NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke in a recent interview with The Athletic. He spoke about the possibility of the league’s upcoming expansion plans involving Mexico City. Silver noted that while he would love to have a team in Mexico City, it is unlikely that they will receive an NBA franchise ahead of the U.S. cities that have lobbied for teams as well.
“Personally, I would love to have a team [in Mexico City]… Being direct, it’s highly unlikely Mexico City would jump above U.S. cities that are currently under consideration.”
“But at the same time, once we move into expansion mode and start looking at all the considerations that go with expansion, I think that would then allow us to have more of a template to understand whether a city like Mexico City would be suitable.”
“[A team in Mexico City] is many years off, because then we might have to do some adjustments in the conferences, (and) I think it makes sense to have two conferences of 16 teams if we were to do it.”
“In many ways, Mexico City would be more additive. Flipping a switch in a country of 130 million people and 22 million people here in Mexico City. And so not just from a business standpoint, but in terms of generating more interest and enthusiasm around the game. So we’re going to continue to study it.”
Currently, the NBA is likely to focus on cities like Seattle and Las Vegas for their expansion plans.
The NBA has a strong relationship with Las Vegas, as they host their Summer League games in the city. As for Seattle, they haven’t had a franchise since 2008, when the Supersonics were moved to Oklahoma City and rebranded to the Thunder.
Mexico City is the most populous city in North America and boasts a high attendance level whenever the league hosts games there. They recently packed in 20,328 fans in the Arena Ciudad de Mexico on Saturday night for the Miami Heat’s game against the Washington Wizards.
Should Mexico City ever receive a team in the NBA, they will be only the third team in NBA history and just the second active NBA team outside of the United States.
Adam Silver Speaks On New NBA Teams
Adam Silver also spoke in the interview about the process of selecting the cities for new NBA teams. He noted that while he and the league officials have certain cities earmarked, they would be open to some other cities that could surprise them with a good offer a pitch.
“If somebody came in and could surprise us and suggest there is interest in a market that wasn’t already on our list… I don’t think prior to that, people had necessarily been talking about expansion in Oklahoma City. So sometimes you can be surprised by things that happen.”
The NBA could find themselves approving cities outside of Las Vegas and Seattle if they receive attractive offers. There are some big cities in the NBA that don’t have an NBA franchise that could be looking to bring in a team.
Which cities in the NBA will be the next to receive a new franchise? We will have to wait and see how the league officials carry out their upcoming expansion plans.
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