Although it still requires approval from the NBA Board of Governors, the recent $6.1 billion sale agreement of the Boston Celtics is paving the way for another potentially lucrative opportunity for the NBA: expansion.
The league, which currently has 30 franchises, continues to study models for expansion, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday during a news conference at the conclusion of meetings with league owners. Silver acknowledged that there were “no new developments” and no formal timeline to announce, but he did make clear that the league continues to be “very focused” on one particular city, and one that formerly was home to the SuperSonics.
“I would just say the fact that we’re not ready to make any public announcements with a specific timeline doesn’t mean we don’t care a lot about those fans and we aren’t focused on the potential for the NBA to return to Seattle,” Silver said Thursday.
It was 17 years ago that the former SuperSonics team relocated to Oklahoma City and rebranded itself as the Thunder. Originally founded in 1967, the SuperSonics played 40 seasons in Seattle before the relocation.
Yet, that is just one market the NBA is considering, with Silver saying the league was assessing fair value to new and existing owners, as media rights deals would need to be split with any new ownership groups in the league’s revenue sharing model.
Silver said the NBA has been looking at expansion models “over the last year or so” and pointed to the Celtics sale as a potential catalyst toward adding a 31st and 32nd franchise.
“There’s no doubt that a major transaction like that becomes relevant to expansion,” Silver said.
One of the complications to expansion is the uncertainty of regional sports networks that carry local broadcasts of games. Unlike the NFL, which airs most of its games on national networks like CBS, FOX and NBC and major streaming partners like Amazon and Netflix, the NBA relies on regional sports networks to carry non-national broadcasts. With cord cutting and cable subscriptions on the decline, many of these networks have faced financial difficulties.
“I’d just add the last component, which also is giving me just a bit of pause, is that we’d like to have a better sense of where we’re going with local media,” Silver said. “It’s well known that we’ve seen some significant declines there. Virtually two-thirds of our teams are now dealing with RSNs that recently experienced bankruptcies or have shut down.
“I think while we understand the national media landscape now, to the extent we’re looking at expansion domestically, I think we’d really like to understand what that opportunity for local media is, because it’s a pretty critical component of our teams’ economics.”