Yeah, it is going to happen, it is just a matter of deciding on when. I personally think at this point the "Seattle" thing is overplayed. The team in Vegas will be worth more money than Seattle.
I'm not sure what you mean by Seattle thing, unless you're referring to David Stern greasing the wheels for his close friend Clay Bennett to buy the franchise with promises to keep it in Seattle, though he was already planning to move it to his home city of OKC. If a pro sports league ever owed a city a franchise, I'd say this qualifies. Adam Silver is surely well aware of how all that went down. Otherwise, the Seattle metropolitan area is the 15th biggest metropolitan area in the country (roughly twice the population of the Vegas metropolitan area) and 13 of the others have franchises. Milwaukee, OKC, Memphis, Salt Lake City and New Orleans all rank in the forties. Sure, population doesn't correlate perfectly with attendance, but it's obviously a major factor. And Vegas only gets an edge because of gambling, though that's a giant factor. Still, Seattle is more deserving than any city currently without a franchise, and supports its other five pro teams well. Also, Seattle Storm dominated WNBA attendance this year -- again, not a direct correlation, but I'm sure the NBA league office notices.
If Seattle returns, they better force the owner of OKC to give them all their records, legacy, retired numbers etc back right away. And OKC cannot use anything of the Sonics ever again. Surely they would be called SuperSonics again right? I’d say this doesn’t happen until at least 2026, though more likely window 2028-2030.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/10/17/23407766/nba-season-preview-predictions What’s one overlooked story line to watch for? Kram: Expansion news. Expansion is coming, and overdue. The last franchise to join the NBA was the Charlotte then-Bobcats 18 seasons ago; previously, the longest lag between expansions was just eight seasons. In other words, the current expansion gap is more than twice as long as any that came before it. But it seems like the next expansion effort will pick up momentum this season, and when it does, the news will begin to touch every aspect of the league, from finances to realignment to LeBron’s likely involvement with the new Vegas franchise.
Seattle fans are too sensitive to have a team... imagine the reaction after Rockets twitter roasts them following a playoff sweep.
If they’re going to let 60% of the league join the playoff race, then they need to expand the league by more than a few teams. Get rid of division schedules (if they haven’t already) and have conferences play the exact same number of games against each team.
with two potential expansion teams how would the divisions even be divided? 4 teams of 4 for both conference?
Seattle is like the NFL's hazing of Houston. You don't want taxpayers to cover billion dollar stadium costs?? Seattle needs a team...
They should expand and put relegation in for the bottom 2 teams.....and incorporate the Gleague as the lower league. DD
Seattle shouldn't even want a team given the way the Stern and the NBA dicked them. Not sure the scars have healed.
City (odds) ----------------------------- Las Vegas +150 (40%) <- Only request is don't give ownership to Lebron, F Lebron Seattle +250 (28.6%) Mexico City +650 (13.3%) <- higher altitude than Denver Nuggets Louisville +950 (9.5%) Kansas City +1000 (9.1%) Nashville +1200 (7.7%) The Field (other places) +1400 (6.7%) London +1800 (5.3%) note: Vancouver could be part of 'The field'.
The Las Vegas... Buffets Sinners Strippers Droughts Fountains Thunderbirds Rat Pack Mob Conventioneers Aces Godfathers Resort Fees Monorails Circus (I could go on.)
So which teams would move to the East? Memphis and... NOP? Edit Actually only 1 team would need to move East. Apologies. I've not yet learned how to count to 2.
