It’s Official: Bill Foley Wants To Own An NBA Team, Too
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Now, Bill Foley is officially after an NBA team.
The 1967 West Point graduate with the diverse business portfolio from the Vegas Golden Knights to international soccer teams to wineries/lodging in California and Oregon Monday formally declared in a public way that he wants to own an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas.
Foley said he and his partners will comply with the NBA’s timeline and terms set by the league and its Board of Governors. “This is the NBA’s decision to make,” Foley was quoted in a press release distributed shortly after 12 noon Monday. “Our job is to provide the league a Las Vegas option that is ready, credible, and built to last.”
LVSportsBiz.com reported three years ago that Foley thought the NBA was coming to Las Vegas. Foley has established a sports and entertainment business organization that owns and manages the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, the Lee Family Forum arena in Henderson and several soccer teams in Europe including the Premier League’s AFC Bournemouth soccer club. Foley bought the Bournemouth club in 2022.
Foley also is on record saying he is committed to spending $300 million to upgrade T-Mobile Arena to accommodate a potential NBA team. He was quoted as saying less than two years ago, “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.”
The NBA has already staged NBA Cup in-season games annually at T-Mobile Arena since 2023, with the Cup final at T-Mobile Arena in 2026.
Foley retained Morgan Stanley as his exclusive financial advisor to build an ownership platform around his current Nevada sports properties. Foley also retained Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to advise on the NBA bid.
From the press release: “Las Vegas has earned its place among the great sports cities in America, and an NBA team belongs here . . . We built the Golden Knights into a championship organization from the ground up, and we are prepared to do it again – with the same standard, the same commitment to this community, and the same insistence on winning. We have the market, a proven world-class arena, and a best-in-class organization in place. Our intention is to be ready the day the NBA is ready.”
Expect Foley to include limited partners in his NBA ownership group. He will need partners’ help to pay the NBA’s expected bid fee of $7 billion to $10 billion.
Foley’s bid will likely include a proposed NBA practice and player-health campus anchored by a medical partner.
