The owners will decide the next step in the expansion process soon.
It is summertime and the National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver is promising nothing in terms of the league’s owners adding franchises. 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 the NBA will add a team or two 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. Silver said he plans to “take the temperature of the room” in finding out what individual owners’ thoughts are about expansion at the league’s summer meeting.
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. But Silver said not so fast. “There’s been no lack of interest. I essentially have said to people from several different cities, ‘We’re just not engaging in that process right now.’ I want to be fair to everyone. So I don’t want to have meetings with some and not others. So if we were to say yes, we’re now going to move into a more formal exploratory phase. We would take those meetings, and in addition likely we would engage with outside advisers who would look at markets, look at economic opportunities and media opportunities, etc. “I’d say the current sense is we should be exploring it. I don’t think it’s automatic, because it depends on your perspective on the future of the league.” It has been 25 years since the NBA last expanded. In a couple of weeks, the owners will have a say on expansion.
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