The league will stage a meaningless contest in town.
The National Basketball Association is returning to Seattle for a one-night stand with a meaningless pre-season game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Portland Trail Blazers. The NBA is shining up the event by calling it the Rain City Showcase. There is a presenting sponsor for the game too. This is the third straight year that the NBA is playing a meaningless pre-season game in the best United States market without an NBA franchise. Seattle has the population, the corporate market and a TV market that can easily support an NBA franchise. Seattle now has a state-of-the-art building that an NBA owner needs. The NBA left Seattle in 2008 when the SuperSonics franchise owner Clayton Bennett could not get a new arena built in town and departed for Oklahoma City.
The NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s 30 owners don’t seem to know what they want to do in terms of adding teams to the league. Seattle, in 2024, has the wherewithal to be a financially successful NBA market. But there doesn’t seem to be any rush to add a 31st or a 32nd franchise. In June, Silver, said “It’s not preordained that we will expand this time, but I know there’s an enormous amount of interest out there. And to me, yes, there are wealthy individuals, institutions that would like to invest and buy NBA teams.” In September, Silver said NBA owners did not talk about expansion during a league meeting. Silver has told potential owners this. “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” But Silver did promise that the possibility of adding teams could be addressed “at some point this season.” The NBA knows the Seattle market well. For one-night the NBA will present a meaningless game and pretend it is an event in Seattle.
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The NBA is back in Seattle for a night.