The NBA logo in shown on a basketball court in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Friday, Aug. 28, 2020.(A ...
The NBA logo in shown on a basketball court in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Friday, Aug. 28, 2020.(AP Photo/Ashley Landis, Pool, File)
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr calls to his team during the second half of the gam ...
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr calls to his team during the second half of the gam ...
Raiders minority owner Durban joins Walton Laurie NBA expansion bid, report says
‘Everything’s changed a lot’: Lakers, Warriors coaches expect potential Las Vegas team to be a success
Editor’s note: This is a regular Sunday feature to wrap up news and developments in the NBA’s possible expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle by the 2028-29 season.
The NBA’s Las Vegas expansion bid process heads toward the finish line and a leader in the pack has emerged.
The bid group including Nancy Walton Laurie her husband, Bill Laurie, and Silver Lake co-CEO and Raiders minority owner Egon Durban, who recently joined the group, is the heavy favorite to land Las Vegas’ NBA team, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Review-Journal. The source is not authorized to comment on the situation.
The deal is not yet set in stone, but the Walton Laurie group with a collective net worth of over $20 billion and ties to the area, with Walton Laurie living in Henderson for several years and Durban’s 22 percent ownership stake in the Raiders, is the favorite out of the three finalist bid groups to net an NBA team in Southern Nevada.
The other two groups include one led by Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and former Phoenix Sun owner Jerry Colangelo and a group featuring former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry and Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos.
Despite a report noting that the Walton Laurie group was eyeing an arena site near Allegiant Stadium, the North Strip is still a major player for where an NBA arena could be built.
Resorts World Las Vegas leadership has expressed interest in landing an NBA arena at the North Strip resort and there’s also land that LVXP owns located at the site of the former Wet ‘n’ Wild, next to the Sahara Las Vegas.
Additionally, land that is owned by four different entities sitting behind the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West Hall, which is along Las Vegas Boulevard across the Strip from Resorts World, is in play.
“The site … is one of the sites that’s been put forward,” said Steve Hill, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO. “It’s a beautiful location. That’s one that has come up, amongst others.”
The process is still tracking to have the NBA and PJT Partners, the investment bank that the league hired to run the expansion process, to choose the winning bid before the end of the year, if not in the coming weeks.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said from the beginnng that he expects a decision to be made about expansion in both Las Vegas and Seattle before the end of the year with the potential for the new franchises to begin play for the 2028-29 season.
A new Seattle team would play in Climate Pledge Arena, the remodeled Key Arena that used to be home to the Seattle SuperSonics before the franchise moved to Oklahoma City.