NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday night the league will consider this fall whether to enter a process of expanding beyond the current 30 teams.
"I think we will engage this fall, in earnest, in the process of making those determinations," Silver told reporters at a news conference in Las Vegas in which he confirmed a new 11-year, $76-billion media rights deal had been ratified by the league's board of governors. "Should we expand? And if we were to expand, how many teams should we expand? And which markets should we be looking at?"
Silver had previously said the league would consider expansion once it completed its media rights negotiations. Reports said the deal was tentatively reached last week and approved overwhelmingly Tuesday by the NBA's board.
Seattle is widely considered among the front-runners to land an expansion franchise, with Las Vegas also expected to be awarded a team. International bids are expected as well from Mexico City, Montreal and Vancouver.
A new Seattle franchise would retain the rights to the SuperSonics' name, logo and colors, part of an agreement reached when the original team relocated to Oklahoma City back in 2008.
A Seattle group led by billionaire Kraken co-owner David Bonderman — and spearheaded by his daughter, team co-owner Samantha Holloway — is expected to bid for a franchise without local competition as it's a partner with the city in the only NBA-ready arena Seattle has. Bonderman is a minority owner of the NBA's Boston Celtics, but is expected to divest that stake after the team last month was put up for sale.
That would clear his way to make an expansion bid as NBA rules prohibit two teams from being owned by the same person at once.
The NHL team's home, Climate Pledge Arena, was outfitted with $50 million in NBA-specific upgrades when the venue was overhauled for $1.15 billion and reopened in October 2021 from what was the prior KeyArena. Beyond the Kraken, it currently serves as home to the WNBA's Storm.
That revamping of the facility was undertaken by the Los Angeles-based Oak View Group (OVG), co-founded by Tim Leiweke — who has a longstanding relationship with the NBA and with Silver specifically. Leiweke has served in key executive roles with the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves and oversaw construction of what was then known as Staples Center and the surrounding LA Live entertainment district during the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neill championship runs by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Leiweke in his prior role as president and CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group also personally worked alongside then-deputy commissioner Silver on joint NBA-AEG arena ventures overseas. The pair have known each other for more than 30 years.
OVG and the Kraken are also partnered in a $150 million Memorial Stadium upgrade and Leiweke's younger brother, Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke, is said to be heavily involved in the creation of an umbrella company that would encompass that project, an NBA expansion bid and any resulting Sonics franchise. The team is still working out who will serve as the umbrella franchise's CEO and is expected to announce more details later this summer.
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