NBA is expected to make a decision on domestic expansion within the next year, Commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday, offering the clearest timeline yet as the league considers growing from 30 to 32 teams. Long viewed as frontrunners, Las Vegas and Seattle remain the leading candidates.
“Not a secret, we’re looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle. 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,” Silver said before the NBA Cup final between San Antonio and New York.
Expansion has been debated for several years, with both Seattle, which lost the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 and Las Vegas consistently pushing for franchises.
“I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities,” Silver said. “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.”
Silver also revealed on Amazon Prime Video’s pre-game show for the NBA Cup final that the tournament’s championship game may move away from Las Vegas in the future. From next season, the Cup’s semi-finals will be hosted at the home courts of the No. 1 seeds, meaning the existing ‘Final Four’ concept in Las Vegas will change from 2026.
The NBA Cup’s move to streaming has not dented viewership. Saturday night’s semi-finals on Prime Video, in its first season as an NBA broadcast partner, averaged 1.67 million viewers, a 14 per cent increase on last year.
In addition, Silver suggested that updates could come as early as next month on the NBA’s proposed European league in partnership with FIBA, with the league set to stage regular-season games in Berlin and London next month featuring Orlando and Memphis.
Silver also said he and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum remain available to assist the WNBA and its players in reaching a new collective bargaining agreement, adding that he is “optimistic” a deal will be finalised.
