NBA to Select Las Vegas Expansion Franchise by End of Year

The NBA will select a winning bid for a Las Vegas expansion franchise "in the very near future," meaning by the end of the year, according to a new report.

The final bidding range for the franchise and a new arena is around $12-13 billion, which would place it near the top of the current market.

ESPN, citing sources, said the three finalists include an investment group headed by Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger, a group led by Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, and a third group.

In March, NBA owners voted unanimously to approve Las Vegas and Seattle as potential expansion sites, but ESPN is reporting that the league is "closing on Las Vegas before Seattle" because the former has "a livelier bidding market with higher offers."

Janis Burke, chief sports officer of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said "Vegas owns basketball," adding that the buzz surrounding Summer League was "unbelievable" this summer.

"You've got every shoe company and tournaments looking to come here, you've got the NCAA interested, the NBA, AAU. I mean basketball is huge here," Burke said. "I think having the NBA full-time is just going to bring a whole new dynamic and put a stamp that we really do want basketball."

The bidders are said to be more interested in building a new arena rather than using the existing Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

The league has reportedly circled a 2028-29 debut for the expansion franchise, which would seem to indicate that T-Mobile Arena would be an interim home while a permanent arena is built.

T-Mobile Arena is the home of the Golden Knights and is co-owned by MGM Resorts, AEG and Knights owner Bill Foley, who is a finalist for the NBA franchise.

Foley has pledged to fund significant upgrades to T-Mobile Arena if his bid is selected, but that is no guarantee.

Matt Prevost, chief revenue officer of MGM subsidiary BetMGM, said they'd "love to see" the prospective team in T-Mobile, "but if it ends up in a different place in the long run, that's fine too."

The NBA would be the last remaining major sports league to expand to Las Vegas, following the NHL's Golden Knights in 2017, the NFL's Raiders in 2020 and the MLB's Athletics set to begin play in 2028.

If approved, Las Vegas would be the smallest of the 12 existing metro areas with all four major leagues.

Expansion talks come as Las Vegas tourism metrics have fallen since the start of 2025, while gaming revenue has vacillated.

In August, gross gaming revenue for the Strip was up slightly year-over-year to $684 million, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Visitor volume for the month, however, was down 4.3% to 3 million, per the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which represented the biggest year-over-year decrease so far in 2026.