NBA Governors consider vote to add teams

By Josh Ortega

A pair of new expansion franchises could be joining the NBA soon. According to a report by ESPN Senior NBA Insider Shams Charania, the NBA will hold a vote at the league’s March Board of Governors meeting this week to “explore adding” two additional domestic expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle. The league has not seen the addition of a domestic expansion franchise to its roster of teams in more than two decades. 

Despite two permanent relocations, the NBA hasn’t officially expanded domestically since 2004 when the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets) became the league’s 30th team after the original franchise moved to New Orleans. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has hinted at domestic expansion multiple times during his tenure as Commissioner. 

Silver mentioned back in December before the NBA Cup Final that “sometime in 2026” the league would make a decision on whether adding domestic expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle would make economic sense for the league and board of governors. 

Silver later confirmed at NBA-All Stars back in February that the topic of domestic expansion would be discussed at the annual board of governors meeting, but did rule out that it would be only discussed and not voted on initially. 

“My sense is at the March board of governors meeting we will be having further discussions around an expansion process,” Silver said. “We won’t be voting at the March meeting, but we will come out of those meetings ready to take a next step in potentially talking to interested parties.”

With the report by Charania last week, that stance on voting has clearly changed as the gears for domestic expansion in the NBA start to turn into a real possibility. 

The start of the process of potentially adding new franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle has raised many questions. Since the news broke of the vote to tip-off the process of the NBA expanding the biggest question has been, “Why now?” 

The answer is the increased value of franchises across the NBA. 

Since 2021, eight different NBA teams have been sold to new owners or owner groups for figures north of $1 billion. Notably, in 2025, three different NBA teams were sold to new owners within months of each other.

The Los Angeles Lakers were sold for approximately $10 billion from the Buss Family to Mark Walter while, just two months later, the Boston Celtics were sold for $6.1 billion to a group led by Bill Chisholm and the Portland Trailblazers were sold for a figure close to $4 billion in September. Charania and ESPN reported that the proposal for both franchises would range in the high billions. This is important for many reasons.

The biggest is the equity change for owners across the NBA. With 30 teams, NBA owners each individually own a 1/30 stake that makes up the league. With the addition of two teams that would drop to 1/32 per owner per team.

The catalyst for owners to domestically expand now is that every owner would get a hefty piece of the pie when it comes to the final sale price of said expansion franchise to enter the league. 

In short, the more valuable NBA franchises remain, the more money owners get back when an expansion franchise sells. Seattle and Las Vegas have largely been the front runners in the concept of expanding due to long lasting histories with the NBA. 

If approved, this would be Seattle’s second time with an NBA expansion team. Seattle was home to the Seattle SuperSonics for 47 years before the team moved. 

The SuperSonics were relocated to Oklahoma City and renamed as the Oklahoma City Thunder after a long standing legal battle with the city of Seattle and owner Clay Bennett. The dispute was over the team’s lease at KeyArena and the team’s need for a more modern venue. The team relocated in 2008 after the lease was bought out.  

Las Vegas has been the long-standing home of the NBAs’ Summer League and, more recently, has been the home to the NBA Cups’ semifinals and championship games. The Entertainment Capital of the World is no stranger to housing new teams. 

Las Vegas famously housed relocation for the Las Vegas Raiders and WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces who moved from Oakland and San Antonio respectively. Currently, the city is in the process of having the Athletics move to Las Vegas to begin play in 2028. Vegas is accustomed to welcoming expansion franchises as the city hosts the Vegas Golden Knights, who expanded into the NHL in 2017. 

This week’s vote is only one of many steps for the NBA to truly expand. Silver mentioned that the NBA was looking at other markets. Vegas and Seattle could be the first of different sets.

“It doesn’t have to be a two-team expansion, “ Silver said. “Frankly, it doesn’t have to be any number of teams.”

Silver and the NBA have also mentioned publicly a potential European league as part of the NBA’s plan to expand globally. If approved, via two sets of votes through the chain of command throughout the year, Las Vegas and Seattle could bring the league’s team total to 32 by the 2028/2029 season.