NBA Las Vegas expansion: When could the winning bid group be chosen?

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 is expected to choose the winning Las Vegas expansion bid in the near future.

The league is expected to select from the three finalist bid groups sometime “in the next month or so,” according to a person with knowledge of the expansion proceedings, a potentially accelerated timeline. A presentation by the winning bid group to the NBA board of governors would follow at some point, as it would require 23 of the 30 current team owners to vote in approval of adding a team in Las Vegas for it to be made official, the source said.

The expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle are expected to begin play in the 2028-29 NBA season, although there are discussions about the Las Vegas team starting in 2029-30, according to the source who is not authorized to speak officially about the process. Whichever group wins the bid for a Las Vegas NBA expansion team would look to build a new arena and likely would play at T-Mobile Arena on an interim basis while a new one is built.

The three groups in the running include one featuring Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo; one led by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband, former St. Louis Blues owner Bill Laurie; and a group that includes former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry and Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos.

Expansion price

The expansion fee is expected to be between $12 billion and $13 billion, which would include the costs to build a new arena, according to ESPN. The fee likely breaks down as $10 billion for the franchise and $2 billion to $3 billion to construct a new venue.

If the winning bid is chosen in the next month, the NBA’s process would have lasted about seven months. NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the league was exploring possible teams in Las Vegas and Seattle in late March and has noted multiple times, as recently as last month, that the league wants the process wrapped up by the end of the year.

The league hired investment bank PJT Partners to lead the expansion process. They have been vetting the various bid groups that have shown interest in either Las Vegas and Seattle. The bid groups remaining have met multiple deadlines — the most recent on Sept. 17 — to provide PJT and the league details on expansion plans, including financial and arena details.

Where will team play?

Where the potential NBA expansion team ends up playing will be determined by the winning group.

“There is real excitement around either a renovated T-Mobile Arena (or a new arena),” Silver said following a Sept. 15 board of governors meeting in New York. “I think everyone acknowledges that T-Mobile’s there and still needs some significant improvements. But at the same time, there are groups who have presented plans to build what I would call a modern entertainment palace in Las Vegas. And it’s a unique market where you can truly see essentially 365-day-a-year activity.”

Foley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in July that up to $400 million in upgrades would be made to the 10-year-old T-Mobile Arena, should an NBA team begin playing there.

More than a dozen arena projects have been floated by groups not affiliated with any of the trio of bid groups. The winning group could choose to partner with a group behind one of the previously pitched projects, or purchase land and build on its own.

A plot of land owned by Caesars Entertainment located behind the Horseshoe, Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood, is no longer in the running, according to another source who does not speak officially for the process.

There is still some interest in the north Strip, with potential sites that include vacant land at Resorts World Las Vegas and the LVXP land located next to the Sahara Las Vegas, according to Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom.

“Nothing specific, but I hear the north end of the Strip is definitely at the table,” Segerblom told the Review-Journal in a text message last week.

Other potential sites for an NBA arena include the Diamond Arena, pitched for land located on the Strip across from Mandalay Bay.

Gov. Lombardo remains involved

As the NBA expansion process continues to play out, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo remains active in discussions with the parties involved.

“We remain confident that Las Vegas is the right city for NBA expansion, and the governor is prepared to work closely with the league and the successful ownership group to ensure a new franchise can immediately become part of the fabric of our community and state,” Lombardo spokesperson Drew Galang said in a statement to the Review-Journal. “Governor Lombardo and his team continue to stay engaged throughout the process and will work with the league every step of the way.”