NBA Narrows Las Vegas Expansion Field to Three Groups
Ever since we shared back in 2018 that Las Vegas would get an NBA team, we have waited patiently to be right.
The NBA’s Las Vegas expansion is getting very real. The league has narrowed the ownership field to three finalist groups, with bids reportedly valuing the franchise and a new arena at roughly $12 billion to $13 billion.
A winning group could be selected “in the very near future,” with formal league approval expected before the end of 2026. Then we’ll have all the sports except curling, but give it a minute.
The NBA is targeting a possible 2028-29 debut for new teams in Las Vegas and Seattle.
Drumroll, please.
The NBA has narrowed the field to three ownership groups, down from about 184 groups that expressed interest: Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo.
We aren’t a sports person, but we recognize a couple of those names.
The Lauries bring Walmart money and some sports ownership experience: Bill Laurie previously owned the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, and the couple lives in Vegas-adjacent Henderson.
Apostolopoulos is a Canadian bajillionaire who has previously pursued the Washington Commanders and Ottawa Senators, while Lasry was a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks from 2014 to 2023. We literally couldn’t tell you what sports those teams belong to. Our lack of a clue in this realm is one of the things that makes us so adorable.
The hometown favorites for getting a team are Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and Basketball Hall of Famer and former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo.
Colangelo’s Las Vegas Jacks group (that’s the name of the investment group, not the team, because that would be lame) had already been pursuing an NBA team and recently joined forces with Foley’s bid.
Despite Foley already controlling a major tenant at T-Mobile Arena, ESPN reports the combined group would build a new arena for the NBA team rather than simply shoehorn basketball into the Knights’ venue.
T-Mobile Arena could technically accommodate NBA basketball and has hosted the NBA Cup, but Commissioner Adam Silver has said some bidders are pitching what he described as a new-generation Las Vegas “entertainment palace.” That has “immersive and interactive” written all over it, with some 3D audio-beamforming, wave field synthesis, modular matrix array speakers and individually amplified drivers thrown in because everybody wants to be the Sphere right now.
Anyway, we’re almost certainly looking at a new sportsball arena in Las Vegas. This one will be fully funded (unlike the A’s ballpark on the former Trop site, don’t get us started).
That $12 billion to $13 billion is a jaw-dropper.
If you’re bored, watch this video about how sports teams have become “big, dumb investment bubbles,” but nobody really cares. Yes, the guy pronounces Nevada wrong. Awkward.
Just to get ahead of this, no public money for the NBA arena in Las Vegas, thanks.
You’ll know more about this nail-biter when we do.
Current odds: Foley/Colangelo, 6-to-5; Lauries, 2-to-1; Apostolopoulos/Lasry: 4-to-1.
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