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The NBA’s expansion process is heating up.
On Wednesday, the Las Vegas Jacks, a group led by former NBA owner and executive Jerry Colangelo and Horizon Sports & Experiences CEO David Levy, announced their plans to submit an expansion bid to bring an NBA team to the city. The group also includes ESPN commentator and former Bulls point guard Jay Williams and former Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro.
The group’s working logo is of a Jack playing card holding a basketball and complements the WNBA’s Aces as part of the city’s gambling identity. The Jacks have plans to build their own arena if awarded a bid along with an entertainment district.
Colangelo’s group claims to have already raised $8 billion for an expansion bid, and it became the latest party to express interest in bringing an NBA team to Sin City in recent weeks.
The Jacks joined Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, who has said he will pursue an expansion bid in the city, as have former Disney CEO Bob Iger (alongside venture capitalist Josh Kushner), former Bucks owner Marc Lasry, and NBA legend Magic Johnson.
Speaking before the NBA Finals, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed Las Vegas is one of two cities that the league is currently eyeing for potential expansion.
“We’re focused on Las Vegas and Seattle,” Silver said. “There are multiple groups interested in both cities.”
But while a robust market for potential ownership appears to be building in Las Vegas, Seattle has been slower to move. There remains only one group in the Emerald City to publicly express interest in an NBA team, with that group led by Kraken governor Samantha Holloway.
Having multiple groups in the same market is necessary to creating a bidding war, which would allow the league to drive up the price of its expansion bid and ultimately net its current owners more money.
League sources have told Front Office Sports that multiple factors could be impacting the lack of interest in challenging Holloway’s bid. The Seahawks are currently for sale, which could detract from interested bidders due to the NFL’s allure or the lack of certainty that comes with an expansion bid.
Holloway’s group has been preparing for a bid for years, with Climate Pledge Arena currently having multiple rooms designated as “NBA Locker Room” in preparation to bring a team back to the city. Finding a location to build a new arena in Seattle is another challenge, with Holloway’s group owning a majority stake in Climate Pledge.
Seattle had the SuperSonics from 1967 to 2008 before the team was relocated to Oklahoma City and rebranded as the Thunder. Since the Sonics’ departure, there have been multiple attempts to bring a team back to the city before Silver announced the exploration of expansion earlier this year.
Holloway is the daughter of the late billionaire David Bonderman, who previously had a minority stake in the Celtics.
All known bidders in Vegas have deep ties to the NBA. Colangelo, 86, ran the Suns for decades and became the youngest GM in 1968 when the then-29-year-old took over the team’s front office. Iger, Disney’s longtime CEO, has a relationship with Silver through Disney’s ownership of ESPN, which is a longtime holder of the league’s rights, and he attended Game 1 of June’s NBA Finals in San Antonio after recently stepping down.
Silver has previously spoken of Johnson as a possible owner and said his reputation around the NBA and as a successful part-owner of the Dodgers and the WNBA’s Sparks makes him an ideal ownership candidate.
“One of our greatest players ever and also has had incredible success off the floor,” Silver said. “I have a strong personal relationship with him and he’s beloved around the league. I know interest from Magic will be welcomed by the league office.”
Silver has been noncommittal about domestic expansion, even after announcing the league was exploring it in Las Vegas and Seattle in March. A decision will be made by the end of the calendar year.
“There is enormous instability in the world at the moment,” Silver said in March. “We may ultimately conclude for reasons completely out of our control that it’s not the right time to expand.”
Silver has said the market will determine the price of the expansion bids, which could reportedly get as high as $10 billion and would be divided among the league’s current 30 owners. He said the NBA could also decide to expand to only one market but hasn’t specified how that would be determined.
Whether it’s Johnson, Iger, Colangelo or Lasry, the NBA now has no shortage of interest in a Vegas team after the market was initially slow to develop. Will Seattle catch up?
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