By MAX WINTERS, US DEPUTY SPORTS EDITOR
Published: 12:25 EDT, 25 March 2026 | Updated: 12:26 EDT, 25 March 2026
The NBA's board of governors has voted in favor of exploring bids for new teams in both Las Vegas and Seattle.
Last week, it emerged that the NBA has cited 2028-29 for the two new expansion franchises to start playing games.
It's expected that bids for teams from both cities could reach as much as $10 billion and they would immediately be among the NBA's top-eight revenue earners.
'Today's vote reflects our Board's interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle - two markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball,' NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement Wednesday.
'We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties.'
Following the vote of approval, the NBA has now engaged investment bank PJT Partners to help with the process.
The NBA's board of governors has voted in favor of exploring Las Vegas and Seattle expansion
It's expected that bids for teams from both cities could reach as much as $10 billion
Las Vegas and Seattle would immediately be among the NBA's top-eight revenue earners
They will evaluate a number of things, including the prospective markets, potential ownership groups, local arenas and the wider economic factors involved in expansion.
There will be a potential final vote later in 2026 to complete the NBA's growth to 32 teams. To be successful, 23 of 30 governors must vote in favor.
Expansion has been a topic for years in the NBA, and it's no secret that Seattle - which had a team until the SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 - and Las Vegas have long been clamoring for franchises.
'Not a secret, we're looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle,' Silver said before the NBA Cup final in December.
'We've looked at other markets as well. I'd say I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we're somehow teasing these markets, because I know we've been talking about it for a while.
'I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities. Obviously we had a team in Seattle that had great success. We have a WNBA team here in Las Vegas in the Aces.
'I don't have any doubt that Las Vegas, despite all of the other major league teams that are here now, the other entertainment properties, that this city could support an NBA team.
'I think now we're in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026 we'll make a determination.'