NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hinted at when and where the league could expand for the first time since 2004.
Silver confirmed during the annual Associated Press Sports Editors Conference in Las Vegas on Monday that the league will focus on league expansion once it secures its next TV deal. The NBA’s current deal with Disney’s (DIS) -) ESPN/ABC and Warner Bros’ (WBD) -) TNT expires after the 2024-25 season.
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This echoes the same statements Silver said a month ago when doing the media rounds during the NBA Finals. At the time, Silver said the league would shift its focus to the TV deal after finalizing the CBA with the NBA Player’s Association. The two sides officially agreed to the new CBA on June 28.
Silver also spoke about two potential markets that the NBA could go to: Las Vegas and Seattle.
“We will look at this market,” Silver said during the conference, held in Las Vegas congruent with the NBA Summer League.
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Las Vegas might be an obvious destination for the league that has held its Summer League in Sin City for nearly two decades. It’s also chosen Las Vegas as the neutral site for the championship and semifinals games of its new in-season tournament that will begin next year.
Las Vegas has grown incredibly fast in terms of its sports product with the entry of teams like the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, and NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights alongside major sporting events like the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix of Formula 1.
On the other hand, Seattle is a market that had an NBA team until 2008, when it turned the Seattle Supersonics into the Oklahoma City Thunder. But many NBA fans in and out of the city continue to cry for another team to represent the northwest region.
“There’s no doubt there’s enormous interest in Seattle. That’s not a secret,” Silver said.
But the commissioner reiterated that the league is not engaging in conversations about expansion just yet.
“What we’re saying to everyone, privately is the same thing I’m saying publicly that there’ll be a very open process at the time already to consider expansion. But that’s not yet. That’s not yet now,” Silver said.
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