Las Vegas has spent the past decade transforming itself into a sprawling, neon-lit destination for professional sports, and now the city is on the brink of what could be its next landmark addition: an NBA expansion franchise. If and when the league expands, the early betting line says Las Vegas is the front-runner, and T-Mobile Arena is the venue most likely to land the team. The 20,000-seat building, already home to the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, has satisfied much of what the NBA is looking for in a modern home. But the path from front-runner to actual host is not simple. MGM Resorts International, the venue’s primary operator and 50 percent owner, has been careful to note that serious upgrades would be required before an NBA regular-season schedule could move in. That is where Golden Knights owner Bill Foley enters the story. Foley has emerged as the leading figure in what could be a $10 billion ownership bid, and he has said he would be willing to invest between $300 million and $400 million of his own funding into renovating T-Mobile to NBA standards. It helps that he already owns a stake in the arena, which opened in 2016 on the south end of the Strip behind Park MGM and New York-New York. For Foley, keeping the team in a familiar venue he partially owns would give him more control over the entire experience, from the building itself to the surrounding entertainment district. For MGM, losing the NBA to another arena would be a blow to the momentum that T-Mobile has generated since it opened. CEO Bill Hornbuckle couldn’t say much because he has signed multiple nondisclosure agreements related to the venue, but during an April earnings call, he allowed himself a bit of optimism. “The good news is the NBA has clearly earmarked Las Vegas,” Hornbuckle said. “We’re excited by it. How could we not be? T-Mobile is part of that conversation, whether it’s short term or long term. All roads lead to it for now because the league has expressed interest to host a team as early as 2028.” His words suggest that, even if nothing is written in stone, Las Vegas and T-Mobile are intertwined in the NBA’s thinking at this stage.
Foley’s comfort with T-Mobile has not stopped other players from pushing a very different vision. Sources close to the expansion talks say two north Strip sites have emerged as potential rivals: more than 40 acres of undeveloped land next to Resorts World Las Vegas, and a vacant 38-acre parcel across from Wynn Las Vegas. The argument for putting an NBA arena on the north Strip is largely about economics and access. The roughly two-mile stretch from Wynn Las Vegas to Sahara Avenue has been booming with new development—most notably the 4,000-room Fontainebleau Las Vegas, which opened in 2023 and brought gaming, restaurants and retail. But it has no large-scale entertainment venue at its center, and local resort operators believe a basketball arena could be the missing anchor that drives year-round foot traffic. They have seen what T-Mobile has done on the south Strip, where resort operators say the arena provides a measurable lift in customer traffic and revenue before and after events. Now they want a similar boost for the north. Jim Murren, the former CEO of MGM Resorts who later became an adviser to Resorts World, has been one of the loudest voices in favor of building on the north Strip. In a July interview with The Nevada Independent, Murren said he has “a very strong view” that the next arena should be there. “The south Strip is congested,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for the NBA to have their own neighborhood [at Resorts World], and that would be very compelling.” His comments carry weight because he helped lead the development of T-Mobile itself. Yet the question of whether Foley—who is deeply connected to the south Strip—would be willing to watch his NBA team play in a different part of town remains unanswered. Messages to the Golden Knights’ communications department went unreturned, and the silence suggests the negotiations are happening behind closed doors. The north Strip proponents, meanwhile, are not waiting for an invitation. They are actively pitching the NBA on a grander, more self-contained arena development that would create a new entertainment district from the ground up, with restaurants, bars, plazas and a neighborhood feel around the venue itself.
The south Strip won’t be caught standing still. It already has a remarkable concentration of sports venues, and it is about to add another. T-Mobile Arena hosts college basketball tournaments, combat sports and concerts, and its events help fill nearby hotels and restaurants on nights when the Strip would otherwise be quiet. Then there is Allegiant Stadium, the 60,000-seat home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, which drew more than 1.7 million people in 2025 through sports, entertainment and community events. The WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces play their home games at the 12,000-seat Michelob Ultra Arena inside Mandalay Bay Resort, adding another steady stream of visitors to the south end. In 2028, the Athletics baseball team will open a $2 billion, 33,000-capacity stadium on the site of the old Tropicana, giving the south Strip a fourth major sports venue. That cluster has created what some call a sports triangle, and it is hard to argue with its success. But the north has its own point of leverage. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spent $1 billion on the West Hall expansion, which opened in 2021 and immediately drew large trade shows such as the Consumer Electronics Show, SEMA, the National Association of Broadcasters and World of Concrete—events that can bring 100,000 or more attendees. Gaming industry consultant Brendan Bussmann said that expansion is another reason NBA planners should look beyond the south Strip. “The destination can have multiple arenas that can exist beyond the existing footprint,” Bussmann said. “A sports triangle exists today [on the south Strip]. The north end makes the most logical sense to stay within the resort corridor but expand the sports footprint in the city and build upon the synergies next to the convention center.” In other words, the debate is not merely about where an arena should go; it is about what kind of Las Vegas the NBA wants to be part of. The south offers density and proven traffic, but it comes with congestion and limited room to grow. The north offers open land, easier access and an opportunity to create something entirely new.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is aware of the stakes. When he spoke on Sept. 14 after two days of league meetings in New York, he acknowledged that several locations in Las Vegas would be viable for NBA basketball. He did not try to hide the fact that T-Mobile is currently the preferred location, but he also made clear that the venue is not set in stone. “My personal view is it’s premature to start locking in a site,” Silver said. He added that the two primary components for a Las Vegas team—ownership and the arena location—might not be determined until the end of the year. Silver has not been shy about praising the Los Angeles Clippers’ $2 billion Intuit Dome, the arena that Steve Ballmer built with a high-tech fan experience, including a massive video scoreboard known as the Halo. T-Mobile, by contrast, is more traditional. Silver acknowledged it needs “significant improvements” if it is going to host an NBA team. The commissioner knows that expansion is a delicate process. Seattle is also seeking a team to replace the Supersonics, who left for Oklahoma City in 2008. There is no guarantee Las Vegas will be chosen, but the league’s engagement with local officials and arena operators suggests it is the leading candidate. Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill has been part of the conversations, and he sees the NBA pursuit as fundamentally different from the city’s earlier sports victories. The Raiders relocated from Oakland, the Athletics moved from Oakland, the Aces relocated from Dallas and the Golden Knights were born of the NHL’s expansion process. In each case, the ownership group and the venue were fully settled before the games began. The NBA process is different, because the league is starting fresh with a new city, a new team and a new building—and there is still internal uncertainty about how many teams the league wants, where they will play and who will own them. “Everybody has seen what Las Vegas has brought to these teams,” Hill said. “The NBA is an exceptionally popular league, and the fit with Las Vegas is a tremendous opportunity.” But Hill also said some of the conversations include a concern that Las Vegas might be reaching a saturation point. “Figuring out how to grow that next arena is one of the reasons that people are talking to us,” he said. “Some share that there is a market concern that [there could be] too many venues.” For a city that used to be dismissed as a place with no sports identity, that is an ambitious problem to have.
