NBA Set To Vote On Expansion In Seattle and Las Vegas At Upcoming Board Of Governors Meetings
The NBA is growing up. After years of rumors, whispers, and enough speculation to fill an entire offseason news cycle, the league is finally ready to put the wheels in motion on expansion. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the NBA will hold a vote at the Board of Governors meetings on March 24-25 to formally explore adding two new franchises, one in Las Vegas and one in Seattle, with both teams targeted to tip off during the 2028-29 season.
What the NBA Expansion Vote Actually Means
Before anyone starts designing jerseys or arguing about team names, pump the brakes just a little. This first vote is widely considered a formality. It is a green light for the league to go out and officially solicit bids. It’s not the final approval. Think of it like getting pre-approved for a mortgage. You’re not moving in yet, but the bank is definitely interested.
After the initial vote passes, ownership groups in both cities will submit their bids. Industry executives are projecting those proposals to land somewhere in the $7-$10 billion range per team. Per team. Let that sink in. The Boston Celtics, one of the most storied franchises in sports history, just sold for $6.1 billion in 2025. Las Vegas and Seattle are already being projected to blow past that number.
Once bids are submitted, a final vote later in 2026 would need to clear the 23-of-30 governors threshold to officially seal the deal. A growing number of owners are reportedly on board, driven by the long-term revenue upside these two markets represent. Some owners are still a bit squeamish about having their league equity diluted from 1/30 to 1/32.
Why Las Vegas Makes Perfect Sense For the NBA
Las Vegas isn’t exactly uncharted territory for professional sports anymore. The Golden Knights arrived in 2017 and won a Stanley Cup in their sixth season. The Raiders packed up from Oakland and made the desert their home in 2020. The Athletics are following suit for 2028. And the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces are three-time champions since 2022, thank you very much.
Vegas has proven something that a lot of people doubted: it can support a professional sports culture. The city isn’t just a place people visit. It is a place people live, invest in, and bleed for their teams. An NBA franchise there wouldn’t just thrive. It would explode. The league already got a taste of what Vegas looks like on a big stage when Commissioner Adam Silver stood at the NBA Cup championship game there in December and told the world that 2026 would be the year of decision.
Seattle’s Long Wait for NBA Basketball Is Almost Over
If Las Vegas is the shiny new storyline, Seattle is the emotional one. The Seattle SuperSonics were an NBA staple from 1967 to 2008 — 41 years of basketball history that ended in heartbreak when owner Clay Bennett relocated the franchise to Oklahoma City over an arena lease dispute.
The Thunder went on to build one of the most exciting young rosters in recent memory and won an NBA championship in 2025. Seattle fans watched all of it from the outside, unable to look away.
That wound has never fully closed. Bringing the NBA back to Seattle isn’t just a business decision; it is a long-overdue apology. Climate Pledge Arena, the fully renovated venue that now hosts the NHL’s Kraken and the WNBA’s Storm, is already there and ready. Seattle doesn’t need to build anything. It just needs a team.
NBA At 32 Teams
Going from 30 to 32 teams means someone has to move. Executives across the league expect either the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Memphis Grizzlies to shift to the Eastern Conference, bringing both conferences to a clean 16 teams each. Both Las Vegas and Seattle would slot into the West, which makes geographic sense and would add some serious star power to an already competitive conference.
The NBA’s Bigger Picture
The last time the NBA expanded was 2004 when the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Hornets) joined the league. That’s over two decades without a new franchise. The game has transformed completely since then — global stars, billion-dollar media deals, social media making players bigger than the teams themselves.
Adding two franchises now, at a time when the NBA’s cultural footprint has never been larger, is less of a risk and more of an inevitability. The league is also pushing toward a European expansion, with final bids for prospective teams due March 31.
