Doc Rivers Wants Vegas Expansion—but NBA Cup Hasn’t Moved Needle

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LAS VEGAS—The NBA Cup final is at T-Mobile Arena again Tuesday night with the Milwaukee Bucks playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the tournament’s second edition.

And despite Vegas once again putting its best foot forward as host—drawing an announced 35,050 for a split admission doubleheader on Saturday, up slightly from last year’s 34,854—the NBA has put Vegas on hold. This city is no closer to landing an NBA expansion franchise than it was at this time a year ago.

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For myriad reasons, the NBA is taking its time with the expansion process. The league has yet to even establish an expansion committee to evaluate those prospects, an NBA official confirmed Monday.

“We’re not quite ready yet,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told reporters in September before the season started. “There’s certainly interest in the process, [but] we’re not there yet in terms of having made any specific decisions about markets, or even frankly to expand.”

To be sure, expansion is a delicate, complicated process. But as far as Las Vegas is concerned, the NBA is behind the other pro sports leagues.

“I love it as a host city,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said on Saturday. “This city is a convention, big event city. This is a big event, so it’s perfect. I’m assuming Vegas will be in the NBA someday. Baseball is here, football is here, and everything else is here, right? So, we need to come as well. I think it would be great. I think it will happen.”

The NHL, NFL and WNBA are already here. About a half mile from the arena on the intersection of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard is the demolition site where a $1.75 million ballpark for MLB’s Athletics is supposed to be built, though the sticker price has escalated. The A’s, who had permission from MLB owners to leave Oakland, are expected to play the next three seasons at a minor league park in West Sacramento until the Las Vegas Stadium is built.

But what seems like an inevitable NBA expansion is happening at a snail’s pace—and the belief an expansion fee could cost an ownership group at least $4 billion limits the potential pool of…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/doc-rivers-wants-vegas-expansion-140000745.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2024-12-17 14:00:00

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