Las Vegas Expansion Bids Also Decide Seattle and the Arena

The NBA is down to three ownership groups for a Las Vegas expansion team, with a price of $12 billion to $13 billion for the franchise and a new arena. League sources said a winner is expected soon, with a formal approval process by the end of December.

That vote also decides who pays for a building the city does not yet have, and which losing group can turn to Seattle, where a basketball floor is already in place.

Three Groups Are Left for the Las Vegas Team

On Sept. 29, league sources named the last three bidders: Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo. Vegas drew a livelier market and higher offers than Seattle, which is why the league is finishing this city first.

THE THREE VEGAS FINALISTS

Second-round Vegas papers were due Sept. 17, and Adam Silver said that filing was not the last round. People close to the process said the final Vegas phase should run at least several more weeks. The Board of Governors voted on March 25, 2026, to explore teams in Las Vegas and Seattle, and Silver has said the outcome could still be one team, two teams, or none.

The Arena Fight Is Why Vegas Goes First

Seattle already has Climate Pledge Arena. Las Vegas does not have an NBA building the league will accept as a long-term home, which is why this bid is slower, richer, and first in line. Silver has said a new Vegas owner has to decide where the team plays, because unlike Seattle there is no ready-made option.

There is real excitement around a renovated T-Mobile Arena. I think everyone acknowledges if a team were to stay there, it needs some significant improvements. But at the same time, there are groups who have presented plans to build what I would call a modern entertainment palace in Las Vegas. It’s a unique market where you could truly see essentially 365-days-a-year activity.

Adam Silver, NBA commissioner

T-Mobile Arena, home of Foley’s Vegas Golden Knights, has hosted NBA Cup games in recent years and could hold an expansion club for a short stretch. League sources said a new arena will still be built if Foley and Colangelo win, and the other two groups are on the same hook. The $12 billion to $13 billion figure is the team and that building together, not the franchise fee sitting alone.

T-Mobile Arena Opened in 2016

The building opened on April 6, 2016, at a cost of about $375 million. Anschutz Entertainment Group and MGM Resorts International each hold 42.5 percent, and Foley bought the remaining 15 percent in 2016 for about $35 million after the Knights’ NHL expansion fee of $500 million. In June he talked about spending $300 million to $400 million to add seats and suites and make the room NBA-ready. That plan is now a backup, not the product the league is pricing.

Proposed Buildings Already on the Strip

Several sites are already in circulation, and none of the finalists has locked a public address for a permanent home.

ARENA PLANS IN PLAY

• T-Mobile stopgap: A Las Vegas team would likely open here while a new building goes up, with a target first season of 2028-29.
• Diamond Arena: A 21,212-seat plan on 11 acres across Las Vegas Boulevard from Mandalay Bay, backed by a group that includes Chetak Development.
• Caesars site: Caesars Entertainment and landlord VICI Properties have floated an arena on about 50 acres behind Caesars properties, including the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
• Jacks design: Colangelo’s group has worked with Manica Architecture, the firm that designed Allegiant Stadium, and has not named a site.

MGM chief executive Bill Hornbuckle has said T-Mobile was built for basketball and hockey. The league is still shopping for a room that can run almost every night, which is a different job than sharing a hockey calendar.

Foley Still Has to Build a Second Arena

Foley is the majority owner of the Golden Knights and of Premier League club AFC Bournemouth, and Forbes puts his fortune at $2.5 billion. He is the only finalist who already runs a major league club in this city, and he is still being asked to fund a second arena rather than live in the one he partly owns.

HOW THE VEGAS BID GOT TO THREE GROUPS

1. March 25, 2026: The Board of Governors votes to explore expansion only in Las Vegas and Seattle.
2. June 2026: Foley launches a bid and says a Vegas NBA team would play at T-Mobile Arena after a $300 million to $400 million remodel.
3. July 2026: Colangelo’s Las Vegas Jacks group says it has $8 billion in commitments, $5 billion of it already committed and $3 billion formally indicated, with an asset target of $12.5 billion to $13 billion.
4. September 17, 2026: Vegas groups file a second round of bids.
5. September 29, 2026: League sources name three finalists and say Foley has joined with the Jacks after about four months of talks.

Foley Entertainment Group said the Jacks are now inside his bid, and that Foley would sit on the Board of Governors if the combined group wins. Colangelo’s camp brought a new-arena plan and long ties to other owners. The Jacks list also includes former Turner Sports president David Levy, Prime Capital Financial managing partner Scott Colangelo, former player and coach Vinny Del Negro, and former NBA guard Jay Williams. U.S. Bank, BTIG, and Global Leisure Partners were named as financial partners when the Jacks first went public.

Colangelo sold the Suns in 2004 for $401 million, the same year the league last added a team. He is a Basketball Hall of Famer, a four-time NBA Executive of the Year, and he ran USA Basketball from 2005 to 2021, a stretch that produced four Olympic gold medals. In July he said the Jacks chase sat “right up there” with the rest of his career. In September he called the process “very competitive,” with “big money” in the room, and said a Board vote is the part no bidder controls.

Walmart Cash and a Bidder Who Came Up Short

Nancy Walton Laurie is the daughter of Walmart co-founder James “Bud” Walton, and she and Bill Laurie have a home in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb. Forbes puts their net worth at $17 billion. Bill Laurie formerly owned the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. The couple tried to buy the Denver Nuggets in 1999, and Nancy’s cousin Rob Walton is the principal owner of the NFL’s Denver Broncos. No one from the Laurie group has spoken publicly about this bid.

