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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said building a new arena is a “waste of time” for a potential NBA team in Las Vegas and that he has a $300 million plan to facelift T-Mobile Arena for any new NBA franchise.
“T-Mobile Arena is the perfect place for an NBA team to play,” Foley told Amber Dixon, who hosts Nevada Week on Vegas PBS. “We have a plan in place to spend about $300 million to improve T-Mobile, add seats, add hospitality, add suites, in particular, and upgrade the park.”
Here is Nevada Week interview of Foley.
Here’s T-Mobile Arena: Tuesday’s VGK vs Edmonton game and hosting an NBA in-season tournament game a year ago in Dec. 2023. The building, built by MGM Resorts International and Los Angeles-based AEG, opened in April 2016. The arena has incredible bike racks installed across from the arena’s ticket windows.
Foley noted the $300 million in arena improvements are needed “irrespective of basketball” because “we need a better arena.”
As Foley mentioned, there are several groups interested in creating an NBA team in Las Vegas. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has talked about his interest in bringing an NBA team here.
Foley said his group has not formally contacted the NBA or NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about an NBA team playing at T-Mobile Arena. But Foley said, “They (the NBA) know who we are.”
Foley noted that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman gave him a stern lecture about talking about a league or commissioner awarding a franchise to Las Vegas. Foley, a 1967 West Point graduate who turns 80 this month, said he was not spoken to like that since his days as a plebe (freshman) at the U.S. Military Academy.
Here’s a photo of Foley and Bettman talking in Las Vegas in 2016 when Foley was working on bringing an NHL team to Las Vegas with the Maloof family.
The NBA plans to return to T-Mobile Arena Dec. 14-17 for its in-season tournament semifinals and final. LVSportsBiz.com will be covering that NBA event.
The NBA also stages its Summer League at Thomas and Mack Center every July. Silver likes to call the NBA Summer League its “31st franchise.”
There are two proposals to build new arenas on Las Vegas Boulevard. Arena builder Tim Leiweke, of Oak View Group, wants to build an NBA arena at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road, about three miles south of Mandalay Bay.
And a development group called LVXP has proposed an arena-hotel-condo project on the north Strip at the former Wet ‘N’ Wild site just south of Sahara Avenue. Clark County commissioners this week waived some building standards for the LVXP plan.