Want to own the NBA's Las Vegas team? That'll be €8.6 billion!

Want to own the new NBA team slated for Las Vegas? You'll need a cool $10 billion (€8.654 billion), as that's the expected expansion fee to secure the rights from the league. And you'll need even more for an NBA-caliber arena—if you don't use the existing one—plus signing players, coaches, staff, and all the personnel required to run the organization like a major corporation. Interestingly, there seems to be no shortage of interested parties, with a target start date just a couple of years away.

After the NBA Board of Governors—the league's highest authority—approved the expansion to include two more teams in Las Vegas and Seattle back in March, the process is now entering more advanced stages. According to information from Shams Charania of ESPN on the show "NBA Today," the focus is particularly intense on the much-coveted city in Nevada.

"The NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver are in increasingly deep discussions about expansion," the journalist stated, adding that the next round of proposals for the Las Vegas team is due this Thursday, with final bids expected shortly after.

"From what I understand, the bids for that Vegas team are reaching and potentially exceeding $10 billion," Charania revealed. The Las Vegas process appears to be moving at a faster pace than Seattle's, although talks for the latter are also ongoing.

The league is aiming for the new expansion teams to begin competing as early as the 2028/29 season. Furthermore, projections indicate that both could immediately rank among the top ten most valuable franchises in terms of market value and revenue share.

In the coming months, more clarity is expected on the final bid amounts, which could hover around $10 billion (€8.654 billion) for Las Vegas and $7 billion (€6.058 billion) for Seattle. Adam Silver will continue to oversee the bidding process, with no date yet set for a final vote that would officially expand the NBA to 32 teams.