NBA moves closer to Las Vegas and Seattle expansion teams for 2028-2029 season

[p]Project proposal estimates range from $7 billion to $10 billion for each of the two future teams, according to NBA insider Shams Charania. If the board votes to approve the expansion to both [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/seattle-redhawks/8n1SuHT7/"]Seattle[/a] and Las Vegas, the process will move on to a bidding war for the two franchises. [/p][p]Once that happens, a last vote will be needed to approve the transition of the two new teams into the NBA, bringing the league team count up from 30 to 32. In each of the voting steps, 23 of the 30 members need to approve for it to be official.[/p][embed guid="2010aa7a-5f19-4692-8bad-323a89044bd6" url="https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/2033528555536011508?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]The news is big as Las Vegas and Seattle sports markets have begun to drastically heat up in recent years. In the NHL, the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/golden-state-warriors/SxUtXqch/"]Vegas Golden Knights[/a] have become a powerhouse franchise since becoming a team in 2016. The NHL also introduced the Seattle Kraken as a new franchise in 2018 (began playing in 2021), marking the first "NHL" team in the city's history and their first professional one since the Seattle Metropolitans (1915-1924).[/p][p]As for Las Vegas in other areas, they had the iconic Raiders franchise move to the city and are in the current process of building a ballpark to host the MLB's Athletics as their team as well. [/p][p]Should Seattle receive an NBA team, it could mark the return of the iconic [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/seattle-supersonics/02xfD2sO/"]SuperSonics[/a] franchise that eventually left and became the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/oklahoma-city-thunder/0fHFHEWD/"]Oklahoma City Thunder[/a] in 2008, winning the NBA Finals last season. The SuperSonics played a major part in NBA history, housing some of the greatest talents ever, such as Shawn Kemp, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/allen-ray/l0YmOF4d/"]Ray Allen[/a], [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/payton-gary/SrJ96uWH/"]Gary Payton[/a], and even current superstar [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/durant-kevin/pKXcd9rI/"]Kevin Durant[/a], who was originally drafted second overall by the team in the 2007 NBA Draft.[/p][p]Ironically enough, Durant's current contract with the Rockets runs out in 2028 - the same year the SuperSonics could potentially return to the league.[/p]