The NBA is expected to select a winning bidder for a Las Vegas expansion franchise in the "very near future," according to ESPN. The combined price of the team and an arena, which has not yet been built, is expected to be at least $12-13 billion, though it is not clear what portion of that figure would cover only the bid for the franchise itself.
In the running for the Las Vegas franchise are three groups of finalists, per ESPN:
- Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie. Walton is a Walmart heiress and the cousin of Rob Walton, the owner of the NFL's Denver Broncos. Bill Laurie is a former owner of the NHL's St. Louis Blues.
- Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry. Lasry was a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, but he sold his share to Jimmy Haslam, owner of the Cleveland Browns, at a $3.5 billion valuation. His involvement is notable because he was a former NBA governor, as the Bucks have a unique ownership structure in which ownership rotates between two governors, with Wes Edens holding the other position.
- Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo. Foley is the majority owner of the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights while Colangelo is a name well-known to NBA fans. Colangelo, like Lasry, is a former NBA governor. He was initially hired as the general manager of the Phoenix Suns in 1968 before leading a group of investors to purchase the team in 1987. He won the NBA's Executive of the Year award four times, and his son Bryan won it twice. However, the two left the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018 after reporting from The Ringer showed that Twitter accounts created by Bryan's wife, Barbara Bottini, had leaked sensitive information relating to the team and criticized some of its players. The elder Colangelo is the chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and is the former managing director of USA Basketball.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has repeatedly said he hopes to have the expansion matter settled by the end of the year (though it would take longer for a new team to actually begin play), with Las Vegas and Seattle approved in March as the two cities the league would explore for new franchises.
With news reportedly coming soon, the league appears poised to add its first new franchise since the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004 with the approval process for Las Vegas arriving before Seattle. Seattle already has Climate Pledge Arena ready for an NBA franchise, Silver said earlier this month, while Las Vegas is expected to need a new arena.
"There was not as much discussion around Seattle as there was around Las Vegas because with Las Vegas, it's not even clear what the site will be, let alone the arena yet. Therefore, it's a much longer timeline before we can throw the ball up for NBA basketball," Silver said following the league's board of governors meetings this month in New York. "In Seattle, we have had operational groups out to Climate Pledge [Arena]. You clearly have a state-of-the-art arena there. It may require some modifications for NBA basketball, but if we were opening, you know, in five weeks, we could be ready in Seattle. So, because we can only take on so much at once, more of the discussion was around Las Vegas."
Renovating T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights, is among the options for the new team, Silver said, but it would require renovations.
"I think that there is real excitement around a renovated T-Mobile Arena," Silver said. "I think everyone acknowledges if a team were to stay there, it still needs some significant improvements. But at the same time, there are groups who have presented plans to build what I would call, you know, a modern entertainment palace in Las Vegas. And it's a unique market where you could truly see, you know, essentially 365-day-a-year activity."
Las Vegas has never had an NBA franchise, but is currently home to WNBA (Las Vegas Aces), NFL (Las Vegas Raiders) and NHL (Vegas Golden Knights) franchises, with an MLB (Athletics) franchise on the way. The city has been the longtime host of the NBA Summer League and has also hosted the All-Star Game in 2007.
Seattle, of course, was home to the SuperSonics from 1967 to 2008, before the franchise was sold and moved to Oklahoma City as the Thunder.
