NBA Las Vegas expansion bid process sees 2 groups, potential arena sites emerge

Editor’s note: This is a regular Sunday feature to wrap up news and developments in the NBA’s expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle by the 2028-29 season.

The Las Vegas NBA expansion race is down to two bid groups and a pair of potential arena sites as the league gets closer to choosing who will own Southern Nevada’s new team.

The bid groups still vying for the team are Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, her husband, Bill Laurie, and Silver Lake co-CEO and Raiders minority owner Egon Durban; and a group including Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, according to a person with knowledge of the situation unauthorized to speak publicly about expansion.

A group featuring former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry and Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos’ bid came in between $9 billion and $10 billion, Lasry told CNBC in October, which is below the other two bid groups that are expected to pay as much as $11.5 billion, according to the source.

The north Strip appears poised to land the new NBA arena, as both leading sites are located there, according to the source.

Resorts World, which has more than 40 acres of developable land, is one site. Land across the Strip from the six-year-old resort, which borders the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center and owned by a group including Fontainebleau developer Brett Torino and the Siegel Group, is the other possible location.

The two sites are not dependent on a certain group winning the bid with both remaining groups open to both sites, the source said. With the situation being fluid, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for a south Strip site to come back into the fray, the source said.

The winning bid group would spend between $2 billion and $3 billion on the construction of a new NBA arena.

The Las Vegas NBA expansion franchise fee is expected to be between $10 billion and $11.5 billion, the source said. Las Vegas’ expansion bid price has been driven up by the Seattle process where there hasn’t been the same level of interest from competing groups. A group led by Seattle Kraken majority owner Samantha Holloway is the only known serious contender.

The existing 30 NBA team owners want to collect at least $18 billion from expansion fees from the two successful bid groups. Seattle’s bid is expected to be in the $6 billion to $7 billion range, the source indicated.

Raiders owner Mark Davis has been mum about potentially joining a NBA expansion bid group, but there is one way that he could get involved in the process.

There is the potential for Davis to have the winning bid group build the NBA expansion team’s practice facility and headquarters on a portion of the 25 acres he controls next to the Raiders and Aces headquarters in West Henderson, the source said.

The league hired investment firm PJT Partners to lead the expansion process and they, along with the NBA, are expected to choose the winning bid before the end of the year, the source said. A decision on Seattle’s expansion bid would follow shortly after the Las Vegas decision.

Then the NBA’s board of governors would vote to officially approve expansion at a yet-to-be-planned December meeting. The meeting will also likely include the approval of the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers from majority owner Mark Walter to a group led by billionaire venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger. Kushner and Iger were pursuing the Las Vegas expansion franchise prior to striking a deal with Walter.

Contact Mick Akers at [email protected] or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.