Numerous NBA owners don't want league expansion in the near future

Expansion might not be coming soon after all if certain NBA owners get their wish. There is not overwhelming momentum to immediately expand beyond the current 30 teams, Mike Vorkunov and David Aldridge of The Athletic report.

The league’s Board of Governors are meeting Tuesday and expansion is one of the topics anticipated to be discussed.

As one might expect, the lack of enthusiasm among some owners regarding expansion is due to money. The league’s new 11-year, $76B media rights deal begins next season and several owners would rather begin collecting and splitting that new revenue among the existing teams, rather than giving a share or shares to incoming franchises.

Each current team is set to collect hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the new rights deal, which will be a boon to franchises who have lost many millions in revenue due to the collapse of the regional sports networks. Adding two new teams within the next year or two would dilute the potential revenue from the national TV networks over the next decade, The Athletic duo notes.

However, there is some incentive for the current teams to bring in new teams. With valuations of current franchises continuing to rise, expansion fees are certain to go well beyond the previous projections of at least $5B per new franchise.

Seattle, which lost its franchise to Oklahoma City, remains a top candidate for a new or potentially relocated team. Las Vegas has also been prominently mentioned as a prime candidate to get a franchise.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver indicated last month that expansion may not be as much of a priority for the league as some fans are hoping, saying that it’s not “automatic” that the league will decide to add more teams. Silver cautioned then that there are concerns among the current owners about bringing in more partners to divide up revenues.