Silver’s own words have fueled the north Strip push. He described Las Vegas as a “unique market” where the NBA could “truly see essentially 365-days-a-year activity.” That kind of comment precisely matches the strategy of Resorts World Las Vegas, whose 87-acre site includes more than 40 acres that remain undeveloped. The property’s operators have already met with potential bidders for an NBA team, though a spokesperson declined to identify anyone or discuss details. Resorts World President Carlos Castro issued a statement saying new north Strip properties have created “a significant luxury resort and entertainment corridor with tremendous opportunity still ahead.” He added, “We believe strongly that the north Strip is the right place for an NBA arena.” The Malaysian company Genting Berhad bought the land in 2013 and built the $4.3 billion Resorts World on half of it. The rest has been mostly vacant, with temporary structures used for special events. Murren has become a vocal advocate for the site, pointing out that an arena could have easy entrances and exits along Sammy Davis Jr. Drive on the property’s west side. He also says the site is large enough to support a “village atmosphere” with restaurants, bars and other entertainment for fans before and after games—a version of the lively outdoor dining and cafe scene that has grown up around T-Mobile and Park MGM. Across the street, Wynn Resorts is keeping its own options close. The company owns a 38-acre parcel that once housed the Rat Pack-era Frontier Hotel-Casino, which has sat vacant since November 2007. It was sold to a development group for $1.2 billion just before the Great Recession, which killed two rounds of proposed projects. Wynn Resorts acquired the land in 2018 and has not publicly revealed its intentions. The silence hasn’t dampened enthusiasm from other north Strip players. They remember that when the Athletics were looking for a baseball stadium site, Resorts World and other north Strip owners lobbied hard for Las Vegas Festival Grounds, the 103-acre site owned by Circus Circus and Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin. That effort failed, and the A’s chose the Tropicana site on the south Strip. Ruffin later told The Nevada Independent he wasn’t interested in setting aside part of his land for a basketball arena. But the broader point was not lost: the north Strip is determined not to be left out of the next big thing.
The list of potential owners adds another layer of intrigue. Foley may be the leader, but he is far from the only billionaire in the race. Bob Iger, the former Disney CEO, and venture capitalist Josh Kushner were once mentioned as potential suitors before they agreed to acquire the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion—a deal that took them out of the Las Vegas picture, but underscored just how much money is flowing through the sports world. Others connected to the Las Vegas expansion include Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill Laurie; former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo; and Magic Johnson, who already owns shares in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Commanders. Each would bring a different skill set and style to the ownership group, and their presence means the NBA can be selective about who ultimately gets the franchise. There are also competing arena proposals beyond the north Strip vs. T-Mobile fight. VICI Properties President John Payne said in July that the real estate investment trust is working with Caesars Entertainment on a possible NBA arena proposal for 50 acres behind Horseshoe Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood. Chetak Development, a Las Vegas-based company, has announced plans for the Diamond Arena, a 21,200-seat venue directly across from Mandalay Bay Resort. Spokesman Tom Letizia described it as a “development ready destination” for a future NBA franchise, even though no ownership group has been tied to the project and no cost estimate has been released. “This isn’t just another arena project,” Letizia said. “It’s a global stage for the NBA. The league is looking for a long-term home in Las Vegas, and this site delivers everything needed to define the future.” Andrew Diss, senior vice president for Meruelo Gaming, which owns Sahara Las Vegas, argued that billions of dollars have been invested in north Strip properties, and that having an arena nearby would lead to more spending throughout the corridor. He also agreed with Murren that fan access would be better on the north Strip. Eventually, the NBA will make its choices. Will Las Vegas get a team? The signs suggest yes. Will it play in T-Mobile after all, or in a new building carved from the desert? That is less certain. What is clear is that Las Vegas has become the center of the sports universe in ways that seemed impossible twenty years ago. The city that once hosted only boxing matches and auto racing has somehow become a place where teams—and the business leaders who own them—want to plant flags. All roads may lead to T-Mobile for now, but the real journey has only just begun.