Expansion is coming to the NBA. Most likely there will be two teams, one definitely in Seattle and the other probably in Las Vegas, and with an entry-level price tag for the new owners of around $6 billion.
The league was expected to take expansion up in the fall, after the new NBA broadcast rights deal was finalized. However, when the NBA owners gathered to talk this week, there was more discussion about the league’s role in international basketball – after an exciting Paris Olympics basketball basketball tournament (both men and women) – than expansion, according to NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
“There wasn’t a lot of discussion in this meeting about expansion, but mostly it wasn’t for lack of interest, it was that we told them we weren’t quite ready,” Silver said Tuesday in a press conference after the Board. of the Governor’s meeting. “I appreciate you pointing out that it’s kind of not quite — maybe technically — has it fallen yet? Maybe not yet. It’s feeling a little colder in New York, so we’re getting closer to fall. But it was something we said to our Board that we plan to address this season, and we’re not quite ready yet. But I think there’s definitely an interest in the process, and I don’t think we’re there yet in terms of making specific decisions about markets sincerely expand.
“I know I’ve said it before, I think over time the organizations should grow. It’s appropriate. But it gets a little complicated in terms of selling equity in the league, what that means for the existing television relationships, etc. What we “Said interested parties are thank you for your interest, we will get back to you And that is certainly also 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 made them the Thunder. There has been a grassroots push almost since the day it happened to put a team back in Seattle, and now that day seems on the horizon. On October 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 there in recent years. Silver said the game will help gauge whether Climate Pledge Arena is NBA-ready for a team.
Silver touched on a handful of other issues in 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 for sale were just announced this summer and are relatively early in the process. The sale of the Timberwolves has become a bitter dispute between two sides – long-time owner Glen Taylor on one side and the combo of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez as potential buyers on the other – headed for arbitration in the coming weeks. The league is in wait-and-see mode with Minnesota.
“That is a process that exists regardless of the bond that was set in the sales agreement, and because, as your question suggests, depending on the outcome, only then would the bond then continue screening for ownership,” Silver said. “It’s kind of pencils down at the league office.”
• With Diamond Sports — the parent company of Bally Sports, which carries the home games of 13 NBA teams on cable-based regional sports networks (RSNs) — in bankruptcythere is discussion about a national RSN model with streaming for local games, or at least some way to get the games on streaming services.
“But I think from this, when we look at the interest of streaming services to carry local games and all the additional features that will come with that, there will be a transition and a transition for our viewers as well, in terms of how they discover those games and how they’re looking at them that I think the end result is going to be a much better consumer experience,” Silver said.
Moving in the direction of over-the-air broadcasting as well as streaming games in a local market – a model that more and more teams are moving towards – is something opposed by some owners, most vocally James Dolan and the Madison Square. Garden Company that owns the New York Knicks (Dolan’s father started Cablevision and owns the Madison Square Garden Network RSN).
• Larry Tanenbaum, the Raptors governor and the president of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, was re-elected as chairman of the Board, a role he has held since 2017.
