Discussions at NBA Board of Governors meetings about expansion have centered around Las Vegas due to greater uncertainty about a potential venue there compared to Seattle. Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press reports.
An expansion team could move straight into Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, while a Las Vegas franchise could play at T-Mobile Arena with some modifications or a brand new arena.
“So it’s a lot more time before we can drop the ball for NBA basketball.” commissar Adam Silver said of Las Vegas’ franchise bids. “On the other hand, we had the Climate Pledge task forces in Seattle. You obviously have a state-of-the-art arena. NBA basketball might need some modifications. If we opened in five weeks, we could be ready in Seattle.”
The next round of applications will be submitted soon, but it will not be the last round.
“I’ve said our goal is to make decisions before the end of the year, and that remains our goal.” Silver said, trans Grant Offset of the Dallas Sports Journal.
On March 25, the Board of Governors voted to formally explore expansion in Las Vegas and Seattle. The league has been scouting potential ownership groups in both markets for the past few months. Teams in both cities are believed to debut in the 2028/29 season, with an expansion draft taking place in the summer of 2028.
There is two prominent bidders for the Seattle franchise. Mavericks the governor Patrick Dumont is in discussions regarding a Las Vegas franchise, Afseth relays.
“A number of active groups, I’ll leave it at that, and I will say that there was a discussion led by Patrick Dumont, of course, who is a Las Vegas resident and has a tremendous amount of experience in Las Vegas, just as an independent objective party, had a discussion around various sites, potential sites in Las Vegas,” Silver said. “I think there’s real excitement around the renovated T-Mobile Arena. I think everyone recognizes that if the team is going to stay there, it still needs some major improvements. But at the same time, there are groups that have presented plans to build what I would call a modern entertainment palace in Las Vegas.”
According to a recent report from ESPN, some teams designed paying an expansion fee of $500-600 million to each current franchise, which would add up to $15-18 billion in total expansion fees for the two new teams.
