{"id":561272,"date":"2026-03-26T04:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T04:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561272\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T04:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T04:15:13","slug":"nba-expansion-to-seattle-vegas-is-all-but-certain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561272\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA expansion to Seattle, Vegas is all but certain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5791265-8 bdIWsa\">Get ready to learn coffee and desert air, buddies. The NBA\u2019s board of governors voted unanimously yesterday to begin the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/nba-expansion-seattle-las-vegas-teams-vote-approved\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">vetting process<\/a> to add a 31st and 32nd franchise in Las Vegas and Seattle, respectively, for the 2028-29 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5791265-8 bdIWsa\">The franchise entrance fee is just a bit more than what you paid to join your rec league: ESPN reports that the new clubs will be expected to pay the NBA $7 billion to $10 billion for the privilege of having Charles Barkley make fun of them. However, the announcement comes at an inopportune time:<\/p>\n<p>While next year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/breaking-news\/article\/nbas-salary-cap-for-2026-27-reportedly-projected-at-165m-a-roughly-10m-increase-003158896.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">salary cap<\/a> will reportedly rise by $10 million, that\u2019s still about $1 million lower than <a href=\"https:\/\/frontofficesports.com\/nba-rsn-salary-cap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">projections<\/a>, due to a decline in local media revenue.The tanking problem, aka intentionally losing or fielding bad teams in order to get better draft picks, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nba-tanking-831967b8d13b107d744875595ce7632a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">is worse<\/a> than usual (see: whatever the Brooklyn Nets did <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KnicksMemes\/status\/2035177857732018593?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>.) And expansion teams historically struggle at first, which could make tanking an even bigger issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5791265-8 bdIWsa\">But that depends on the NBA\u2019s expansion draft rules. The NHL <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dkpittsburghsports.com\/2021\/07\/05\/nhl-expansion-draft-rules-tlh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tweaked<\/a> its system to benefit its recent Vegas and Seattle expansion teams: Vegas went to the Stanley Cup Final in year one, while Seattle made the playoffs in year two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5791265-8 bdIWsa\">Zoom out: Despite rampant tanking and a $1 million shortfall, the NBA will survive. Overall viewership was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmediawatch.com\/2026\/02\/nba-viewership-up-all-star-break-nbc-espn-abc-prime-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">up<\/a> through last month\u2019s All-Star break.\u2014DL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get ready to learn coffee and desert air, buddies. The NBA\u2019s board of governors voted unanimously yesterday to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-561272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}