There is no expansion guarantee.
National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver may have given Seattle a leg up in the league’s expansion plans to add two teams in Las Vegas and in Seattle. Seattle has an almost NBA ready arena and the league isn’t sure where a Las Vegas team will play. There appears to be one real bid for an expansion team in Seattle led by the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken ownership. There is a group that is figuring out how to build an arena in Marysville, Washington which is about 35 miles north of Seattle. The league has toured the Seattle arena and league officials know it is a state-of-the-art facility. “It may require some modifications for NBA basketball, but if we were opening, you know, in five weeks, we could be ready in Seattle,” Silver added. “So, because we can only take on so much at once, the more of the discussion was around Las Vegas.”
Las Vegas has a problem, a number of people bidding for a team and one suitable arena in town which is controlled by the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights ownership. The Golden Knights owners are just one of the bidders for the Las Vegas slot. “In Las Vegas, it’s not even clear what the site will be, let alone the arena yet,” said Silver. “Therefore, it’s a much longer timeline before we can throw the ball up for NBA basketball.” Seattle could host NBA games in its arena in five weeks, Las Vegas can’t. Does that mean Seattle could get a franchise by year’s end and be up and going within 18 months? Possibly. The only reason Seattle has not had a franchise since 2008 was the lack of a state-of-the-art venue. There is one in Seattle right now and the NBA has had pre-season games in the building.
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