There are planned arenas and proposed owners but no team yet.
National Basketball Association owners have not officially decided to add teams to the league but that has not stopped investors in Las Vegas from stepping up their bids to land an expansion franchise. The latest news out of Las Vegas doesn’t involve a bidder but a builder. VICI Properties is looking to team up with Caesars Entertainment to construct a new arena. This is another arena proposal for a proposed National Basketball Association Las Vegas franchise. There are multiple arena proposals on the table. There is one NBA ready venue in town which houses the National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights franchise which is owned by Bill Foley. Foley is bidding for a franchise and there is a plan to upgrade the venue to accommodate an NBA team. Foley and the former owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns’ franchise, Jerry Colangelo, are two potential owners who have surfaced. There are others in the weeds who are alleged to want to be a part of a Las Vegas franchise including Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James.
The NBA expansion committee is doing its due diligence on the market although there doesn’t seem to be very much that the committee doesn’t know about Las Vegas. The NBA has its annual summer league in town. The Las Vegas metropolitan area has an estimated population of about 2.7 million people, making it the 40th largest TV market in the country. The Las Vegas economy is primarily driven by tourism and that is a problem right now. A Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Association’s report stated that Las Vegas welcomed 38.5 million visitors in 2025, a 7.5 percent drop from the year before with visitors spending $4.3 billion less than in 2024. So far, 2026 numbers are not promising but NBA owners know that and may not care.
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