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.
The NBA expanding to Las Vegas is looking to be more of a sure bet than a long shot as the monthslong process continues to play out.
About six months into the NBA’s exploration of Las Vegas and Seattle for potential expansion teams and the league appears to be impressed with the marked interest in Sin City by multiple ownership groups and having several potential arena site options available.
With so many choices in Las Vegas, the league’s team owners focused on Las Vegas more than Seattle at the NBA board of governors meetings this past week in New York.
Seattle has two known groups, one already with a viable arena, but Silver insists there are more groups involved in the process in the Pacific Northwest city. Las Vegas has three known groups in play, with at least one more anonymous group still vying for a team.
“It’s (Las Vegas) moving faster than Seattle, again, just because the timeline is much longer in Las Vegas than Seattle,” Silver said Monday.
The decade-old T-Mobile Arena could be where a Las Vegas NBA team ends up, with up to $400 million in renovations needed to be made to satisfy the league.
But if a bid group outside of the one that features Golden Knights owner Bill Foley wins the bid, it is likely a new arena will be built, with a team playing at T-Mobile on a temporary basis as a new facility is built.
With the large investment that a bid group would need make to land a team in Las Vegas (the expansion fee could be as much as $10 billion), building a new arena would allow the group to program the facility on non-basketball dates and receive the partnership and sponsorship revenues that comes with a new arena, Silver said.
“I just think when somebody’s looking at the kind of investment we’re talking about in an expansion franchise in Las Vegas and the economic opportunity to generate significant revenue outside of core NBA basketball, it’s understandable that groups are looking at property, looking at opportunities to build new arenas,” Silver said.
With Las Vegas already boasting a large number of arenas and stadiums, adding one more to the fray could create some conflict, according to Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Las Vegas is already home to T-Mobile Arena, Allegiant Stadium, Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay, Thomas & Mack Center, Orleans Arena, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Sphere and the Athletics’ MLB ballpark will be completed in 2028.
“T-Mobile is certainly a very viable site for this, and that would work great,” Hill said. “If there’s another arena, it adds to the competitive landscape and it’s not just the nights that you have basketball there, it’s going to be for concerts, and you’re going to have Allegiant Stadium, you’re going to have the A’s ballpark, you’re going to have T-Mobile, and you’re going to have the theaters that are across the city.
“So all of those are going to be competing for some of those events. And I can understand why there’s consternation or concern around adding too many venues. But it’s either going to be an opportunity to continue to grow (with a new arena), or, it’s going to be at T-Mobile, one of my favorite places in town.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
