Now that the NBA has finished negotiating the next TV contract, with a deal worth $76 billion, Adam Silver will be able to focus on a file that has been sitting in boxes for years: the expansion of the NBA. Since the birth of the Bobcats in 2004, the NBA has been frozen at 30 teams, but the big boss of the league has repeatedly suggested that one or two franchises should see the light of day in the years to come.
Better still, he announced that he would seriously study the matter in the fall. “We have not yet fully validated the agreement with the media, but as soon as it is, we will look into the issue of expansion,” Silver confirmed duringan intervention in Las Vegas. “I would say it's a little more complicated than is sometimes said. Indeed, if we think of new TV contracts, for example, once they are concluded, the arrival of new partners leads to a dilution of the payments made to the teams.”
At the time of the Finals, Silver had also mentioned the “dilution of talent” and he repeated this argument.
How many more teams, and where?
“It sometimes seems like we’re printing money when we’re expanding, but it’s really no different than selling shares in any company. I think there needs to be a lot of modeling with the league office working with the existing owners and really thinking about the long-term outlook. Again, it’s not just an economic issue, but also a risk of talent dilution.”
So let's meet again in the fall to study all these parameters. “That said, I think we’ll be seriously engaged in the decision-making process this fall. Should we expand? And if we do expand, how many teams should we add? And what markets should we focus on?”
If the NBA is considering adding two franchises, Las Vegas and Seattle are still the two preferred “markets” for this expansion, with a choice outsider: Mexico City. These would therefore be franchises located in the West of the United States, and their creation would necessarily lead to the departure of two franchises to the East: probably the Grizzlies and the Pelicans.
