NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Says Las Vegas Expansion Will Soon Be Considered
Posted on: December 17, 2025, 08:53h.
Last updated on: December 17, 2025, 10:18h.
- The NBA and its 30 owners will consider expansion in 2026
- Las Vegas has long been considered among the favorites for an NBA expansion team
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says a possible expansion of the league will be considered in 2026.
Speaking Tuesday night before the finale of the NBA Cup between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Silver laid out a timeline for the league to review expanding from 30 teams.
“I’d say in terms of domestic expansion, that is something we’re continuing to look at,” Silver said.
It’s not a secret we’re looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle. We’ve looked at other markets. I want to be sensitive about this notion that we’re somehow teasing these markets, because I know we’ve been talking about it for a while,” Silver explained.
Las Vegas has been mentioned as a possible NBA expansion destination for several years. Once banned by the big four professional sports leagues, Las Vegas has become a major sports town since the US Supreme Court in May 2018 allowed states outside of Nevada to legalize sports betting.
Sin City Becomes Sports City
Las Vegas is home to three major professional sports franchises in the NFL’s Raiders, the NHL’s Golden Knights, and the WNBA’s Aces. MLB’s Oakland A’s are in the early stages of relocating to Southern Nevada.
Allegiant Stadium hosted the Super Bowl in February 2024, and will host the College Football Playoff National Championship in January 2027. Las Vegas already has an NBA-worthy venue in the T-Mobile Arena, which is the home of the Golden Knights and jointly owned by MGM Resorts and AEG.
MGM was responsible for landing Las Vegas an WNBA team, as the casino company bought the franchise from the NBA San Antonio Spurs organization in 2017. MGM has since sold the Aces to billionaire Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders, and NFL legend Tom Brady, who holds a minority stake.
If the A’s follow through on their move from Oakland to Las Vegas, adding the NBA would make the casino capital among only a select group of cities home to all “big four” leagues. Just 12 cities have an NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL team. They are Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
Will Owners Back Expansion?
The NBA, marred recently by gambling scandals and referee complaints, managed to increase its television ratings during the early part of the 2025-26 season. National games are averaging about two million viewers, up about 30% from a year ago, and the highest mark since 2017.
The viewership increases come at an important time, as the league mulls expansion.
As I’ve said before, domestic expansion, as opposed to doing a new league in Europe, is selling equity in this current league. If you own 1/30 of this league, now you own 1/32 if you add two teams. So, it’s a much more difficult economic analysis. In many ways, it requires predicting the future,” Silver said.
“We’re in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026, we’ll make a determination,” the commissioner concluded.
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