Expansion. Expansion. Expansion.
Talk of a potential NBA expansion has been everywhere recently. Having been brewing away on the hob for a while, the subject is now coming to a boil. And with the league actively exploring the viability of establishing new franchises, cities are lining up attentively to seek their own piece of the lucrative pie.
Now that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has looked after what he called the league’s most pressing priorities, a collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and a new media rights deal, he can begin chasing the golden carrot at the end of the stick. It’s come to a point where the media-friendly sports administrator cannot come within the vicinity of a microphone without being quizzed on the topic. And he isn’t afraid to be open about it. Everyone has accepted that the expansion is happening. Focus has now turned to the fierce competition between cities to home the new franchises.
Some candidate cities are obvious, most notably Seattle and Las Vegas, both located on the west coast which boasts significantly fewer teams at present.
The people of Seattle have never truly gotten over the manner in which their former team, the Seattle Supersonics, was taken from them and handed to Oklahoma City, thus becoming Oklahoma City Thunder, back in 2008. Teams upping sticks and relocating to other cities is no strange occurrence in North American sports. The relocation of the Seattle-based franchise, however, remains one of the most controversial moves in the history of professional sports across the United States. The team was steeped in history, having won an NBA title in 1979 with greats like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp and Jack Sikma all donning the famous green, gold and white uniform over the years. The team was also known for a passionate fanbase, many of whom have been clinging to the idea of the NBA returning to the city throughout the years. So, it’s only natural that Seattle is a major frontrunner in the race to home a new team.
But Las Vegas is perhaps the most likely city to do so. Sin City makes sense – it’s the future of sports entertainment. Every sport is pining to have an association with the place. The NFL and the NHL have already established teams in the city, with the MLB set to move in over the coming years. With Formula One having already taken the leap, more international sports are sure to follow, too. It would therefore be bizarre if the NBA opted against taking advantage of everything the local market offers, particularly the revenue.
Meanwhile, the success of the Toronto Raptors, the 2019 NBA champions, has proven that Canada has an appetite for professional sports that matches the enthusiasm of their southern neighbours. Like the aforementioned, establishing new teams within other Canadian cities also seems like a natural step. Montreal and Vancouver have both already expressed an interest in the opportunity.
But there are other candidate cities that may seem a little outside-the-box at first glance and yet aren’t entirely inconceivable options. The NBA is becoming more global after all, building new fanbases all the time across the globe. Since the NBA staged its first regular season game overseas in Tokyo back in 1990, international fixtures have become an annual feature of the league. Every season features two NBA Global Games with the aim of growing the global audience – this season’s contests took place in Mexico City and Paris. Still, a mere two games doesn’t come close to sating the appetite of the league’s global audience.
The success of international games has led many to question when the league will create a permanent overseas franchise. And with the world more connected than ever, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before the league eventually takes the plunge. Over the last 30 years, the make-up of the league has become truly global – the last five MVP awards have been won by either Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Serbia’s Nikola Jokić or Cameroon’s Joel Embiid. Only three non-American players had previously won the award.
Moreover, this year’s number one draft pick was French youngster Victor Wembanyama. And not since LeBron James graduated to the league straight out of high school has a rookie generated as much hype as the young French man they call Wemby, standing at a height of seven feet four inches. It would be foolish not to look for ways to further harness the growing popularity of the league in the European market, particularly in cities like Paris and Madrid where there is already a rich basketball culture. Local teams wouldn’t necessarily be happy about an NBA invasion into the market, though that’s hardly an issue for those across the pond to fret over. With the volume of African talent in the league increasing all the time, an African-based franchise may even be a possibility – even if that’s immensely unrealistic in the short-term.
For now though, Mexico is the country that ticks most boxes if the NBA decides to set up shop in a new country.
“We think there’s an enormous opportunity to continue growing the game of basketball here in Mexico City and throughout the country,” Silver admitted before last month’s regular season game in the country. “And we also see this as a gateway essentially to the rest of Latin America.” The city has already been hosting games for three decades. And as well as being in close proximity to the United States and having established the Capitanes within the G League, the NBA’s development league, the NBA Academy Latin America is based in the country. The argument against a Mexican team is exceedingly weak.
Professional sports can be an unpredictable beast, particularly when billionaire owners with eyes always on the bottom line are such pivotal stakeholders. Yet, expanding into new markets makes business sense. That’s perhaps why there seems to be so little opposition to the thought of global NBA expansion.
Within a decade or so, league franchises could be popping up in cities around the world, making the NBA the first truly global league. It’s no longer a possibility – it’s a probability.
Expansion. Expansion. Expansion.
