{"id":509887,"date":"2026-08-14T08:49:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=509887"},"modified":"2026-08-14T08:49:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:49:42","slug":"nba-prioritizing-las-vegas-expansion-over-seattle-with-nba-europe-still-a-bigger-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/nba-prioritizing-las-vegas-expansion-over-seattle-with-nba-europe-still-a-bigger-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA prioritizing Las Vegas expansion over Seattle, with NBA Europe still a bigger focus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The NBA<\/strong> is expected to prioritize awarding an expansion franchise in Las Vegas<\/strong> before moving forward with a potential team in Seattle<\/strong>, according to ESPN<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

League officials reportedly want to establish a record-setting expansion fee<\/strong> in Las Vegas that would serve as the benchmark for future expansion franchises. Interest in the Las Vegas market has significantly exceeded that of Seattle.<\/p>\n

Although Bob Iger<\/strong> and Josh Kushner<\/strong> withdrew from the Las Vegas bidding process to instead purchase the Los Angeles Lakers<\/strong> for a record $12.5 billion<\/strong>, several ownership groups remain in contention for the franchise.<\/p>\n

However, a league source cautioned that an agreement is not guaranteed to be approved at the next NBA Board of Governors<\/strong> meeting.<\/p>\n

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“We’ll see what happens in September. If they took a vote today, it wouldn’t pass. It’s all about the fee price.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Reports suggest the Las Vegas expansion fee could fall between $7.5 billion and $9 billion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, commissioner Adam Silver<\/strong> and many NBA owners continue to view NBA Europe<\/strong> as an even higher strategic priority. The planned 16-team competition<\/strong> is scheduled to launch in October 2027<\/strong>, although the participating cities have yet to be finalized.<\/p>\n

An Eastern Conference executive also pointed to the Lakers’ record sale as further evidence of the league’s financial strength.<\/p>\n

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“Any numbers like $12.5 billion for a team are good for NBA owners. The league continues to grow in value because the business is performing extremely well, and the product may be better than it’s ever been.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to ESPN, the league wants to secure a record expansion fee in Las Vegas before considering Seattle, while NBA Europe remains a top strategic priority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":509886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[175],"typology":[183],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-509887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","rumors-nba-rumors","typology-rumors"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/08\/nba_seattlesupersonics.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509887"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=509887"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=509887"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=509887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}