Buffets, baccarat and now, basketball? NBA expansion to Las Vegas has cleared the first hurdle.
As expected, the NBA’s board of governors has approved a measure to explore bids for Las Vegas and Seattle as potential expansion sites, the league announced on Wednesday. The vote was unanimous, ESPN reported, with all 30 team owners voting in favour – only 23 were needed for passage.
Long rumoured to add an expansion team in Sin City during the early-2000s, former NBA Commissioner David Stern expressed hesitancy in bringing a team to Las Vegas due to the proximity of legalised sports wagering. At the time, Nevada remained the nation’s only state that allowed the activity. Since the historic 2018 repeal of PASPA by the Supreme Court, more than three dozen states have added sports betting.
The first vote will allow the league and interested parties to start a formal bidding process for the two franchises. In its release, the NBA said it has “engaged investment bank PJT Partners as a strategic adviser to evaluate prospective markets, ownership groups, arena infrastructure, and the broader economic implications of expansion”.
“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. “We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties.”
Upper echelon in revenue generation
The early expectation is that both teams will fetch between $7 billion and $10 billion, and both markets are expected to land in the top eight by revenue generation.
More approvals will be required for the league to formally expand to 32 teams, but Wednesday’s action officially starts the process. There is still a chance that the expansion purchases won’t be finalised for a few more years, per ESPN.
Prior to the vote, there had been some debate in league circles as to whether the added revenue from the two franchises would be enough to justify expansion. Shared revenue is currently split between 30 teams, but owners clearly viewed the growth potential of Las Vegas and Seattle as being enough to compensate for the dilution of splitting between 32 teams.
Alternate proposals included relocating existing teams with poor performance and popularity, like the New Orleans Pelicans or Brooklyn Nets.
Lombardo, Silver have spoken about Las Vegas team
With the vote secured, Las Vegas is likely to field a high level of interest for both ownership and arena development opportunities.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo has spoken with Silver about Las Vegas expansion, and has also met with NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson as a potential owner, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Johnson, who won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, is invested in multiple sports franchises, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Sparks.
“I’m very excited to see the NBA advance this process toward a Las Vegas expansion team,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Today’s vote by the NBA Board of Governors is a testament to the incredible growth we’re seeing in Southern Nevada and our state’s business-friendly environment.”
In addition to Johnson’s MAGI group, Bill Foley, who owns the Las Vegas Golden Knights NHL franchise, has also previously expressed interest. Several other high-dollar sports ownership firms will likely be heard from, including Fenway Sports Group, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
NBA franchises have become extremely lucrative investments in recent years. In 2022, the Phoenix Suns sold for a record $4 billion, and that record was broken several times in 2025 alone. The Portland Trail Blazers ($4.25 billion), Boston Celtics ($6.1 billion) and Los Angeles Lakers ($10 billion) all reset the market last year. With an expected value that may approach $10 billion, a Las Vegas franchise would immediately vault toward the top of that list.
Finding an arena could be tricky
Another big question is where the prospective team would play. One potential existing venue is T-Mobile Arena on the Strip, where the Golden Knights and Aces (WNBA) play. However, the venue does not meet NBA specifications. The Golden Knights’ Foley owns a stake in the arena and previously pledged to finance renovations if included in team ownership, but that is no guarantee given the competition.
MGM Resorts is also a factor in the T-Mobile equation. The casino operator partly owns the venue, and it is situated between two MGM properties (Park MGM and New York-New York). It remains to be seen whether the eventual team owners would prefer a greenfield venue instead.
“T-Mobile Arena was built for basketball and hockey,” MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle said in a statement following the vote. “Our long-standing relationship with the League is a positive one that stretches back many years, and we would welcome the opportunity to work with the NBA on creating an unforgettable fan experience.”
Other NBA-ready arena projects have popped up in Las Vegas in recent years, although none have gained traction. The former All Net Arena project on the Strip, at the site of the former Wet n’ Wild waterpark, was abandoned in 2023 after years of stalled construction. Two other efforts from Oak View Group and developers LVXP also picked up and lost steam during that time.
Development costs would loom large over a new arena. The Las Vegas Athletics (A’s) began building their MLB stadium on the Strip last June, and the price has ballooned from $1.5 billion to over $2 billion. Both the A’s and the Raiders secured public financing deals for their venues, but Lombardo has not committed to financing an NBA arena.
Las Vegas = sports town
In the last decade, Las Vegas has exploded as a sports destination. Major pro leagues had historically avoided the market and its connections to gambling, although that has shifted dramatically since the repeal of PASPA and the subsequent betting expansion it inspired.
Three pro franchises – the Raiders, Golden Knights and Aces – have debuted in the last ten years, and the As plan to move to the city in 2028. Las Vegas also hosts an annual Formula One Grand Prix race and other high-profile events like the Super Bowl and March Madness. The NBA is reportedly aiming to begin expansion play in 2028 as well, meaning all four major sports would be live by the end of that year if timelines hold.
That is welcome news for stakeholders, who have endured lagging tourism and air traffic for much of the last 18 months. Visitation was down 7.5% year-over-year in 2025, per the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and traffic to Harry Reid International Airport declined 6% YoY. Those trends have continued into 2026 – January’s visitation declined a further 2% and air traffic was down 8% for the month.
NBA teams host 41 home games per season not including playoffs, which would be a significant addition to the city’s event calendar. Las Vegas and the NBA have an extensive relationship that has continued to grow in recent years. The city has hosted the NBA Summer League tournament since 2004 and the NBA Cup in-season tournament finals since 2023. The US men’s national team, which is predominantly comprised of NBA All-Stars, has held its training camps in Las Vegas since 2006.
Swissman: City ‘well-positioned’ for NBA growth
Josh Swissman, Las Vegas-based managing director of GMA Consulting, told iGB the news is positive yet not surprising.
“My honest reaction is, finally,” Swissman said. “It’s been rumoured for so long, so it’s nice to see that momentum build over the last few weeks and become official today.”
Las Vegas’ existing facilities, room inventory and overall hospitality expertise make it “incredibly well-positioned” to field more sports expansion, Swissman said. Speaking to the revenue generating potential, he added that the market can support higher ticket prices than smaller regional markets.
With that said, there could be an argument that the NBA is is a tad too late in tapping Las Vegas, given that tourism and gaming revenue are both down from a record stretch of performance from 2021-2024. This could be especially true if the expansion franchise fetches near the top of the $10 billion estimate, but Swissman asserted that the cyclical nature of Las Vegas will come around again.
“There are headlines from the 1950s wondering if Vegas was overbuilt and past its time,” he said. “I think you could go decade by decade and find similar stories with similar themes. Numbers are down, but I don’t view that as a long-term issue…. Eventually, the short-term volatility will stabilise and bring back some of that consumer confidence.”
Jess Marquez, US News Editor for iGaming Business
Jess Marquez
Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.