NBA Prices Las Vegas Expansion With a New Arena

The NBA is moving to pick an owner for a Las Vegas expansion team at $12 billion to $13 billion, including a new arena. Three groups are still in. A formal vote on two new clubs is due by the end of December, with play aimed at 2028-29.

That figure is not a Lakers-style team sale. It wraps a building into the check, which is why Las Vegas is being settled before Seattle.

Three Finalists for a $12 Billion Las Vegas Club

People close to the bidding say the winner will be chosen in the very near future from Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo. The package covers the franchise and a new arena, not the club alone.

Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, who had been in the Las Vegas mix, left that line and bought the Lakers on August 12, 2026, at $12.5 billion. Remaining bidders are now writing checks in that neighborhood, with steel and concrete folded in.

THE THREE VEGAS BIDS

Lasry would be a partner, not the governor, if that group wins. Foley Entertainment Group added Colangelo’s Las Vegas Jacks in late September, a move meant to pair Foley’s local hold with Colangelo’s league relationships.

The Lakers Sale Changed What Expansion Costs

When owners opened this file in the spring, the working talk was $7 billion to $10 billion a team. Then the Lakers traded hands twice in 14 months. Mark Walter’s group paid $10 billion in June 2025. Kushner and Iger paid $12.5 billion in August, a 25 percent jump on the same club.

Buying the Lakers at $12.5 billion beat paying a similar sum for a team that still needed a building. That exit raised the floor for everyone who stayed in Las Vegas. An expansion club with no roster and no history is now being asked to clear a bill next to the league’s most expensive existing franchise, because the arena is in the same check.

THE PRICE LADDER

• Las Vegas package: $12 billion to $13 billion for the team and a new arena, per people close to the bidding.
• Lakers, August 2026: $12.5 billion to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, an existing club with a building.
• March 2026 target: $7 billion to $10 billion a franchise when owners opened the file.
• Charlotte, 2004: $300 million, the last time the NBA added a team.

Boston went for $6.1 billion in 2025. Phoenix went for $4 billion in 2023. Those sales of living teams are the comps owners will use when they vote. A startup in Las Vegas does not have Lakers television history. It does have a city that already sells nights on the calendar, and a requirement to put up a building.

Why Las Vegas Goes Before Seattle

Las Vegas is being decided first because the bidding is hotter and the offers are higher, because a new arena still has to be sited and designed, and because groups that lose Vegas can still bid in Seattle. Commissioner Adam Silver said Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena could host NBA games in five weeks, while Las Vegas still has no locked site. The league wants the harder market signed before it turns to the ready one.

The Board of Governors voted in March to explore expansion only in those two cities and hired PJT Partners to vet markets, owners, and buildings. Silver left himself an out that same week. He said there was a chance expansion may not happen, and that the league could add one market, two, or none.

WHY VEGAS IS FIRST

• The bidding: Las Vegas drew more groups and higher offers than Seattle, where the public field is thinner.
• The building: A Las Vegas club needs a site and a new arena. Seattle already has Climate Pledge Arena.
• The leftover bidders: Groups that miss on Las Vegas can join the Seattle file instead of walking away.

Second-round Las Vegas bids were due September 17. Seattle has had one deadline so far. Silver told reporters after the September meetings in New York that the board spent more time on Las Vegas because the site is not even clear, “let alone the arena yet.”

There was not as much discussion around Seattle as there was around Las Vegas because with Las Vegas, it’s not even clear what the site will be, let alone the arena yet. Therefore, it’s a much longer timeline before we can throw the ball up for NBA basketball. In Seattle, we have had operational groups out to Climate Pledge. You clearly have a state-of-the-art arena there. It may require some modifications for NBA basketball, but if we were opening, you know, in five weeks, we could be ready in Seattle.

Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, after Board of Governors meetings in New York

That is the operational reason. The money reason sits beside it. A city that must build can be asked to pay for the building. A city that already built cannot be squeezed the same way.

Foley Still Has to Build a New Arena

Foley said in June his NBA club would play at T-Mobile Arena, home of the Golden Knights, and he has talked about spending $300 million to $400 million to add seats and suites. People close to the bidding now say a new arena will go up if the Foley-Colangelo group wins. The other two finalists are on a new building from the start. T-Mobile, which opened in 2016, would be a temporary floor while concrete goes in.

Silver has split the room between a renovated T-Mobile and what he called a modern entertainment palace that could run 365 days a year, in a market that already treats a show as a nightly product. He has pointed to the Sphere as the kind of tech draw owners discussed. Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont, who knows the Strip through Las Vegas Sands, walked fellow owners through sites at the September meetings.

There is real excitement around a renovated T-Mobile Arena. I think everyone acknowledges if a team were to stay there, it needs some significant improvements. But at the same time, there are groups who have presented plans to build what I would call a modern entertainment palace in Las Vegas. It’s a unique market where you could truly see essentially 365-days-a-year activity.

Adam Silver, NBA commissioner

Several sites are already on paper. The Las Vegas Diamond Arena plan calls for 21,212 seats on 11 acres across Las Vegas Boulevard from Mandalay Bay, with Chetak Development in the group. Caesars Entertainment and landlord VICI Properties have a plan on about 50 acres behind the Horseshoe, Paris Las Vegas, and the Horseshoe. The Jacks have been working with Manica Architecture, the firm that designed Allegiant Stadium. Their site has not been named.

