Golden Knights owner Bill Foley on NBA eyeing Vegas expansion: ‘I know I can rally a team’

The NBA returned to Las Vegas this week for its annual Summer League, but the league is still deciding whether it wants to set up a permanent residency in the city. While the NBA continues its expansion process by deciding whether to bring a team to Las Vegas and to Seattle, one interested suitor is already in town.

Bill Foley, the owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, has already brought one franchise to The Strip and is looking to add another.

Foley publicly declared his intent last month and is rounding up a group to bid on an NBA expansion team. The demand to join him is running high, he said in an interview with The Athletic after he got off the phone with Morgan Stanley, his bankers. The interest is strong enough for him to believe he’ll have to lower the amount he originally planned to take from institutional investors.

Foley is no stranger to an expansion process. He brought a new team to Las Vegas in 2017 and had immediate success with the Golden Knights. Now, he believes he can surpass that with an franchise in the world’s best basketball league.

“We did a couple things really well,” Foley said. “We’re going to do it on steroids with an NBA team.”

Foley is not the only one trying to bring a new NBA franchise to Las Vegas. While Seattle has just one known contender to this point — Samantha Holloway, the owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, who put her franchise in one umbrella company with the Kraken arena this spring and added Melinda French Gates as a minority investor in the hockey team — a possible franchise in Las Vegas may turn into a hotly contested bidding process. Foley says he knows of five groups alone. Magic Johnson is the face of a local group pushing for a team. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner are also interested, according to Bloomberg. Marc Lasry, the former Milwaukee Bucks owner, has expressed interest in the past.

A group led by longtime NBA executive Jerry Colangelo, former Los Angeles Clippers head coach and player Vinny Del Negro, ex-Turner Broadcasting president David Levy and a group of finance executives is working on a bid, too. They have commitments of $8 billion already and plan to raise up to $13 billion to buy a team and eventually build an arena. That group, led by Del Negro and Prime Capital Financial chairman Scott Colangelo, has been planning its move since 2024 and already has a name picked out: the Las Vegas Jacks. An application was filed for that name in May 2025.

As more suitors come out, the NBA’s process is also gaining steam as the league moves toward its self-imposed goal to decide on proceeding with expansion. Investment bank PJT Partners is serving as a strategic adviser. Interested parties have been in contact with the NBA.

“It’s a very competitive process,” Foley said. “I’m sure the NBA wants it to be competitive. I’m sure that helps the franchise value.”

Foley believes his bid is unique. He has already shown he can make a team work in the city. The Golden Knights rank in the top four in the NHL in sponsorship revenue, Foley said, and he plans to bring his business side over from the Golden Knights and leverage it for the potential NBA team.

He also owns a stake in T-Mobile Arena, where the Knights play. That is a big advantage, he believes. Any prospective buyer would need to spend billions to construct a building if the team cannot play in T-Mobile Arena, and such a building might not be ready in time for the franchise’s debut.

Foley says T-Mobile Arena needs work, namely another $300 million to $400 million in refurbishment to be NBA ready. A new team in Vegas would need a business office and maybe a new practice facility. Foley would like to add about 1,000 seats — mostly suites — to T-Mobile Arena as well. And if the NBA does expand to Vegas, he could also buy majority control in the arena.

But he has confidence he can replicate his NHL success.

“I know I can do it again in basketball,” he said.”It’s going to be difficult, but I know I can do it. I know I can rally a team.”

Foley said he was initially cautious about investing in an NBA franchise. The franchise value seemed high — the league is looking for upward of $7 billion for a new Vegas team. He paid a $500 million expansion fee for the Golden Knights and says the franchise is now valued at $3 billion.

Then, he saw the appeal. Foley thinks a fifth major pro sports team — the Golden Knights, Raiders and Aces are here, and the Athletics are coming — not only would work in the city but also sell out every game. While he saw the Golden Knights as a local attraction, the new NBA team would be an international endeavor, because of the league’s reach and the city’s clientele.

Las Vegas is only the 40th-largest media market in the country, but it’s one of America’s biggest tourist hubs. Another interested bidder thinks “Vegas would be the crown jewel of the NBA.”

“It’s an exciting prospect,” Foley said. “The NBA is a whole different animal in terms of its global reach.”

He has not been told definitively that a team is coming to Las Vegas or that the NBA is expanding. He has heard, just as commissioner Adam Silver said in March, that the league could end up adding two teams, just one or not expanding at all. Still, Foley believes he’s in a good place in the race to land an NBA franchise.

“We’ve already brought a major-league franchise to Las Vegas,” he said. “We’ve jumped through all the hoops. … I believe we’re in a really good spot to compete.”