NBA expansion is tied to Lebrons retirement. Ive said this 100x and I’ll keep saying it. Watch LeBron retire and expansion happen with him as the majority owner of a team. It’s almost like you can’t say you predicted it, because it’s so obvious.
The league has its plans which aren’t disclosed. They’ve said expansion is something which is considered. They talk about the business aspect and the watering down of revenue when you add other markets. The cost of purchasing an expansion as compared to the sales of recent teams. It’s not fair for an expansion owner to pay something much less than somebody buying the Blazers, Balmer Buying the Clippers, Or any other recent transactions in the league.
The NBA wants the Blazers to be sold for whatever the most that they can be sold for is. They don’t care what that means otherwise. In a sense they realize the benefit of having a team with a strong fan base, but there are a lot of things to consider.
Take Yang Hansen for instance. People from
China are going to watch him wherever he plays.
The fate of this really might come down to the owner. I don’t know how much I buy the mantra that “The NBA learned relocating Seattle to OKC was a mistake”.
We will see a team in Seattle and a team in Las Vegas. LeBron will own the team in Vegas, just like he has said he has wanted to. Grizzlies and Timberwolves join the Eastern Conference.
Well hopefully it's just that, an expansion and not the moving of another team, especially the Blazers.
I think there is plenty of revenue for two teams to exist again in the NW. Also makes for a great rivalry. Vegas will be it's own revenue source.
I can certainly see Lebron retiring and owning a new team in Vegas.
Was it a mistake to move the Sonics to OKC. They have built a successful championship team there.
I think that too was mostly on the city of Seattle and the State of Washington for not being ready or willing to go in on a new arena for the team. Though who knows if the new owner really wanted to stay there, or already had plans in place and wanted to move the team regardless.
If anyone can learn from the mistakes there it's not the NBA. It's the City of Portland and the State of Oregon. Don't repeat those mistakes. Though again, does this new owner or group of owners really want to keep the team here? They say so. Hopefully, they mean it. Hopefully, they don't already have plans to move the Blazers and are just saying they will keep the team here until the sale goes through.
It would cost a lot to move this team though. More than what the new owner (owners) probably would want to pay, especially after just shelling out 4.5 billion for the team.
We will see teams in Seattle and in Vegas. Again, hopefully straight up expansions, not the product of teams being relocated to new cities/states. Two teams, likely two of the Timberwolves, Grizzlies, and Pelicans will be moved to the eastern conference.
