“There was not as much discussion around Seattle as there was around Las Vegas,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said of the expansion discussion at last week’s Board of Governors’ meeting in New York. There were a few reasons for that, primarily Las Vegas has more potential ownership groups in the mix, there are questions about where this new team will play, and the Vegas franchise is expected to fetch a higher price.
The latest report on the topic, from Mike Vorkunov at The Athletic, expands on this and how Las Vegas is on a faster timeline than Seattle.
It seems as if the league is taking a different approach with Las Vegas than it is Seattle… It could name a winning bid in Las Vegas before it moves on to Seattle, according to industry sources with knowledge of the process. The NBA, however, has not yet revealed its hand.
The NBA hopes that this process — which includes a second, more detailed round of bids turned in last week — creates a bidding war for Las Vegas that could push the price for an NBA franchise there into the $10 billion range, according to reports. That said, Las Vegas has a lot more questions, including where the team might play. While the NBA has hosted its NBA Cup Finals at T-Mobile Arena just off the Las Vegas Strip the past two years, Silver said that arena would need “significant improvements” for an NBA team to move in. Other ownership groups are proposing new arenas. Silver said Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont — the CEO and chairman of Las Vegas Sands — took charge of that part of the discussion.
“I’ll say that there was a discussion led by Patrick Dumont, of course, who is a Las Vegas resident, enormous operating experience there in Las Vegas, just sort of as an independent objective party,” Silver said. “[Dumont] led a discussion around the various sites, potential sites, in Las Vegas.”
While there is the T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip — the home to the WNBA’s Aces, the NHL’s Golden Knights, and it has been home to the final rounds of the NBA Cup the past couple of years — Silver said “it needs some significant improvements” before an NBA team could move in. Some ownership groups are proposing building new stadiums, Silver added.
Multiple groups are bidding for Las Vegas, The Athletic’s Vorkunov details.
A group led by Nancy Walton Laurie — a scion of Walmart founders Sam and Bud Walton — and her husband, Bill Laurie, is believed to be a leading contender. [Bill] Foley, the Golden Knights owner, also is very much in the mix. An ownership group called the Las Vegas Jacks — with Jerry Colangelo and Vinny Del Negro as named NBA emissaries and including former Turner Broadcasting president David Levy — also is in contention. That list is not exhaustive with at least another yet undisclosed bidding group additionally in the running.
With Seattle, it’s more straightforward. There is a known, verified owner interested in Samantha Holloway, who also owns the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and is the majority owner of the Climate Pledge Arena, where the team would play (and Silver said that venue appears nearly NBA-ready right now). Recently, a second group — BlackSun Private Equity partnering with the Tulalip Tribes — stepped forward, but it’s early in the process for them, and the group proposes a new arena on tribal lands, about 35 miles outside the city.
Of course, this will all come down to money — who bids the most with a viable plan wins. The new report says the expectation is Las Vegas’ expansion fee will be $9 billion or higher, with Seattle coming in below that by a few million. NBA owners reportedly were hoping to get at least $16-$17 billion between the two bids. A $16 billion total would mean a payout to each franchise of more than $500 million — half a billion dollars — that could go straight to the bottom line.
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