PHOENIX \u2014 Mark Davis doesn\u2019t want to discuss his interest in a Las Vegas expansion team in the NBA just yet.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d rather relish the success he\u2019s seen with the three-time WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Review-Journal during NFL meetings at the Arizona Biltmore resort, the Aces and Las Vegas Raiders majority owner emphasized that he\u2019s intentionally stayed quiet about NBA expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never said that,\u201d Davis said when asked if he\u2019s ruled out getting involved with a Las Vegas team. \u201cI just said I won\u2019t comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
When pushed, Davis maintained that he still won\u2019t talk about it. He didn\u2019t have an issue discussing the allure of Las Vegas as an NBA city, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe history of basketball in Las Vegas, really, for me, started with the Running Rebels and Jerry Tarkanian and winning that championship that year (1990),\u201d Davis said. \u201cLiving up in the Bay Area at the time, my eyes were focused on Las Vegas and what they accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Focused on Las Vegas<\/p>\n
He was enticed by Southern Nevada as a sports market. A year after Davis successfully led the charge for the Raiders to move from Oakland to Las Vegas in January 2020, he purchased the Aces from MGM resorts.<\/p>\n
With a longstanding front-row seat to Las Vegas\u2019 development as a sports city, Davis isn\u2019t surprised that the NBA is ready to get serious about claiming a more substantial piece of the pie.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the message that was sent in March when the NBA Board of Governors unanimously voted to officially explore expansion, targeting Las Vegas and Seattle as the premier markets for two new franchises.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the Summer League and everything else being here, the NBA has also built a foundation here,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAnd of course, the Las Vegas Aces. I think we just sold out for the third season in a row, which is a record for the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sticker price for the Aces when Davis got into the WNBA business was approximately $2 million. Last year, Forbes estimated the value of the team to be north of $300 million.<\/p>\n
As the NBA expands, so does the WNBA. Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is returning the women\u2019s league to Houston by recording the Connecticut Sun for a $300 million sale price. Although that number is a league record, the Sun\u2019s ownership group received a higher offer that was blocked by the league.<\/p>\n
Aces interest skyrocketing<\/p>\n
Now, in light of the exponential growth of women\u2019s sports, Davis\u2019 phone rings off the hook with investors eager to get involved with the team he bought for a steal a few years back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get hit with it all the time,\u201d Davis said, adding that he never puts that much consideration into the idea of adding new stakeholders. \u201cIt was never about the money for me in this. It was more about bringing in the right people\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he used that philosophy when he brought in legendary quarterback Tom Brady as a minority owner of the Aces. He also mentioned Larry Delsen, a long time friend and financial advisor and his family.<\/p>\n
Davis added that there is \u201csomebody else that will probably be a part\u201d of the Aces ownership group in the future, but not soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something that we\u2019re out there marketing. Many people have come to us. We\u2019ve talked to them to see if they could fit into what our overall vision is,\u201d Davis said. \u201cBut right now, no.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Mark Davis doesn\u2019t want to discuss his interest in a Las Vegas expansion team in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-558861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}