The NBA may expand to 32 teams in a couple years, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. The league’s Board of Governors will meet on Mar. 24-25. The board may vote on teams being added in Seattle, Wash. and Las Vegas, Nev. If the teams are approved, expansion fees could be $7 to $10 billion each.
Both markets have long histories with the NBA. Seattle is the original home of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who won their first NBA championship in 1978-79 (as the Seattle SuperSonics) against the Washington Wizards (then the Bullets), one year after Washington won the championship. The Sonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2009 after ownership failed to get a new arena for the city. Since losing the NBA team, Seattle has become a marquee WNBA market where the Storm won numerous WNBA championships and now play their games at Climate Pledge Arena, where the new Seattle NBA team would play.
For Las Vegas, the city has hosted the majority of NBA Summer League games since 2004 with the exceptions of 2011 due to a lockout and 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The city has gradually become a market with multiple professional sports teams like the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA, the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL, and the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL. Both the Aces and Knights have won championships in Las Vegas too, so professional athletes seem to like the prospect of playing in this market.
How do you think a new Seattle NBA team and a new Las Vegas NBA team could affect the Wizards? Let us know in the comments below.
