The NBA may be about to join the NFL and NHL as professional sports leagues with more than 30 teams.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, there's growing support for the league to add two expansion teams in the near future, and the NBA already knows exactly which two cities it wants to break into.
"Sources tell me that the NBA will hold a vote next week at the Board of Governors meetings on March 24 and 25 to allow the league to go explore two new expansion teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle," Charania reported on ESPN's "Get Up."
"So these two teams would be targeted for the 2028-29 season. … Industry executives tell me that you're looking at [bids] somewhere between $7 billion to $10 billion per team for Seattle and Las Vegas."
There has been mounting support from diehard NBA fans to bring back the Seattle Sonics, who left in 2008 to become the Oklahoma City Thunder.
As things currently stand, the Eastern and Western Conference have 15 teams each. So with both expansion teams being in the West, it's likely one team in that conference would switch to the other.
Early reports indicate the Minnesota Timberwolves or Memphis Grizzlies are the leading contenders to switch leagues.
Charania also reported that the vote is expected to pass without issue, allowing the NBA to officially gauge interest from prospective owners and start collecting bids for each team.
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"This first vote is looked at as a formality," Charania added. "There's momentum for the owners around the NBA to approve this vote and allow the league to go see what those bids could look like. This is just the first of a multi-step process: you get the league to go explore, you get the bids, and then depending on if it reaches the threshold, then you have a final vote later in 2026 to approve the move to 32 NBA teams.
"There is a growing majority of owners right now, I'm told, that are supportive of expansion. You think about Seattle and Las Vegas - those are two big markets in the NHL and the NFL - and so could those two teams immediately emerge as top revenue generators?"
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