Las Vegas Mayor Proposes 2 New NBA Arena Sites

Posted on: April 2, 2026, 05:20h. 

Last updated on: April 2, 2026, 05:27h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Vegas Myths Busted.

The city of Las Vegas wants to play ball, too. Of the four sites currently in contention to host an Vegas NBA arena, none are actually in the city. (The Las Vegas Strip is in Clark County, not Las Vegas proper. The city is the area universally referred to as downtown Las Vegas.) At a press conference on April 2, Mayor Shelley Berkley attempted to remedy this by identifying two potential city sites for a pro basketball arena.

Mayor of Las Vegas Shelley Berkley at Las Vegas City Hall last year. (Image: Denise Truscello/Getty for the Neon Museum)

Berkley’s proposals include a parking lot across from City Hall owned by the Plaza (Derek and Greg Stevens) and the north parking lot of the World Market Center, which is owned by Blackstone Inc., holder of the real estate assets of the Cosmopolitan.

One of the city’s two proposed sites is the north parking lot, circled in red, for the World Market Center. (Image: Google Earth)

“I know they’re considering a number of locations,” Berkley told reporters. “They’re all in the county, and look, I don’t have a problem with that…We have an alternative.”

The parking lot across from Las Vegas City Hall, circled in red, is the second new proposed site. (Image: Google Earth)

An NBA arena outside city limits would not generate taxes for the city.

Berkeley said she will present her suggestions — which offer freeway access and avoid Strip congestion — to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver during a Zoom call next week.

She framed her discussions with the league as part of a long‑term effort to position Las Vegas for future NBA expansion and to strengthen its role as a major sports destination.

“This is going to be a really important relationship partnership for the next couple of years, in addition to Vegas being the Entertainment Capital of the World, now being the Sports Capital of the world,” she said.

Proposals in Play

This brings the number of potential NBA arena sites currently in contention to six, when you consider these other four:

  1. Rio: The Oak View Group, which last year abandoned plans to build an arena four miles south of the Strip, more recently retrained their sites on the parking lot behind the off-Strip Rio.
  2. LVXP, a team of Las Vegas-based real estate professionals, proposed a 752-foot, 2,605-unit hotel and condominium project with an 18,000-seat arena and a 6,000-seat theater on land between the Sahara and Fontainebleau.
  3. Resorts World: Last month, Nevada Gaming Control Board member George Assad encouraged Resorts World president Carlos Castro to build an NBA arena on vacant land at Resorts World.
  4. T-Mobile Arena: MGM Resorts International is pushing to upgrade Las Vegas’ existing building so it can host basketball in addition to Vegas Golden Knights hockey. Though scheduling can be a challenge since the seasons of both leagues overlap for 175-180 days a year, 11 American arenas currently manage to host both NBA and NHL teams.