The NBA is close to picking an owner for its Las Vegas expansion franchise, and the number attached to it should stop you cold. The league is reviewing final bids in the $12 billion to $13 billion range.
Three ownership groups remain, including one fronted by Bill Foley, the man who already brought the Golden Knights to Las Vegas and won a Stanley Cup with them.
That Price Is Not Normal
Earlier estimates for a Las Vegas expansion fee sat closer to $8 billion. The figure has climbed by roughly 50 percent, which tells you how aggressively these groups are bidding against each other.
For perspective, no NBA franchise has ever sold for anything close to $13 billion. Expansion fees get split among existing owners, which means every current governor in the league is about to receive a payment in the hundreds of millions for doing nothing.
This is the real reason expansion is happening. It is the single most profitable transaction available to the people who already own teams.
Foley Has The Strongest Résumé
If I were ranking the finalists on track record alone, Foley leads comfortably. He built an expansion franchise in this exact market, in a league with a similar calendar, and it worked immediately.
The Golden Knights reached a Cup Final in year one and won the whole thing in year six. That is the best expansion launch in modern American sports, and it happened in the city the NBA now wants to enter.
Vegas Was Always Going To Happen
The NBA spent years treating Las Vegas as a novelty destination, holding Summer League there and pretending gambling proximity was a barrier. That argument collapsed the moment the NHL, the NFL and the WNBA all planted flags in the market.
Las Vegas supports pro sports better than most cities its size, largely because tourism fills seats that local populations cannot. A team there sells out weekday games in February, which is more than several established franchises manage.
What I Am Watching
The interesting question is no longer whether Vegas gets a team. It is what this price does to the Seattle conversation.
If Las Vegas goes for $13 billion, Seattle’s number becomes similarly enormous, and the league has every incentive to run both processes together. Owners do not leave that much money sitting on the table.
My expectation is an announcement soon, Foley or a Walton-connected group winning, and basketball in Las Vegas inside three years. The price is absurd. Someone is going to pay it anyway.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.