The NBA are set to hold a vote at a board of governors meeting next week to explore adding expansion teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle, and there is a suggestion that Liverpool owners FSG could bid.
The Reds have had ties to the Basketball world for some time now, with LeBron James once a shareholder at the club.
Rousing The Kop have also previously covered claims that FSG held talks with the NBA about launching a Liverpool basketball team, and we have now spoken exclusively to Adam Williams about the North American owners potentially bidding for one of the new expansion teams.
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FSG could capitalise on NBA voting on adding expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle
The aforementioned meetings will take place on March 24 and March 25, with a view to adding two franchises for the 2028/29 season.
Should the vote be successful and FSG bid for one of the sides, Williams has suggested that they could potentially end up with a franchise valued higher than Liverpool with more guaranteed profits.
He said: “FSG have been said to have had their eye on an NBA franchise for some time. But they come up for sale very infrequently, and they are enormously expensive.
“If you can get in at the ground floor with an expansion franchise in Vegas, it gives you the blank canvas to do it in FSG style. It would be interesting to see the way that they approach it because, in the past, it has been about buying heritage assets – like Liverpool and the Red Sox – with huge potential and history, optimising them and then aiming to sell them on for a huge profit one day in the future.
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“With a brand new NBA team, there would be so much work to do. But the pay-off is one of the biggest in sports. The average valuation in the NBA is equivalent to about £4bn, which is roughly the same as Liverpool, give or take a billion or so. But unlike Liverpool, profits are guaranteed. You have a system of cost caps, revenue sharing agreements and other mechanisms that means you know you’re going to be in the black regardless of how you actually perform that season.
“With Liverpool, the valuation is about the club’s global reach and how that can potentially be monetised. But with an NBA franchise, it’s more about the actual fundamentals of the business. If FSG do pursue this, that’s what they’ll be going into it for, and it could end up being even more lucrative than Liverpool as an investment.”
FSG unlikely to join NBA Europe
While there is a suggestion that FSG could become involved in the North American expansion, the Liverpool owners are unlikely to join NBA Europe.
A deadline of March 31, 2026, has been set for investors to submit bids for a team license.
However, Kieran Maguire has previously explained to Rousing The Kop why FSG will probably not be involved.
He said: “Liverpool have still got a lot of upside from FSG’s point of view. People forget that they bought the club for £300m. They will continue to focus there. That will be their preferred route, so I don’t anticipate that they will be looking at this, even if they have been approached.”
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