Las Vegas and Seattle seem to be the two most likely expansion targets.
National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver might have tired of being at the negotiating table with various media companies in an effort to get billions of dollars from those companies but it’s all part of the job. The NBA will soon be flush with money beyond the wildest dreams of the league’s founders when they formed the Basketball Association of America in 1946. After the ink dries on the new TV deals, Silver’s next job will be getting a committee together and look for deep-pocketed individuals and put two teams in markets that want a franchise. The common wisdom is that Las Vegas and Seattle will be getting the 31st and 32nd teams but there is no clear timetable for expansion. There is a state-of-the-art Seattle building ready to go but it is a bit unclear where a team would play in Las Vegas. There is an arena in town but there are two groups who would like to put up another Las Vegas arena that would be a showcase for basketball. The NBA has not established a price for a potential owner of an expansion team but in 2023, the Phoenix Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury franchises were sold to Mat Ishbia for around $4 billion. The price might be higher for an expansion fee because of the NBA’s new media deals.
If the NBA charges $4 billion for a franchise and there are two handed out, that means the 30 owners will split $8 billion for doing nothing but expanding the business. An owner could get about $267 million for literally doing nothing except welcoming two new franchises to the fold. Silver also seems to be intrigued by the possibility of having Mexico City in the league but he did issue a caveat explaining “this may not be the right moment to do that.”
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