In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that while the league is not actively pursuing new markets at this time, Las Vegas is certainly near the top of the leaderboard should they wish to do so in the future.
No league officials have confirmed when exactly they might consider expanding, but the general consensus is that that won’t happen until after a new TV and media rights contract is negotiated—the current nine-year, $24 billion deal doesn’t expire until 2025.
According to Silver, the terms of the new contract will “impact the value of a franchise here (Las Vegas),” which is why the league is “just not going to engage” in speculation as of yet.
However, he did note that “Vegas has a huge footprint,” and the advent of streaming services makes it so that “the size of local markets become less relevant than they did historically.”
Silver also called the city a “very non-traditional market,” and because of the success of the Golden Knights and Raiders franchises, his “personal view is there’s room for everybody.”
Regardless of whether a team moves there, Las Vegas already has a large NBA presence, in that it hosts the annual NBA Summer League tournament every year. The 2022 tournament alone, which just wrapped up, is said to have had an economic impact of over $120 million.
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill told the Review-Journal that the agency has “talked to the NBA about a number of opportunities in Las Vegas,” and added that “their brand and the Las Vegas brand make a lot of sense together.”
Even if the league doesn’t gift Las Vegas with an actual team, it could negotiate a deal for the city to host more of its popular events, as Silver said the area boasts “incredible hotels, entertainment outside of basketball and great facilities.”
Perhaps the biggest question of whether or not a team will come to Vegas has to do with where it would play—there is a new project in the works near the south end of the Strip that would include an NBA-ready arena as well as a casino-resort and shopping centers.
That development is funded by Oak View Group and is being headed by Tim Leiweke, a well-known arena developer and former president of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets franchise. Several high-profile figures have signed on to the project, including former Raiders president Marc Baidan, who was instrumental in the building of the Raiders’ new state-of-the-art Allegiant Stadium.
When asked about how the new arena may help the city’s chances, Silver said that “it always helps to have first-class facilities in a market. “
