NBA commissioner: Las Vegas dominates expansion talks this week

NEW YORK — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday there was more discussion this week surrounding Las Vegas than Seattle in relation to potential expansion of the league.

Multiple bid groups and arena sites still on play in Las Vegas — and really one viable group and arena site in play in Seattle — is why Las Vegas saw more attention during the board of governors meetings this week.

Patrick Dumont, who serves as the governor of the Dallas Mavericks, led a discussion surrounding the potential NBA arena sites in Southern Nevada, Silver said.

“I’ll say that there was a discussion led by Patrick Dumont, of course, who is a Las Vegas resident and operating experience there in Las Vegas, just sort of as an independent objective party, led a discussion around the various sites, potential sites in Las Vegas,” Silver said. “I think that there is real excitement around either a renovated T-Mobile arena (or a new arena).

“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.”

Should the NBA choose to add a team to Las Vegas, the city will have added the Big 4 of North American. professional sports (MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL) in a decade’s time. That feat can’t be overlooked for the importance it will have for the city, according to Steve Hill, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO.

“It’s a huge step that Las Vegas will have taken really quickly,” Hill told the Review-Journal last week. “I mean, you look back, the Knights took the ice in October of ‘17, it won’t have been 10 years. So being able to add the NHL and the NFL and Major League Baseball and then the NBA in that period of time is pretty remarkable feat for this city.

“Vegas has been a basketball city for the entire time I’ve been here and before that UNLV got all that kicked off in the 70s and 80s into the 90s and it’s just stayed that way. We’ve got a great relationship with the NBA and it’s going to be a huge draw and we’re excited about it.”

PJT Partners, an investment bank the NBA hired to evaluate the ownership bids in the Las Vegas and Seattle markets and arena plans tied to expansion, has been vetting potential groups, with multiple deadlines already passing for the submission of plans, including financials.

The expansion fee is expected to be between $7 billion and $10 billion, with the expectation that a group that would land a Las Vegas expansion team would pay a higher price than one in Seattle. The billions in fees collected by the NBA would be shared by the other team owners, with each receiving hundreds of millions of dollars.

There are at least four groups who are in pursuit of landing an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas. The next deadline for the bid groups involved in the Las Vegas process is set for later this week, Silver said.

The Las Vegas bidders include Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill Laurie, former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo with former NBA player Vinny Del Nergro and one anonymous group.

There’s no shortage of potential NBA-ready arena projects that have been floated in Las Vegas, which Silver noted, with about a dozen plans being announced over the past few years.

Where an NBA team would play in Las Vegas would be determined by the winning bid group and if they have their own arena plans or would partner with one of the groups who have announced arena plans.

With the 2028-29 season seen as the target for expansion teams, a Las Vegas team would almost certainly play at T-Mobile Arena while a new arena is built. That is unless Foley’s group wins the bid, as he told the Review-Journal that up to $400 million in renovations would be made to the 10-year-old T-Mobile Arena to accommodate an NBA team alongside the NHL’s Golden Knights.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The Review-Journal is owned by the Adelson and Dumont families, owners of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. Patrick Dumont is a member of the NBA’s board of governors.