Do you guys think well ever get more expansion teams?

There’s already such a talent gap between the best and worst teams anyway…. so anything that contributes to growing & expanding this game I love I’ll support.

I wrote a thread on potential expansion cities a year or so ago, and I like the idea of adding a couple new teams in either Pittsburgh, Louisville, Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle (of course), Tampa, Cincinnati, St Louis, or perhaps Baltimore markets.

This could either help or hurt the super team issue, meaning if players still choose to go to the most desirable markets and or join finals contenders….. the talent gap would be spread even less with more teams. Not good for the game IMO. But yes, overall I love the idea of more teams. 

 Viewership is acutally down this year.  I was for expansion but now you have players complaining about too many games. You shorten the season then either tickets will cost more or players with have to take paycuts. I think if tickets cost more to pay salaries then that will hurt expansion teams. I would watch the Grizzles in Pelicans closely the next two seasons, if they continue to suck and attendance keeps increasing they may relocate to Seattle or Vegas. 

Seattle will eventually get a team. It is a big, rich city with a large corporate base that will have a modern arena once the KeyArena redevelopment is complete. In all likelihood, it seems as though it will be a relocation. It stinks to write this, but New Orleans feels like the most likely team to move. Tom Benson kept the team in the city, but has died. The team appears headed to a rough stretch as Anthony Davis’s exit will lead to a small market team entering a rebuilding stretch. Their stadium lease runs through 2024, by which time Seattle’s stadium will be up and running. If Benson’s widow was to put the team up for sale, the league opening the door to relocation would lead to higher bids, probably none higher than a Seattle based group.

Las Vegas is not that big of a city, and certainly not an economically diverse one. With the NHL and NFL beating the NBA to it, I don’t think the league will be there beyond the summer league any time soon. Maybe a petty owner eventually throws a tantrum over a stadium and moves to Vegas ala the Chargers going to Carson, but it doesn’t seem likely even with Sarver owning the Suns. Every so often leagues seem to sprint to a city. Charlotte quickly got an NBA, NFL, and NHL team in the 1990s. They are all lower revenue teams by their league standards. Nashville got an NFL, NHL, and soon a MLS team. Their NFL and NHL teams are lower revenue by league standards and one would guess the MLS one will follow suit. Vegas seems to be the new Charlotte or Nashville. I don’t think existing team owners, especially those in big markets, want to expand the league to add more, what will eventually be, lower revenue teams. If there was a feasible way to put a team in London or Paris, they would do it. If there was a feasible way to put a team in Beijing or Tokyo, they would do it. Those are massive markets that would add considerably to the value of the league. I think the days of the NBA expanding to smaller cities is probably over.

 I don’t see that it would be feasible to put a franchise team in Europe. Would the player’s association even agree to it, getting traded at short notice across the Atlantic would not be popular. Could another team in Canada work otherwise I agree that Seattle and Las Vegas would seem likely locations.

 If we do have expansion, I could see potentially a promotion/relegation system in place like the EPL. Wouldn’t be too hard. The G League could be the lower tier.