After the NBA Board of Governors meeting last week, Commissioner Adam Silver pumped the breaks on the pace of NBA expansion. “There was not a lot of discussion in this meeting about expansion, but only largely not for lack of interest, it was that we had said to them that we’re not quite ready…” Silver said. “But it was something that we told our Board we plan to address this season, and we’re not quite ready yet. But I think there’s certainly interest in the process, and I think that we’re not there yet in terms of having made any specific decisions about markets or even frankly to expand.”
Why go slow? As always with the NBA, it’s about money — the ongoing sale of the Boston Celtics could reset the market for expansion fees for the two teams coming into the league, something ESPN wrote about in an expansion primer.
Currently the Boston Celtics are for sale, and there are indications they could produce the highest price ever for an NBA team, which is currently held by Mat Ishbia’s purchase of the Suns [$4 billion]. That could even further reset the market, and that is a contributing factor in the NBA’s decision to go slower on expansion and wait for that sale to happen, league sources said.
At these prices, a pair of new expansion teams could net the league north of $10 billion combined — meaning every team would receive a check for over $300 million as the new teams come into the league.
The Celtics owners hope to sell the team at a $6 billion valuation, which would become the new benchmark for expansion fees. However, even if the Celtics’ valuation is “only” $5 billion that still raises the number from the Suns sale and sets the $300 million per team check ESPN talks about.
The Celtics sale is still relatively early in the process and it likely will be months before a buyer is found and a price set. Once that happens, the league will take up the expansion topic.
The expectation is the vast majority of owners will take that $300 million check now and be willing to divide up the new, larger television revenue deal by a couple more teams (each team currently owns 3.33% of the NBA and gets that share of the television revenue; that would fall to 3.13%, which means a little less television money each year). However, the vote for expansion may not be unanimous.
While other cities and billionaires will try to get in the bidding, league sources have confirmed to NBC Sports that Seattle and Las Vegas are the clear frontrunners to add those teams. At the current pace of expansion, those teams likely would start play in the 2027-28 NBA season.
