracted to come to Utah.
Adding two teams in a watered down league with multiple teams tanking is ridiculous and reckless. It should be relocation, not addition for the league.
Agreed. It works better if everyone plays for their hometown teams. Have a pool for the players outside of North America and highest bidder teams acquire said players. Increase the salary cap to 200 mil.
Do explain to use how the league is watered down.
30 teams
16 make it
Only once in the almost 80 year history of the league, the champion has been below a 4 seed.
14 teams in the lottery.
10 are stuck in mediocrity .
4 are truly god awful obsolete teams.
Hence, watered down. Either you are great, below average, or historically bad.
There’s a reason why teams like the Wizards and Hawks haven’t been back to the finals in over 50 years. There’s reasons why Knicks haven’t won anything in 52 years.
But let’s add more teams yay to solve the problem. Yay.
You are welcome.
Well, yeah, I’d prefer a smaller playoff field too but that ship has sailed. I wouldn’t say that makes the league itself watered down, though, in terms of overall talent. It’s a combination of tanking, bad ownership groups, and other issues with the game itself (the over-fixation on 3s, flopping, etc). And other sports have their own share of bad/clown franchises.
I just don’t see how adding 2 teams, one of which surely deserves to return to the NBA, will change much other than diluting the talent pool a bit more, but there are enough players out of the league with some talent that this shouldn’t be the end of the world. And if the other issues are addressed to an extent, there can still be improvement; the question is will the NBA care and/or do enough to address them?
Owners and players both make too many much money to address anything, this is a quick fix rather than taking a look at the problem long term.
The talent pool is much larger than its ever been. Europe has more players than ever. What the NBA needs is real developmental league. Most teams just throw out the players without any real coaching or development. Like MLB they need to use their G-league better. So the product will be better overall. Not about winning. Its about competing. Building a winner takes talent and luck. Pro sports is about competition. Winning is a product of good work by players and teams. NBA is more thannready for expansion. It’s managing their product that needs work.
Diluting the talent pool helps parity and rewards teams that build through drafting and developing. The watered down playoffs is another reason why the nba needs to add more non playoff teams. It’s even harder to tank when expansion teams are just starting off and will likely receive the top picks for a few years.
About freakin time
A week that has teams tanking yes so let’s add two more to the tanking and TV ratings for national game below. 2 million.
Exactly Bob. This will make tanking even harder. Stop rewarding losing and handing out participation trophies, Mr moose
Should move the grizz to Nashville or Kansas.
I’m not sure about Vegas. The Raiders regularly sell out, but more than 60% of their sales are out-of-towners. The crowds don’t have a home team feel, and sometimes even favor the road team.
Seems like KC or St. Louis would be better.
Priorities should be Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Maybe Cincinnati. Ignore that toilet, Seattle.
Yes to Kansas City and Tampa Bay.
“Ignore that toilet” says the Boston Red Sox fan in his 60s
Fool.
It honestly feels like it’s already a done deal… Just move on with it and get it done.
So does this mean only Vegas and Seattle are in the running. I always wondered about Montreal. It’s a major city. And with pro French players pool growing every year. You’d think someone would want an NBA team there. Seattle definitely deserves a team. I’m good with adding two teams.
Give Vancouver a team and do 3 conferences with 11 teams each. Have the playoffs seeded purely by win/loss record and tiebreakers. West/Central/East conferences would be great for traveling
Flint Tropics …….. nuff’ said.
Let’s get tropical!
Great, two more teams that’ll be in a constant rebuild and tanking phase
Unreal. I don’t want to hear any more complaints about Silver’s idiocy from any owner that votes to expand. This is Silver’s power source. Droves of smaller (non-baskeball) market teams that contribute nothing and can’t survive without a CBA and commissioner that placates them at every turn. The new teams will come in, tank and vote for 1) more and easier scoring, 2) less defense, 3) more money for stars, 4) more star retention rights, and 5) more restrictions on free agency. They’ll purport to be against tanking, of course, but they’ll vote for Silver’s proposed Save Tanking provisions.