LeBron James has all but confirmed his plan to front an NBA team in Las Vegas when he retires, a venture he will likely achieve with Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group.
Adding another US sports team has been on the agenda for some time now as part of their 'FSG 3.0' plans, and already holding majority ownership of teams in baseball (Boston Red Sox) and ice hockey (Pittsburgh Penguins) the focus has been on adding an NBA team owing to the cost prohibitive nature of the NFL at present and the rules that it has in place that forbid private equity in ownership, of which FSG have the likes of RedBird Capital Partners and Arctos Sports Partners in play.
The Phoenix Suns being placed up for sale last month with a $2.5bn valuation presented a somewhat unexpected availability of an already active franchise, and while sources have told the ECHO that the opportunity would likely be looked at by FSG, it is an expansion franchise that the Liverpool owners are wanting to pursue.
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The NBA, whose commissioner Adam Silver has confirmed that it would be open to expanding the league but stressed that it wasn't something that was imminent, are likely to have two expansion franchises open up, one in Seattle and one in Las Vegas.
That would take the world's premier basketball league to 32 from the current 30, although any new teams would have to get the green light from owners whose teams would have to share the pie with even more teams than they do presently. That means that a rough $2.5bn valuation has been placed upon the potential expansion franchises, money that would act as something of a sweetener to the other 30 teams.
Having forged its reputation as something of an playground for grown ups over the past 50 years or so, the Nevada city has seen considerable investment arrive in recent years to make it into a mecca of sport. An NFL team arrived in the form of the Las Vegas Raiders, an NHL team in the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Formula One is to host races there from next year.
It is seen as fertile ground to build successful franchises moving forward, and with a $3bn entertainment complex on the horizon that includes plans for an 'NBA ready' arena, it is a market that is gearing itself up for a basketball team at the elite level.
James, whose place as one of the sport's all-time greats has seen him transcend the sport into popular culture, has long expressed his wish to own an NBA team. His ties with FSG go back to 2011 when he took a two per cent stake in Liverpool as part of a deal for FSG's Fenway Sports Management to take charge of his off-court affairs. He accreted that stake into one per cent of FSG in March 2021 at the same time RedBird arrived on the scene in a $750m deal for 11 per cent of the Reds' owners.
James, FSG, RedBird and Nike, where James is their star client, all have a simpatico relationship and if the 37-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star is to achieve his dream of running a team in the near future it will almost certainly be done through FSG.
James, who would have to call time on his career before embarking on any ownership journey, addressed Silver directly in a press conference in Vegas last week after appearing for the Lakers in a pre-season game against the Suns at the T-Mobile Arena.
He said: "I would love to bring a team here at some point. That would be amazing. I know Adam is in Abu Dhabi right now, I believe. But he probably sees every single interview and transcript that comes through from NBA players.
"So, I want the team here, Adam. Thank you."
Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has said in the past that FSG see an opportunity in the NBA but stopped short of declaring where their intentions were to land a team.
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