Apostolopoulos, a Canadian billionaire, is bidding with his brothers Jim and Peter, and Lasry is the partner. If they win, Apostolopoulos would be the governor. He has chased clubs before and left empty-handed, which is the record the Board will weigh against Lasry’s years inside the league.

APOSTOLOPOULOS TEAM CHASES

• Charlotte Hornets: He talked in 2023 about buying the club from Michael Jordan, then turned to football instead.
• Washington Commanders: He tried to buy the NFL team, which later sold for $6.05 billion to a group led by Josh Harris, who also owns the 76ers and the Devils.
• Ottawa Senators: He tried to buy the NHL club and did not close a deal.

Lasry co-owned the Bucks from 2014 to 2023 after buying the team for $550 million from former U.S. senator Herb Kohl. He was governor when Milwaukee won the title in 2021, then sold his stake in 2023 to Jimmy and Dee Haslam at a $3.5 billion valuation. He is chairman and chief executive of Avenue Capital, which last year closed an Avenue Sports Fund with more than $1 billion in commitments.

Who Gets Seattle If They Lose Vegas?

League sources said Vegas runners-up could join the Seattle bidding. The NBA took Seattle offers in August and has not set a second deadline there. Silver has said remaining questions about Seattle focus on the rest of the ownership group and what the club can do in that market, not on the building.

Samantha Holloway, majority owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, is the public leader to bring the SuperSonics back. In March she folded the Kraken and a majority stake in Climate Pledge Arena into One Roof Sports and Entertainment. Melinda French Gates and Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy are already in the Kraken ownership mix. Another group, led by BlackSun Private Equity with the Tulalip Tribes, has been mentioned, with a proposed arena site that is hard to reach from downtown.

Climate Pledge Arena opened on October 19, 2021 under the old Seattle Center roof, and it already houses the Kraken, the WNBA Storm, and concerts. The building’s own facts page says it was designed with basketball in mind, with an 18,300-seat basketball configuration and a hockey hold of 17,100. Silver has said NBA operations staff have walked the room and called it state-of-the-art, and that if the league were opening in five weeks, Seattle could be ready.

THE TWO BUILDINGS THE LEAGUE IS COMPARING

• Climate Pledge Arena: Opened in 2021, 18,300 basketball seats, already vetted by NBA operations, and controlled by the leading Seattle bidder.
• T-Mobile Arena: Opened in 2016, Foley holds 15 percent, hosted NBA Cup games, and still needs a $300 million to $400 million remodel if it is more than a rental.
• Price gap: Vegas has produced higher offers; people close to the process have put a Vegas franchise fee near $8.5 billion to $9 billion, before counting a new arena.
• Holloway’s line: She said in Seattle on Sept. 29 that the city is ready, the building is ready, and the fans are ready, while the league sorts the rest by year’s end.

Holloway’s path is the inverse of Foley’s. She already owns the room. He already owns a hockey team in the market, and winning basketball still means pouring concrete.

The Last Expansion Fee Was $300 Million

The league has not added a club since the Charlotte Bobcats, now the Hornets. The Board unanimously approved a Charlotte expansion team in January 2003 for Robert L. Johnson, and on May 3, 2004, after the last check cleared, the Bobcats became the league’s 30th team. The fee was $300 million. They played 2004-05 in the old Charlotte Coliseum and moved into a new arena the next season.

When bidding opened this year, the league was looking for $7 billion to $10 billion per new team. Vegas is now being talked about as a $12 billion to $13 billion package because the winner also has to build. Some people close to the bidding still put the franchise fee itself near $8.5 billion to $9 billion, a different number from the all-in package.

WHAT A NEW NBA SEAT HAS COST

That Lakers number is already the measuring stick. An expansion club with no roster and no permanent building is being priced in the same neighborhood as the league’s most famous team, and the Vegas figure includes a construction bill. Bob Iger and Josh Kushner had been in the Vegas mix, then bought the Lakers instead. The three groups still standing are bidding on a startup in a city that will soon have four major league clubs, not on a finished product in Los Angeles.

Two New West Teams Force a Conference Shift

If both cities get clubs, the NBA would hold an expansion draft. In 2004 each team could protect eight players and lose no more than one. Las Vegas and Seattle would each take only one player from a given club and would also get a lottery pick in the first amateur draft they enter. Adding two West Coast teams would push the map to 32 clubs and 16 per conference, which means one current Western team moves East. Minnesota and Memphis are the names already in that conversation.

By 2028 Las Vegas is on track to hold the NFL Raiders, the Golden Knights, the Athletics in their first season, and, if the Board votes yes, an NBA club in 2028-29. Four leagues in one desert metro is the civic prize. The private prize is the leftover Seattle bid, a lower-priced club in a larger media market with a building Silver has already blessed.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The short list: Three groups remain for Las Vegas, and Foley has combined with Colangelo’s Jacks.
• The price: League sources put the franchise and a new arena at $12 billion to $13 billion.
• The order: Vegas is being decided first; Seattle’s second bid round has not been set.
• The calendar: Formal approval is aimed at the end of December, with first games as early as 2028-29.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The winner: The Board has not picked an owner or voted expansion up or down.
• The site: No finalist has a public, locked location for a permanent arena.
• Seattle: Holloway leads in public, but Silver has said more than one group is being vetted, and a second deadline is still unscheduled.
• The split: How much of the $12 billion to $13 billion is the franchise fee, and how much is concrete, is not a public line item.

PJT Partners is running the books for the league. Current owners are being asked to take a smaller slice of national media money in return for a one-time check, and they have not yet said yes. Until that vote, Las Vegas is a three-group auction that also assigns a second arena and a path into Seattle.