The board of governors for North American basketball's NBA has voted to explore bringing in two expansion franchises – to be located in Seattle (where the Seattle Supersonics played between 1967 and 2008) and Las Vegas.
Any expansion, which would take the NBA from a 30-team league to one with 32 franchises, will need to be approved by at least 23 of the 30 NBA governors, after bids and applicants are secured.
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A successful bid to own one of the two expansion franchises, meanwhile, would reportedly set a buyer back by between $7 billion and $10 billion.
Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, has said that the vote "reflects our board's interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle – two markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball.
"We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties."
It has been reported by ESPN that the league is looking at the 2028-29 season in terms of the new teams joining.
The aforementioned Supersonics played in Seattle for 39 years before being moved to Oklahoma City and rebranded as the Oklahoma City Thunder – the franchise had been snapped up by an ownership group based in that state in 2006.
That team is the current NBA champions.
Seattle currently has sides in three of the four major US sports leagues – American football's Seattle Seahawks (current Super Bowl champions), the Seattle Mariners from Major League Baseball, and the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League.
Las Vegas, meanwhile, has never previously had an NBA team, but does boast the NHL's Las Vegas Golden Knights and the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders, and those will soon be joined by the Athletics franchise of MLB, which is set to move to the city in 2028.
Both of those franchises have moved into the city in the last decade, signifying Las Vegas' growing appeal as a sporting destination and hub.
The city of Nevada has also hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix since 2023.
In terms of association with the NBA, meanwhile, that league has previously brought all-star and summer league events to Las Vegas, while the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces have played there since 2018. More recently, it was established as the host of the final of the NBA's new in-season tournament.
The NBA last added a completely new franchise in 2004, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
