NBA Expansion Team Announcement Coming Soon for Las Vegas

^{Las Vegas hosted the NBA All-Star Game back in 2007 and is now on the verge of getting an expansion team. (Photo: Barry Sweet / ZUMA Press)}

LAS VEGAS – It's only a matter of time before NBA commissioner Adam Silver officially reveals the expansion plans for the world’s biggest professional basketball league. 

Momentum towards expansion picked up on Thursday when ESPN Senior NBA insider Shams Charania confirmed that a Board of Governors meeting in March will lay the groundwork for the expansion vote. 

The NBA Board of Governors is “likely” to vote on expansion during their annual meetings this summer, according to a tweet from Dallas Morning News reporter Brad Townsend. Las Vegas and Seattle are “favored” to be the league’s new teams upon approval, ever since Silver hinted at expansion before the 2020-21 NBA season.

If approved, the expansion would bring the NBA back to Seattle for the first time since 2008. And it could give Las Vegas its first shot at a permanent NBA franchise, igniting an arena competition already underway across the city.

League Officials Begin Laying Expansion Groundwork

The league will try to figure out the financials and logistics of realignment, since the two West Coast cities under consideration would reside in the Western Conference. That means one team would need to shift to the Eastern Conference.

On ESPN’s NBA Today, Charania said owners will spend the coming months evaluating the value of the two expansion franchises and how league structure would be affected before potentially making a decision later in 2026.

The additions of Las Vegas and Seattle have been rumored for years. Seattle lost the SuperSonics nearly two decades ago, with the 2007-08 season being their last before the franchise moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder, who won their first NBA championship in 2025. 

Arena Plans for Vegas Still in the Works

There might be more competition for a new NBA arena in Las Vegas than there is for expansion teams from other cities overall. 

Vegas getting an expansion NBA team is close to being a slam dunk. Different investment groups are confident in it being a done deal with their arena proposals that will need to come together quickly if approved as expected.

Oak View Group (OVG) remains one of the favorites. They had previously planned to build an arena near Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road, but shifted their focus to a 22-acre parcel near the Rio Hotel & Casino.

However, OVG has strong competition from developer LVXP, with a competing 27-acre site on the Strip between the Sahara and Fontainebleau.

LVXP’s proposal includes not only an arena, but also a 752-foot-tall hotel/condo, casino, and 6,000-seat theater in addition to the arena. LVXP has tasked infrastructure consulting firm AECOM with designing the arena — the same firm that built 90 major stadiums and arenas, including T-Mobile Arena.

Coincidentally, T-Mobile Arena may be the another strong contender. An article from LVSportsBiz.com publisher Alan Snel suggested that the arena could be a practical option (after some modifications, of course). It could work particularly well if Golden Knights owner Bill Foley delivers on his $300 million renovation proposal to upgrade T-Mobile enough to host an NBA team.

“LVXP has posted a rendering, but as of right now I don't see anything moving forward with an arena on its north Strip site,” Snel told Casinos.com. “As for the Oak View Group arena idea, OVG has moved off its previous proposed site at Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road. I would foresee T-Mobile Arena as the main candidate to host any NBA team, especially with Bill Foley's announcement.”

T-Mobile Arena has a proven history with the league. The arena has hosted the NBA Cup semifinals and championship each of the past three years along with other preseason games. The location is also ideal being conveniently located on the Strip, between the Park MGM and New York-New York casinos.

NBA History in Vegas Goes Back Decades

Las Vegas was originally on former commissioner David Stern’s radar just prior to 2007, the year the city hosted the NBA All-Star Game. However, that event was dubbed as “disastrous" by former Mayor Oscar Goodman due to the 400+ arrests that weekend.

A decade later, the Vegas Golden Knights became the first major professional sports team in the city and helped rekindle interest from Silver, a few years after he succeeded Stern as the new NBA commissioner in 2014.

Keep in mind, Las Vegas has hosted NBA preseason games since 1988 and hosted the popular NBA Summer League at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) since 2004. 

But what many might not know is that during the 1983-84 season, the Utah Jazz played 11 "home" games at UNLV's Thomas and Mack Center. The team struggled to achieve revenue and attendance goals back home in Salt Lake City, so the Las Vegas games were an attempt to boost those back up

Now more than 40 years later, Vegas appears more than ready to finally get its own team.