Editor’s note: This is a regular Sunday feature to wrap up news and developments in the NBA’s possible expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle by the 2028-29 season.
With one NBA expansion deadline passed, another is approaching next month for those interested in landing a Las Vegas team.
A due date earlier this month included financial plans and lists of bid group members presented to the NBA and PJT Partners, the investment bank the league hired to assist in the expansion process.
A new deadline set for sometime next month is asking bid groups to provide more details on their portfolios, according to a report by The Athletic. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that there is another deadline set for next month.
The source was not authorized to speak publicly about the process. The exact September deadline date was not known.
The NBA also has a Board of Governors meeting planned for September in New York, so there is a chance some clarity into the expansion process could be provided there. The NBA has said it wants to have an answer by the end of the year as to whether it will expand to Las Vegas and Seattle, just one of the cities or not at all.
The Athletic also reported, citing anonymous sources, that the second bid deadline is only for groups interested in Las Vegas and not Seattle. The report said it is likely the league will move toward choosing an ownership group in Southern Nevada before making a decision in Seattle.
The expansion fee, estimated to be between $7 billion and $10 billion, is expected to be higher for a Las Vegas bid than for Seattle, the report noted, with a Las Vegas team expected to cost about $9 billion.
Ownership groups led by Golden Knights owner Bill Foley; Walmart heiress Nancy Laurie Walton and her husband, Bill Laurie; and the Las Vegas Jacks, which include former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, former NBA player and coach Vinny Del Negro and other executives, are still active in the process.
A group headed by billionaire venture capitalist Joshua Kushner and former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger recently dropped out of the running after it acquired a majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers. The MAGI group, which was headed by NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has gone quiet in recent months.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said during a July news conference in Las Vegas that there were other interested groups in Las Vegas and Seattle that had not made their intentions public.
More than a dozen NBA-ready arena projects are being floated in Southern Nevada, with the majority hinging on the winning bidder for a Las Vegas team partnering with them.
No matter who is awarded the team, with the NBA eyeing the 2028-29 season for potential expansion teams to begin play, any team that lands in Las Vegas would almost certainly have to play at T-Mobile Arena in the short term.
If Foley’s group were awarded the NBA team, he told the Review-Journal in July that renovations costing between $330 million and $400 million would be made to the now 10-year-old arena. The venue was built with separate locker rooms for the NBA and NHL, but it would need to be upgraded to house an NBA team full time.
Foley noted that if his group were awarded the expansion franchise, he would get the renovations started in early 2027 and have the majority of them completed by the start of the 2028-29 NBA season.
Foley said the potential improvements would include adding about 1,000 seats, additional suites and other upgrades to make the arena NBA-ready. He also noted that he would build an NBA practice facility in Summerlin.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
