Three Finalists Bidding for NBA Expansion Team in Las Vegas

_{Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley has a lot to be happy about as one of the ownership finalists for the new NBA expansion team in Las Vegas. (Photo: Action Plus Sports Images / Alamy)}

And then there were three — that's the confirmed number of finalists who are bidding to be the ownership group of the new NBA expansion team in Las Vegas, according to ESPN insider Shams Charania.

After months of speculation, Charania reported on Tuesday that three groups are still in the running, including Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, with the winning bid expected to command more than $12 billion.

Meet the Three Finalists

While many Vegas locals know Foley best for bringing hockey to the desert with the NHL’s Golden Knights and their minor-league affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, he has seemed to be the most logical candidate to own an NBA team in Sin City as well. Not only does Foley own both pro hockey teams, but he also holds a minority ownership stake (15%) in T-Mobile Arena, which appears to be the best option to host the new NBA team in addition to being the home of the Golden Knights.

Foley has formed a unique ownership team with Colangelo, who has earned NBA Executive of the Year honors four times while leading the Suns. Colangelo was hired as the first General Manager of the Suns in 1966 when they entered the NBA as an expansion team, then later owned the team from 1987 until 2007. He bought the Suns for $44.5 million and sold them for a then-record $401 million.

However, the Foley-Colangelo “dream team” will face some stiff competition from two other groups with strong financial positions. 

One of them is Nancy Walton Laurie and husband Bill Laurie, who, like Foley, has NHL ownership experience with the St. Louis Blues from 1999 to 2011. His wife, Nancy, is the daughter of Walmart co-founder James “Bud” Walton, and the couple resides in Henderson and is reportedly worth $17 billion.

The third group is led by Canadian businessman Steve Apostolopoulos and his brothers Jim and Peter, along with Marc Lasry, who is the co-founder of Avenue Capital Group and a former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. This group might be viewed as the underdog of the three, but it is worth noting that whichever finalists fail to win the bid for the new Las Vegas franchise will likely join the competition for the Seattle expansion team that will be awarded at a later time.

NBA Arena Could Be the Key to Winning Bid?

The connection between Foley’s group and T-Mobile Arena may end up being the deciding factor when all is said and done. There have been several different arena proposals over the past few years, but T-Mobile Arena continues to make the most sense because it has already been built.

The same is true for the new Seattle expansion team, as one of the main reasons the ownership group for Las Vegas will be named first is that the arena still needs to be decided on. The Seattle team already plans to play at Climate Pledge Arena, the current home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and the former home of the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics, when it was known as KeyArena.

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