Shifting landscape
Over the past few years, Las Vegas has welcomed both an NHL and NFL team, while the Oakland Athletics MLB team are set to call the city home in 2028.
The only one of the four major sports leagues missing is the NBA, but plans to develop an arena for a possible basketball franchise in Las Vegas have hit some stumbling blocks.
Oak View Group planned to develop a 20,000-seater arena on a vacant site
Leading the efforts, Oak View Group (OVG) planned to develop a 20,000-seater arena on a vacant site five miles from the Strip with an accompanying hotel casino boasting 2,000 rooms.
Reports suggest these plans are now dead in the water, with the Las Vegas Review-Journal claming OVG had a disagreement with Blue Diamond Acquisition, the company that owns the 25-acre site, over pricing.
Plenty of appetite
The NBA arena plans are now shifting to the Rio Hotel and Casino instead.
This property was initially in the running to become the home of a new MLB ballpark, which ultimately went instead to the site of the former Tropicana. Dreamscape, the Rio owner, put all its efforts behind the possibility of developing the baseball stadium on part of its 88-acre site.
OVG has reportedly taken soil samples in recent weeks as it looks at the potential development work for a $10bn NBA project on the Rio site.
Competition in the space
OVG isn’t the only company trying to build an NBA-ready arena in Las Vegas. In April LVXP proposed building a luxury resort with 2,500 rooms and an accompanying arena on the site of the old Wet ‘n’ Wild waterpark, which is beside the Fontainebleau and across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center. It would have a hotel tower higher than any other structure in the city.
Despite all these plans, Las Vegas still needs to get a team. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has commented in the past about how the city would be a good home for a team, although there is no certainty the league will add more teams or that any current franchises will move. Silver said last month at the annual Board of Governors meeting that the topic of expansion will be up for discussion before the end of the current season.