Has Mexico City supplanted Seattle in the expansion sweepstakes?
The members of the National Basketball Association ownership group are a bunch of greedy individuals who just see dollar signs or maybe a peso in the attempt to add two teams to the league. The owners have a bidding war in an attempt to put an expansion franchise in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a city that might soon be oversaturated with major league teams and that has seen tourism, the town’s main industry, plummet by double digits in the past year. Still, there are three groups bidding and reportedly the bids have exceeded $10 billion. The situation is different in Seattle where there is an arena available but there seems to be a limit of paying just $7 billion and that from just one bidder. The NBA ownership group is really milking the process. The sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise recently brought in about $4.5 billion. Seattle is a slightly larger market than Minneapolis-St. Paul. Seattle is the 15th biggest market in the United States, while Minneapolis-St. Paul is the 16th biggest market. Seattle is a richer market.
According to reports, a group in Mexico City is ready to write a large check to buy an expansion franchise. The NBA has had problems with Seattle for two decades. Howard Schultz sold his SuperSonics franchise to Clayton Bennett and neither Schultz nor Bennett was able to get a 21st century state-of-the-art arena built in the city and Bennett fled Seattle for Oklahoma City in 2008. The city now has a state-of-the-art arena. By expanding and adding two franchises, NBA owners are in line to receive hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing except adding two teams although the share of video rights revenues and merchandising dollars might diminish. The players get none of the expansion money although there will be around 30 new jobs created. The name of the NBA game is greed.
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