NBA commissioner Adam Silver has backed off on the league’s plans to put an expansion team in Seattle, citing lower bids than they’re receiving for a Las Vegas team. But there’s another factor that could incentivize the NBA to take their time.
The same week ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that the league got an expansion proposal from Mexico City, the New York Times reported new Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon had discussions about relocating his team — and an obvious destination would be nearby Seattle.
NBA is trying to maximize expansion revenues
Expansion fees would be a huge financial boon to the 30 NBA owners. The bids for a Las Vegas franchise, plus an arena, are expected to approach $13B, which means each team would get a windfall of over $400M. Even if the Seattle franchise only went for $6B, roughly what the Boston Celtics sold for last year, that’s another $200M per franchise.
However, that’s not the only way owners could extract value from expanding to 32 teams. Should the Blazers indeed try to move from Portland, where they’ve played for 56 years, the NBA would be likely to assess a relocation fee. One Blazers official has suggested it could be as high as a billion dollars.
