The 2028/29 season has been repeatedly cited as the NBA’s target date for potential expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle, but Mike Varkunow of The Athletic heard from sources that it may not happen so soon.
According to Varkunov, the NBA discussed the possibility of debuting the new Vegas franchise in 2029/30, not 28/29. However, he cautions that nothing has been decided one way or the other at the moment.
Like us laid out earlier this weekthe league is in talks with three groups seen as finalists for a potential expansion team in Las Vegas. Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie lead one of these groups and lead the other Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo and the third in person Steve Apostalopoulos and Mark Lasry.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday that the NBA is expected to pick a winner from that group in the “very near future.” Varkunov says the decision does not appear imminent, but adds that an informal agreement with the winner could be reached by the end of November.
However, even if the group is chosen relatively quickly and NBA owners officially vote to move forward with a Vegas expansion team, the city’s arena situation could complicate matters. While T-Mobile Arena, home to the NHL’s Golden Knights, is one possible site for an NBA franchise, Foley said the building would need about $400 million in renovations to become NBA-ready.
The NBA would likely prefer the Vegas-based team to play in the new arena, and several bidders have expressed interest in building one, but that is expected to take several years to materialize.
Here’s more on the possible NBA expansion:
- Charania’s report on Tuesday indicated that the combined cost of the Vegas expansion team and the new arena is expected to be at least $12 billion to $13 billion. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne clarifies that the expansion fee will likely be around $10 billion and the arena will likely cost $2 billion to $3 billion.
- Samantha Hollowayowner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, has significant influence over Seattle’s expansion talks because its One Roof Sports & Entertainment company controls the Climate Pledge Arena, Shelburne noted. Another bidder for the Seattle team would have to either build a new arena or negotiate a deal with Holloway for the Climate Pledge Arena, which Shelburne said could be “easily” converted to host NBA games.
- Sources at the ownership level are wondering how the threat of a potential Seattle expansion team could play out Tom Dundon and Trail Blazerswrites Shelburne. During the contentious negotiation process between the Blazers and the city of Portland related to the cost of renovating the Moda Center, there was speculation that Dundon was interested in relocating the club. The opportunity to have another team to compete with in the Pacific Northwest could be another factor motivating him to explore that route.
- The Shelburne story also explores which of the potential Las Vegas ownership groups are most likely to move to Seattle if they are not selected as Vegas’ winning bid, whether the league will expand to 31 teams instead of 32 and why sources expect NBA owners to vote to expand, even if not all are convinced the time is right.
