NBA weighs Las Vegas bid worth up to $13bn for expansion franchise
ESPN reports the league could name a winning Las Vegas ownership group by year-end, with bids pointing to the industry's priciest expansion yet, as the city's gaming and tourism numbers show mixed results.
The NBA is expected to select a winning bidder for a Las Vegas expansion franchise before the end of the year, according to ESPN reporting cited by iGaming Business. The league is weighing three finalist groups, with the winning bid for the franchise and a new arena said to fall in the region of $12 billion to $13 billion.
That figure would rank among the highest in US sports ownership history. In August, an investment group led by Josh Kushner and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger bought the Los Angeles Lakers for a league-record $12.5 billion, a deal that did not include the Lakers' arena, which is owned separately by Anschutz Entertainment Group.
ESPN named the three Las Vegas finalists as Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo. Each group has either owned professional sports franchises previously or has pursued team purchases in recent years, according to the report.
NBA owners voted unanimously in March to approve both Las Vegas and Seattle as potential expansion markets, but ESPN reports the league is moving to finalise Las Vegas first because bidding interest there is stronger and bidders have shown more appetite for building a new arena rather than using Seattle's existing Climate Pledge Arena.
An NBA franchise would complete Las Vegas's run of major league arrivals, following the NHL's Golden Knights in 2017, the NFL's Raiders in 2020 and MLB's Athletics, who are due to begin play in 2028. Were it approved, Las Vegas would become the smallest of the 12 US metro areas to host all four major leagues.
The expansion push comes as the city's tourism and gaming figures show a mixed picture. The Nevada Gaming Control Board recorded Strip gross gaming revenue of $684 million in August, up 0.7% year-on-year, leaving the Strip 2.2% ahead of last year for the fiscal year to date. Clark County overall was up 2.8% for the month and 2.1% for the fiscal year.
Visitation told a weaker story. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported visitor volume down 4.3% in August to 3 million, the largest year-on-year decline so far in 2026. Average daily room rates on the Strip fell 11%, revenue per available room fell nearly 16%, and passenger traffic through Harry Reid International Airport dropped 9% for the month and 7% for the year to date.
Despite that softening, local officials voiced confidence in the market at the G2E 2026 conference in Las Vegas. Janis Burke, chief sports officer of the LVCVA, told iGaming Business that "Vegas owns basketball", pointing to interest from shoe companies, the NCAA, the NBA and AAU circuits. Burke said a full-time NBA presence would "bring a whole new dynamic and put a stamp that we really do want basketball".
The NFL remains the dominant league financially, with average team revenue above $660 million against roughly $416 million for NBA clubs, according to Forbes figures cited in the report. Even so, the record NFL sale price stands at $9.6 billion, set in July when a group led by Vinod Khosla bought the Seattle Seahawks — a figure the prospective Las Vegas NBA bid would comfortably exceed.
Where any new franchise would play remains unresolved. Previous proposals for an NBA-ready arena on the Strip have stalled in past years, though interest from developers on both ends of the Strip has intensified as the league's expansion process moves closer to a decision.