{"id":812499,"date":"2026-08-13T17:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812499\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T17:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:52:08","slug":"l-a-lakers-record-sale-raises-stakes-for-nba-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812499\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Lakers\u2019 record sale raises stakes for NBA expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sale of the Lakers on Wednesday for $12.5B<\/a>, the richest sale in U.S. pro sports history, \u201craised the question of whether a number that massive is going to impact<\/a> the ongoing NBA expansion process<\/a> and the possibility of seeing the SuperSonics return to Seattle,\u201d according to Tim Booth of the SEATTLE TIMES. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who paired with Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner to buy the L.A. team, was \u201crumored to be kicking the tires\u201d on a possible expansion bid in Seattle in early 2025 when the process was in its beginning stages. He then emerged with Kushner as a possible bidder in Las Vegas<\/a>. The sale of the Lakers \u201cshouldn\u2019t impact wherever the final asking price comes in on NBA expansion for both Seattle and Las Vegas.\u201d However, owners will \u201cwant to squeeze every penny possible out of the expansion process to gain approval.\u201d What the price for an expansion fee should be and what owners want it to be \u201ccan live in two different realms.\u201d One reality might say $5B or $6B is a \u201cfair number to charge for a startup organization when compared across the valuations of all NBA teams.\u201d The \u201cconcern is if owners squeeze too hard it could lead to groups saying the numbers don\u2019t pencil out from a bottom-line business perspective and the expansion hopes fizzle.\u201d There should be \u201cadditional clarity next month\u201d when the NBA BOG holds its next meetings (SEATTLE TIMES, 8\/12<\/a>).<\/p>\n

RAISING PROJECTIONS: In California, Ryan Anderson wrote the Lakers\u2019 sale \u201cmay have revealed just how expensive the NBA\u2019s long-awaited arrival in Las Vegas will be.\u201d AP sportswriter Greg Beacham \u201cargued that the Lakers\u2019 sale\u202fmakes an expansion fee\u202fnorth of $8 billion increasingly likely despite Las Vegas ranking only 29th among U.S. metropolitan areas and 40th among television markets.\u201d The Lakers\u2019 sale \u201cgives the NBA a powerful negotiating point.\u201d If a buyer was willing to pay $12.5B for L.A., the league \u201ccan argue that entry into an exclusive 30-team club should command significantly more than earlier projections\u201d (CALIFORNIA POST, 8\/12<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sale of the Lakers on Wednesday for $12.5B, the richest sale in U.S. pro sports history, \u201craised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[402,167,355,99],"class_list":["post-812499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-deals","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812499","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=812499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}