So, the NBA’s Board of Governors gave the green light to explore expansion, specifically targeting Las Vegas and Seattle. Look, this isn't "exploring." This is rubber-stamping. Adam Silver has been hinting at two new teams for years, and these two cities have been the obvious frontrunners.
Seattle lost the SuperSonics in 2008, a franchise that gave us the 1979 NBA championship and stars like Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. The city has a proven basketball market, demonstrated by the wildly successful Kraken expansion in the NHL, which sold out season tickets years before their first game in 2021. Their new arena, Climate Pledge Arena, is state-of-the-art and ready for an NBA tenant. Vegas, on the other hand, is the new frontier. The Golden Knights arrived in 2017 and immediately made the Stanley Cup Final, winning it all in 2023. The Raiders moved there in 2020. The WNBA's Aces, who play at Michelob Ultra Arena, just won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023. There's a clear appetite for professional sports.
Let's be real: this is about money. The current expansion fee projections are staggering, reportedly in the range of $3 billion to $4 billion per team. That's a minimum of $6 billion flowing directly into the pockets of the existing 30 owners, split evenly. That's roughly $200 million for each owner, tax-free. No wonder the vote was unanimous. This cash infusion comes at a perfect time, right after the league inked a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in April 2023 and is on the verge of negotiating a new media rights deal that could top $75 billion over the next decade.
The economic engine of the league is humming. Player salaries continue to skyrocket; Jaylen Brown just signed a five-year, $304 million extension with the Celtics in July 2023, the richest deal in NBA history. Owners need to keep up with these costs, and expansion fees are a painless way to do it. Think about the last time the NBA expanded: the Charlotte Bobcats joined in 2004 for a reported $300 million. The growth is exponential.
The ownership groups in both cities are already lined up. In Vegas, Mark Davis, owner of the Raiders and Aces, has expressed interest, and the arena for an NBA team would likely be built near the Raiders' Allegiant Stadium. For Seattle, the ownership group led by David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer, who also own the Kraken, has been lobbying for years. They have the arena, the financial backing, and the political will.
Here's the thing: adding two teams means diluting the talent pool, at least initially. The NBA already has 30 teams, and some nights, the quality of play can feel stretched. Expanding to 32 teams will make the bottom feeders even worse for a few years. But that's a short-term problem. The league will adapt. My hot take? Vegas will get an expansion team before Seattle does. The league sees the untapped potential and the global appeal of the city as too lucrative to pass up. Seattle is a certainty, but Vegas will be prioritized.
The target for these teams to begin play is likely the 2025-26 or 2026-27 season, following the new media rights deal. It gives them time to organize expansion drafts and build rosters. Get ready for some new rivalries. The Pacific Division is about to get even tougher. I predict the Seattle team will make the playoffs within their first four seasons, leveraging a passionate fan base and a smart front office.