If the NBA lands and the Athletics arrive in 2028 as planned, Las Vegas would have clubs in all four major leagues, on top of the Raiders, the Golden Knights, and the WNBA Aces. The Summer League has been in town for 22 years. The All-Star Game was there in 2007. The city has been a league outpost. It has not had a regular-season team.

Climate Pledge Arena Is Already NBA-Ready

Seattle is the other half of the same vote, and it is the quieter half on purpose. Climate Pledge Arena opened October 19, 2021, under the old World’s Fair roof. The building’s own FAQ lists a basketball capacity of 18,300 and says it was designed with basketball in mind and meets NBA standards. Hockey holds 17,100. Silver’s operations staff has already walked the floor.

One Roof Sports and Entertainment, led by Kraken owner Samantha Holloway, is the known lead bidder and holds a majority stake in the arena after a March deal with Oak View Group. Melinda French Gates and Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy are among the names tied to that umbrella. A second group, BlackSun Private Equity with the Tulalip Tribes, has talked about a new arena on tribal land in Marysville, about 35 miles north of Seattle. BlackSun chief executive Atonn Muhammad has said that group can raise as much as $8.1 billion.

Kevin Durant, who played his rookie season in Seattle before the SuperSonics moved, put the civic case in one line after the March vote. “It’s about time Seattle gets basketball back,” he said. “It’s been sorely missed in the Northwest.” The SuperSonics ran 41 seasons from 1967 to 2008 and won the title in 1979. That history is why Seattle was always on the two-city list. It is not why Seattle is second in line.

Holloway has said a basketball club is additive if it is done the right way, after time to build the Kraken brand. The league can wait on her because the building is finished. It cannot wait on Las Vegas in the same way if it wants 2028-29 to be real.

The Last Expansion Team Cost $300 Million

The NBA last added a team in 2004, when Robert Johnson paid $300 million for the Charlotte Bobcats. If Las Vegas and Seattle open in 2028-29, that gap will be 24 years. Silver has said the talent pool can fill 32 competitive teams, pointing to global growth since Toronto and Vancouver joined. Two more West clubs would push the map to 16 and 16 and force one current West team East. Minnesota and Memphis are the names in that conversation.

THE EXPANSION CLOCK

1. March 25, 2026: The Board of Governors authorizes a formal look at Las Vegas and Seattle and hires PJT Partners.
2. June and July 2026: Foley says he wants an NBA team. Colangelo’s Jacks enter, later stating $8 billion in commitments and an asset target of $12.5 billion to $13 billion.
3. August 12, 2026: Kushner and Iger agree to buy the Lakers at $12.5 billion and leave the Vegas line.
4. September 17, 2026: Second-round Las Vegas bids are in. Seattle still has a single deadline on the books.
5. September 29, 2026: Three Las Vegas finalists remain, with a pick expected in the very near future and a new arena in the price.
6. End of December 2026: Formal approval window on two expansion teams, with 2028-29 the earliest season on the calendar.

An expansion draft would stock the clubs. In 2004, teams could protect up to eight players. Las Vegas and Seattle would take only one player from each club and would get a lottery pick in their first draft. How many names each current team can hide has not been set.

What the Walton, Foley and Lasry Groups Bring

Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie bring Walmart wealth and a house in Henderson. Steve Apostolopoulos would be governor, with Marc Lasry as partner and a 2021 title on his Bucks record. Bill Foley would be governor with Jerry Colangelo, Hall of Fame ties, and the Golden Knights already in the market. All three plans now include a new arena, which is how the bill reached $12 billion to $13 billion.

Forbes puts Walton Laurie’s fortune at $17.2 billion. She is 75, the daughter of Walmart co-founder James “Bud” Walton, and a Henderson resident. Bill Laurie owned the Blues. They nearly took over the Denver Nuggets in 1999. Her cousin Rob Walton owns the Denver Broncos. That is a family that already writes sports checks.

Apostolopoulos, a Canadian billionaire working with brothers Jim and Peter, looked at the Charlotte Hornets in 2023 and later chased the Washington Commanders, which sold for $6.05 billion to a group led by Josh Harris. Lasry bought the Bucks for $550 million in 2014 from former senator Herb Kohl and sold to Jimmy and Dee Haslam in 2023 at a $3.5 billion valuation. He chairs Avenue Capital, which last year closed an Avenue Sports Fund with more than $1 billion in commitments.

Colangelo sold the Suns in 2004 for $401 million, a record then. He is a four-time NBA Executive of the Year, ran USA Basketball from 2005 to 2021, and has chaired the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame since 2009. The Jacks also list former Turner Sports president David Levy, Prime Capital Financial managing partner Scott Colangelo, former player and coach Vinny Del Negro, and former player Jay Williams. Foley’s fortune is about $2.5 billion, per Forbes. He already ran one expansion launch in this city, the Golden Knights, and he owns a Premier League club in Bournemouth.

The Board of Governors still has to vote by the end of December. The 2028-29 season is the earliest target. Groups that lose Las Vegas can turn to Seattle, where the building is already up and the bid sheet is still open.