NBA News: Fans Want An Expansion Franchise In Seattle

There have been rumors of expansion swirling around the NBA for the past few years. The sports world has descended on Las Vegas, Nevada over the last decade, with teams like the Raiders and Golden Knights making it their new home, and events like Formula 1, the NBA In-Season Tournament, and even the upcoming Super Bowl will all take place in Sin City over the next few months.

Could The NBA Expand To Seattle Or Las Vegas?

The results of the NBA fan survey are in 🙌

◻️ How often do you watch NBA games?
◻️ Have you liked the Play-In Tournament?
◻️ Who is the best player in the NBA right now?@MikeVorkunov asked NBA fans 20 questions ahead of the 2023-24 season ⤵️

🔗:https://t.co/IQIGkt0xHb pic.twitter.com/rlsCPLueLR

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) October 24, 2023

With all of the growth has come a question of whether the NBA has a future in the city. Putting an expansion team in Las Vegas would make sense given the trajectory of the city and the location in comparison to places like Phoenix or Los Angeles. There have even been direct quotes from LeBron James on the subject, who hopes to own at least a part of a franchise some day, and perhaps in Southern Nevada.

But according to a recent fan poll that was conducted by The Athletic, there is another city that deserves a team first.

The 2023-24 “Fan Survey” was released on Tuesday, and 6,380 people were asked questions about their NBA viewing habits and how they approach the game as outsiders. A couple of the questions pertained to expansion and relocation of franchises, and the answers were somewhat unsurprising.

First, a poll was taken on whether the NBA should add an expansion team or not. 69.4% of respondents favored adding a new team to the league, and the next poll question was in regard to which city they felt deserved to have a new franchise.

Seattle Leads The Polling By A Mile

LeBron James is courtside for Game 1 of the WNBA Finals in Las Vegas. LeBron said he would like be part of the group that brings an NBA expansion franchise to Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/jK69bdVoRa

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) October 8, 2023

The results were overwhelmingly one-sided. 72.7% of all votes were cast in favor of Seattle, Washington, who had their SuperSonics taken away from them when they relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. There have been calls and cries for the NBA to return to the Pacific Northwest for well over a decade now, as the city and the fans feel as though their team was taken from them, and that the passion and fandom still exist in the Emerald City.

Las Vegas came in at a very distant second place on the poll, finishing with 13.8% of the votes. The other three selections were international cities, which included Mexico City, London, and Paris. Each of them received less than 4% of the votes.