by Expansion is coming to the NBA. It will likely have two teams, one at least in Seattle and the other likely in Las Vegas, and with an entry-level price tag for the new owners of around $6 billion.
The league had been expected to expand in the fall once the new NBA broadcast rights deal was finalized. But when NBA owners met this week to talk, there was more talk about the league’s role in international basketball — after an exciting basketball tournament at the Olympic Games in Paris (for both men and women) — then expansion, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of discussion in this meeting about expansion, but that wasn’t just because of a lack of interest, but because we told them we’re not quite ready yet,” Silver said at a press conference Tuesday after the board meeting. “I appreciate you pointing out that it’s not quite — it might technically be — is it fall yet? Maybe not. It feels a little bit colder in New York, so we’re approaching fall. But it was something that we told our board that we were planning on tackling this season, and we’re not quite ready yet. But I think there’s certainly interest in the process, and I don’t think we’re there yet in terms of making specific decisions about markets or even frankly to expand.
“I know I’ve said this before, I think organizations need to grow over time. It’s appropriate. But it gets a little more complicated when it comes to selling equity in the league, what that means for existing television relationships, etc. What we’ve said to those interested is, thank you for your interest, we’ll get back to you. And that’s certainly the case in Seattle.”
Seattle is a major market that was home to the Supersonics for four decades before new owners moved them to Oklahoma City and rebranded them as the Thunder. There’s been a grassroots push for the day a team would return to Seattle, and now that day appears to be in sight. On Oct. 11, the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers will play a preseason game at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, one of a series of games held there in recent years. Silver said the game will help determine whether Climate Pledge Arena is NBA-ready for a team.
Silver addressed a number of other issues during his press conference.
• He said the league is largely in a wait-and-see mode regarding the sale of two franchises, the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Celtics’ sale was only announced this summer and is still relatively early in the process. The Timberwolves sale has become a bitter dispute between two parties — longtime owner Glen Taylor on one side and the combination of potential buyers Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez on the other — that is headed to arbitration in the coming weeks. The league is in a wait-and-see mode with Minnesota.
“That’s a process that’s independent of the league that’s set out in the sale agreement, and because, as your question suggests, depending on the outcome, the league would then proceed with a vetting process for ownership,” Silver said. “It’s kind of like pencils in the league office.”
• With Diamond Sports — the parent company of Bally Sports, which broadcasts home games of 13 NBA teams on regional sports networks (RSNs) — in bankruptcyThere is talk of a national RSN model with streaming for local matches, or at least a way to offer the matches on streaming services.
“But I think as we come out of this, as we look at the interest from streaming services to broadcast local games and all the additional functionality that comes with that, there will also be a transition and a transition for our viewers, in terms of how they discover those games and how they watch them, that I think the end result will be a much better consumer experience,” Silver said.
The move to both over-the-air broadcasting and streaming of games in a local market — a model more and more teams are seeking — is something some owners have vocally opposed, most notably James Dolan and the Madison Square Garden Company, which owns the New York Knicks (Dolan’s father started Cablevision and owns Madison Square Garden Network RSN).
• Raptors Governor and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Chairman Larry Tanenbaum was re-elected as Chairman of the Board, a position he has held since 2017.
