Las Vegas is getting closer to becoming the new home of an NBA franchise. The league is in the decisive phase of its expansion process and hopes to soon select the ownership group that will lead the project in Nevada.
As reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania, there are three finalist groups to win the franchise: Nancy Walton and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo.
The investment necessary to launch the team and build a new arena is estimated between 12,000 and 13,000 million dollars, a figure that would make the project one of the most ambitious in the history of professional basketball.
Among the candidates there are important links with professional sports. Nancy Walton is the daughter of James “Bud” Walton, co-founder of Walmart, while her husband, Bill Laurie, was the owner of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues.
Apostolopoulos, a Canadian businessman, has already tried to acquire the Washington Commanders of the NFL and the Ottawa Senators of the NHL. His partner Marc Lasry was co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks between 2014 and 2023.
The third proposal brings together two figures with extensive experience in sports and, especially, in Las Vegas and the NBA. Bill Foley is the majority owner of the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL, while Jerry Colangelo was the owner of the Phoenix Suns and has held different relevant positions within the league structure.
The expansion still must make it through the NBA’s formal approval process. The league is contemplating the incorporation of two new franchises and hopes to complete that procedure before the end of 2026.
Las Vegas is one of the candidate cities along with Seattle, which also aspires to recover an NBA franchise after the departure of the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City in 2008.
The arrival of a professional basketball team would make Las Vegas one of the main sports capitals of the United States. The city already has the NHL’s Golden Knights, the NFL’s Raiders and the WNBA’s Aces.
In addition, Las Vegas maintains a close relationship with the NBA thanks to the annual Summer League, one of the main events on the league’s calendar outside of the regular season.
The NBA’s last expansion came in 2004, when Charlotte added the Bobcats after the Hornets moved to New Orleans. Years later, the franchise regained the Hornets name when New Orleans adopted the Pelicans name.
Now, more than two decades later, the NBA is preparing to study a new stage of expansion. Las Vegas appears at the center of the project and three groups of investors hope to become the owners of what could be one of the league’s next franchises.
