NBA Creates Spectacle Cup Event In Las Vegas, But Vegas Also Wants The Biggest Prize — An Expansion Team
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — He spoke with the media at last year’s NBA Cup event at T-Mobile Arena just a short walk from the Strip.
But this week, Silver is not talking. He attended a closed practice session for the NBA Cup award presentation ceremony around 2:30 PM at the arena, but he is not meeting the press.
In the past, Silver said he would address the topic of the NBA expanding to Las Vegas and Seattle after the league wrapped up a media deal. Silver did meet the media at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in July, but he avoided saying anything substantial about the league having a team in Las Vegas.
The NBA Cup semis and tonight’s final are certainly a nice test-run for NBA games in Las Vegas. The NBA Summer League has a loosey-goosey, spring training-style atmosphere in July and the Los Angeles Lakers have held pre-season games in Las Vegas in September.
But Silver is getting a nice look at Las Vegas when it hosts an NBA game that counts.
The Lakers were here last year and won the Cup trophy. Lakers star LeBron James reiterated his interest in having an ownership share of an NBA team in Las Vegas.
This year it’s a matchup between two legit playoff teams and title contenders — the Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder.
There is much hunger in the Las Vegas market for an NBA team.
NHL Golden Knights owner and businessman Bill Foley said he would like to have an NBA team play at T-Mobile Arena. In fact, he wants to facelift the 2016-opened arena to the tune of $300 million.
Silver has not disclosed how much the expansion fee will be. But it’s accurate to say it will be at least several billion dollars.
Also in the mix is arena builder Tim Leiweke of the Oak View Group who has expressed interest in building an arena/hotel complex at Blue Diamond Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Leiweke is the former CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns LA Live and the downtown arena there, Crypto.com Arena. AEG and MGM Resorts International partnered to build and open $375 million T-Mobile Arena in 2016, but Leiweke had already left AEG by then.
A dark horse arena bet is developer LVXP’s arena-hotel-condo proposal for the old Wet ‘N’ Wild site on the north end of the Strip, just south of Sahara Avenue.
Just about everyone who follows the NBA believes the league will have a Las Vegas expansion. But Silver is taking it slow. There’s no expansion initiative or committee in the NBA.
LVSportsBiz.com asked Bucks owner Doc Rivers about the Las Vegas market.
“This city is a convention, big event city. This is a big event, so it’s perfect,” Rivers said in response to our question at Saturday’s postgame presser. “I’m assuming Vegas will be in the NBA some day. Baseball is here (in 2028 when A’s open a stadium on the Strip) and everything else is here, right? I think it will happen.”
