Could Seattle Finally Welcome Back NBA Basketball Soon?

In the good old days when I was just a youngster, I played basketball in junior high and high school, and one of the most exciting things that happened when I was in junior high was the beginning of the Seattle SuperSonics.  

Of course, later it was just Seattle Sonics, but it was awesome. I was consumed by wanting to play basketball, although I never had the physical attributes to excel. But one of the greatest things was watching the Seattle Sonics on TV; I loved it.  

Then the Sonics were sold 

I firmly believe that it broke the collective heart of Seattle when the Sonics were sold. But now the Seattle market is being offered a slight glimmer of hope. 

According to seattletimes.com,
‘NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday night that a decision on possible expansion by the league is coming at some point in 2026, while again specifically mentioning the possibilities of Seattle and Las Vegas as target markets.’ 

It seems like every year now we hear about the possibility of expansion teams in the NBA and Seattle always mentioned as one of the possibles. But it never happens to us. I'm pretty sure it's not because we don't have the money, and with the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena, we certainly have a venue for them to play.  

How much would it cost? 

The fee to bring another team into the NBA is running right around $6 to $7 billion, and it's only going to get more expensive as time goes by. 

The NBA has been working on trying to get a European branded NBA league for a while now, so they've been concentrating on that. However, there's really no guarantee that even though they're talking about expansion teams, it will ever happen, at least not this year. 

On one level, it's really not about whether Seattle can afford a team (although trust me, it's not cheap) or have a place for a team to play. It's whether all the other owners want to have their value diluted by adding two more teams to the league. What would you rather own, 1/30th of the league, or 1/32nd of the league. 

Are the current owners willing to give up a small slice (although still sizeable) of their revenue in order to add two more teams.  

I don't think it's likely, but who knows, they may surprise us.