NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the league will start looking into expansion once its new media rights deal kicks in.
NBA expansion will add some new excitement and, obviously, new teams to the league as it looks to grow even bigger. But it’s not going to happen just yet.
Adam Silver spoke to reporters as the NBA Summer League gets underway in Las Vegas. One of the major factors in expansion, he explained, was the new $76 billion TV rights deal that the league has yet to finalize. Those talks are in their final stages but there won’t be any new teams until the league knows where its media money is coming from in its foreseeable future.
Silver warned that bringing in new teams dilutes what the league can spread among its 30 existing teams, including both the money from new media deals and players, according to Baxter Holmes of ESPN. While it doesn’t sound like anything that will halt expansion, it just lays out the complexities behind it.
“I will say it’s a bit more complicated than is suggested sometimes, because just think of the new media deals, for example,” Silver said, via ESPN. “Once they’re completed, when you bring in new partners, you’re diluting those payments, of course, to teams. Sometimes it seems as if we’re printing money when we expand. Actually, it’s no different than selling equity in any business…I think there needs to be a fair amount of modeling at the league office, working with existing owners and really thinking through the long-term prospects, again not just economically but also for potential of dilution of talent.”
NBA expansion talks likely to circle around Seattle, Las Vegas
Making sure the new media deal can support additional teams is paramount but as far as players go, bringing in more teams will be beneficial. The league has never been more talented up and down rosters and that’s without pointing to the talent of the G League. Expanding the odds of players reaching their NBA dreams and creating new fan bases (or reviving old ones) will do a lot of good for the sport and the league.
Seattle is widely seen as a city that will get an NBA team. Ever since the SuperSonics were yanked away, it has felt inevitable that a new team will take its place. Fans and players alike have openly called for the league to bring back the Sonics — or, at least, NBA basketball to the Emerald City.
Silver declined to mention where Las Vegas is in talks about an expansion squad, per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints. After luring the NFL’s Raiders and eventually (maybe) the MLB’s Athletics to the desert — plus hosting the first In-Season Tournament championship rounds — it seems like the Sin City is a serious candidate.
Nashville also stands out as a possibility given its interest in adding a WNBA team. Other big cities that don’t have NBA teams include San Diego and Jacksonville, which each already have other pro teams. San Diego was even once home to the Rockets that now reside in Houston.
With other leagues like the WNBA and NHL recently going through expansion, the NBA, which hasn’t added multiple teams at the same time since 1995, could be next.