yahoo - 3/25/2026 5:34:31 PM - GMT (+2 )
Pro basketball is seemingly on its way back to Seattle.
The NBA's ownership group has approved the vote to explore adding two new franchises, with expansion team applicants exclusively for the Seattle and Las Vegas markets for the 2028-29 season, the league announced Wednesday, March 25.
"Today’s vote reflects our Board’s interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle – two markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday, March 25, in a statement. "We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties."
The NBA Board of Governors are holding their regularly-scheduled meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where the vote took place. Silver will hold a press conference later in the day.
The NBA has also contracted PJT Partners, an investment bank, to consult on prospective ownership groups, infrastructure and the overall health of the prospective markets.
Over the years, rumors had suggested that Las Vegas, Nevada and Seattle, Washington, have been considered frontrunners to acquire a new franchise.
Now that two cities have been identified, the next steps would be a bidding process for potential owners, and the price tag for ownership is expected to be steep, estimated at between $7 and $ 10 billion.
The league's 30 governors would then vote on the franchises' approval, which requires 23 to vote in the affirmative; thus, it would be the league's first expansion since the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004, which paid a $300 million expansion fee.
The Bobcats rebranded as the Hornets in 2014, and the original Hornets left and relocated to New Orleans. That team has since been renamed the Pelicans.
If Las Vegas is approved, the city would be home to all four major North American sports, with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights starting play in 2017 in the NHL, the NFL's Raiders moving from Oakland in 2020, and the Athletics also moving from Oakland to start its first MLB season in Nevada in 2028. For decades, the league has avoided putting teams in Las Vegas, worried that the state's legal gambling would negatively influence play.
That went away in 2018, after the United States Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, allowing states to legalize betting on sports, and the leagues followed suit, embracing gambling and earning billions more in revenue through sponsorship deals and advertising.
Seattle has been without a professional basketball team since 2008, when the owners failed to secure funds for a new arena, were ultimately sold for $350 million, and relocated to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where they were renamed the Thunder.
The SuperSonics began play in the NBA in 1967, winning six division titles, three conference championships, and the NBA title in 1979 before moving to Oklahoma.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA approves vote to explore expansion teams in Seattle, Las Vegas
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