Las Vegas Is Getting an NBA Team. The Only Question Is Who Writes the $13 Billion Check.

LAS VEGAS — The NBA is about to do something it hasn’t done in more than twenty years: add a team. And if you live in Las Vegas, you already know how this ends. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported September 29 that the league is expected to select the winning bid for a Las Vegas expansion franchise “in the very near future” — with a price tag of at least $12–13 billion for the team and a new arena.

Watch what happens here, because the number is the story. Twelve to thirteen billion dollars. Read it again. The Lakers just changed hands at a $12.5 billion valuation. CNBC puts the Raiders at $13 billion — and that doesn’t count the stadium. So an expansion franchise in the hottest sports market in the country, plus a brand-new building? The price isn’t crazy. The price is the market.

Three groups made the final cut, and every one of them can afford it. First: Nancy Walton Laurie — Walmart money, daughter of co-founder James “Bud” Walton — and her husband Bill Laurie, who used to own the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. They live in Henderson. Forbes puts their net worth at $17 billion. They are not stretching for this.

Second: Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos — real estate and private equity, once looked at buying the Hornets from Michael Jordan — partnered with former Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry and his brothers Jim and Peter Apostolopoulos. Lasry sold his Bucks stake in 2023. He knows what an NBA team actually costs to run, which matters more than people think.

Third is the home team: Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo — a four-time NBA Executive of the Year — who stopped competing with each other and merged their bids. The bench is deep: former players Vinny Del Negro and Jay Williams, ex-Turner Sports president David Levy. Colangelo’s Las Vegas Jacks group had been working this for months before Foley came aboard.

And then there’s Dana White. Asked at a Contender Series press conference this week whether he remains involved with a Vegas bid group, the UFC boss gave a one-word answer: “Yes.” That was the whole answer. That was enough.

Here’s the part most coverage skips — the arena is half the deal. Charania’s reporting leaves open something like a $10 billion expansion fee to the league plus $2–3 billion for a new building. T-Mobile Arena is right there, it hosts the NBA Cup finals, the Aces play there — but Adam Silver said earlier this month it “needs some significant improvements” before an NBA team could call it home. Read that however you like. The smart money says the winner builds new — and anchors it to a resort, retail, maybe condos. That’s what sports ownership is now. The team is the anchor tenant of a real estate play.

So why does Vegas go before Seattle? Two reasons, both practical. One: the bidding is hotter here — more groups, bigger numbers, more logistics. Two: Seattle already has Climate Pledge Arena sitting there, ready. Vegas needs a building. The league wants a formal approval process finished by the end of December, and the groups that lose in Vegas can take their billions to Seattle — where the logistics are simpler and an arena is already waiting.

The timeline from here: earliest tip-off is the 2028–29 season. That’s two full seasons away. The Board of Governors voted this week to formally authorize expansion exploration in both cities — the first real expansion step the league has taken in over two decades. Thirty teams becomes thirty-two.

For Las Vegas, this is the last line on the résumé. The Knights. The Raiders. The A’s on the way. The Super Bowl already came through town. An NBA franchise was the obvious missing piece — and now it’s down to which billionaire writes the biggest check in league history to put it here. This story is developing. When the league names its winner, we’ll be here with the update.