Expansion may be coming to the NBA. Here’s some of what you may want to know
NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA is now officially looking at expansion, with Seattle and Las Vegas the two targeted cities.
A vote Wednesday by the league’s board of governors — part of a two-day series of meetings in New York — cleared the way for formal talks between potential ownership groups in those two cities and NBA officials to take place, a process that likely will start before too long.
Commissioner Adam Silver wants the league to know by the end of 2026 if expansion will happen.
The league said investment bank PJT Partners has been brought on “as a strategic adviser to evaluate prospective markets, ownership groups, arena infrastructure, and the broader economic implications of expansion.”
Paul Taubman, the bank’s chairman and CEO, has worked with the NBA on a number of matters in the past — and when former NBA Commissioner David Stern stepped down more than a decade ago to allow for the start of Silver’s time as commissioner, Taubman even brought Stern on as an adviser.
What are the next steps?
Silver said the league hasn’t struck any deals yet, which means the bidding is wide open at this point.
“If you are interested, and I’ll say that now to people who may be listening or watching this, if you’re interested, call the league office, call PJT Partners directly in New York,” Silver said at a news conference Wednesday. “I just want to make sure everybody understands there’s been no handshakes on the side. There’s been no commitments. There’s no promises to anyone. This is a completely transparent process.”
PJT Partners and the league will vet candidates, find the best plans, then start the process of actually seeing if a deal can be struck. Given the expected expansion fee — $6 billion or more — it won’t be a quick process.
Are Las Vegas’ and Seattle’s chances tied to each other?
Put simply, no.
There are no guarantees that the league will expand, first of all. And while it would create some interesting schedule scenarios if an odd number of teams were in the league — 31 instead of the current 30 — there have been unbalanced conference lineups before.
They could add both cities. They could add just one. They could add none.
What’s the timeline for adding teams, if it happens?
Another unknown, but it won’t be next season. And probably not the one after that, either.
The commonly held theory is that it would take at least 18 months if not longer to get a new team up and running.
That would suggest 2028-29 would be the earliest season in which new teams could be added.
“Our goal was in 2026 to resolve this issue one way or the other,” Silver said. “So, my timeline — we weren’t so specific with the board — is that we need to know by the end of this calendar year what it is we’re doing. It may not be that every ‘I’ is dotted, but that would be our goal, this year.”
How will the entry fee be determined?
If the league decides to expand, it’ll be selling equity in the current product.
And business in the NBA is booming, with franchise values soaring — the Boston Celtics recently sold with a valuation of just over $6 billion and the Los Angeles Lakers’ valuation was $10 billion.
“The only discussion in the room was understanding the math around dilution in terms of projections and what’s the direct reduction in existing revenues to teams if we were expanding beginning in ’28-29,” Silver said. “We did not discuss franchise value per se in these meetings. Of course, certainly with our bankers, we have a sense of where we think that value exists, but at the end of the day, the marketplace will determine that.”
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