The league is looking into the possibility of expansion.
For those who want to see a National Basketball Association franchise in Seattle or in Las Vegas in the near future, there is no guarantee the NBA is expanding. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league’s owners have “tasked” his office with “doing an in-depth analysis of all the issues around expansion, both economic and non-economic.” Silver added, “I think there is a significant step. Something we weren’t prepared to do before. But beyond that, as I said, it’s really day one of that analysis. A lot of analysis still needs to be done and nothing’s been predetermined one way or another and without any specific timeline. We’re going to be as thorough as possible and look at all the potential issues.”
The common thought was once the NBA wrapped up its American TV deals and got a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players, the next issue on the table was adding teams. But Silver isn’t quite ready to say when the NBA will add teams. Silver doesn’t have the power to order an expansion so it is up to the NBA owners to decide what they want to do. It was thought that potential owners in Las Vegas and in Seattle would be ready to make pitches to the league owners and that the owners would welcome those potential owners and their money into the league. Silver did warn that expansion is “truly a complicated issue and I will say despite some of the reports I’ve read there was no sense in the room that people were taking sides. There was no straw poll. There was no request that people indicate pro or con in terms of expansion.” It has been 25 years since the NBA last expanded. The NBA is in no rush to expand, at least not at this moment.
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