No vote taken on Las Vegas NBA expansion, but Silver ‘optimistic’ about future

This year’s Las Vegas NBA Summer League has been especially high-profile, given the hype surrounding the professional debuts of top prospects like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and more. But another storyline — a potential vote to approve the league’s expansion to Las Vegas — added extra intrigue to the event, which has been hosted in Sin City since 2004.

No such vote was held this week, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters after the latest round of league owners’ meetings concluded Tuesday. Silver instead took the opportunity to praise the NBA’s longstanding relationship with the city, but said the interest in expansion is “music to my ears” while asserting that a resolution will come before the end of the year.

“I really appreciate what we’re seeing so far, so it’s very encouraging,” Silver said. “No votes have been taken yet. We’ve got a ways to go in terms of discussions with interested parties, but I’m optimistic about the future here.”

NBA owners voted unanimously in March to explore Las Vegas as a potential relocation site, along with Seattle. The price tag for each franchise is expected to land between $7 billion to $10 billion if approved, which would be at or near the top of the current market. The Los Angeles Lakers sold for a league record $10 billion last year.

‘All roads lead’ to T-Mobile

Punting the vote until later this year puts more pressure on the league’s preferred timeline, which would be for any expansion teams to start play in 2028. With regard to Las Vegas, the team’s arena would be one of the biggest variables under a condensed window.

The only venue that currently hosts official NBA games is T-Mobile Arena. T-Mobile has hosted the semifinals and finals of the annual NBA Cup in-season tournament since its inception in 2023. The arena is co-owned by MGM Resorts, Barry Diller’s People Inc. and Bill Foley, who also owns the Golden Knights NHL franchise. MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle indicated on the company’s Q1 earnings call that preliminary discussions are revolving around the venue.

“T-Mobile is part of that conversation, whether it’s short-term or long-term, all roads lead to it for now … so we’re intimately involved in those conversations,” he said at the time. MGM has been “asked how we would position T-Mobile for any and all bidders” and there has been “extensive interest”, Hornbuckle added.

While T-Mobile does host games every year, the general belief is that renovations and upgrades would be needed to host a team full-time. Foley has offered to finance $300 million – $400 million worth of upgrades as part of an ownership bid, but that is no guarantee as competition ramps up.

Bidders lining up

Speaking of ownership bids, several groups have made formal announcements, and Silver said Tuesday that “most” of the groups interested “have not been public”.

“Multiple very serious groups are in the process of presenting plans to our bankers, and those plans not only include who the potential owners would be, but their vision for what Las Vegas basketball could look like, where they would play, how they would present the game,” Silver said.

Some investor groups that are known to be interested are being led by:

• Golden Knights owner Bill Foley
• Former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo
• NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson
• Former Disney CEO Bob Iger

Generally speaking, owning a Las Vegas sports franchise has been a lucrative investment. The Las Vegas Raiders franchise was worth $2.4 billion when relocation from Oakland was approved in 2017, and its current valuation is $7.7 billion according to Forbes. Foley’s Golden Knights franchise valuation increased from $500 million to $2.2 billion during that same span. The Athletics MLB franchise, which hasn’t debuted in Las Vegas yet, has increased from $1.2 billion to $2 billion in the last two years.