Will Seattle Get More Than Just An NHL Team?

The NBA might be following the Kraken to town.

The National Hockey League released the Kraken on April 30th when the owners of the Seattle franchise sent the rest of the $650 million of the money that allowed them to join the league. The Seattle franchise can now sign players. The NHL will now have 32 teams. But is this the end of the expansion for Seattle? Probably not. The National Basketball Association’s 30 franchise owners could charge as much as $2.5 billion for an expansion franchise and Seattle now has everything needed for an NBA franchise. There was government support that allowed the city’s arena to be renovated or rebuilt. There is a cable TV market that can offer some potential Seattle NBA owner some serious cash. Seattle has some of the biggest corporate players in the world starting with Microsoft. It was the outgoing owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves Glen Taylor who pointed out that “it’s in the NBA’s interest that in Seattle, that a new team is formed. It’s an economic decision that’s in the interest of all of the owners.” If Taylor is correct, the NBA can charge $2.5 billion for a team, that means every owner could pocket about $83 million for doing nothing except creating a new team. Creating two new franchises would bring in $166 million for each owner.

National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver has alluded to the possibility of his business adding franchises sometime in the future. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the NBA was looking at trying to establish some presence in Mexico City. Silver also probably wants to get a new TV deal and a new collective bargaining agreement with the players done before thinking of an expansion.

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