Hate Vegas hockey right now? They might get an NBA team

Denver sports fans aren’t liking Las Vegas right now after the Golden Knights swept the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final — and brace yourselves, Mile High City, because a sister team we’ll probably hate just as much could be on the way. Paradise’s hockey ownership group is working on landing an NBA expansion team.

Per Forbes’ Evan Sidery this week, Golden Knights owner Bill Foley plans to soon submit a bid for an NBA expansion team, a package that would include over $300 million in renovations to T-Mobile Arena. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights are in their third Stanley Cup Final in just nine years of existence. So the Avs’ house of horrors could be getting a face lift which makes it a possible sad spot for the Denver Nuggets, too. Though, at least DU just won a national championship in that house.

Another path has already been floated — the proposed “Las Vegas Diamond Arena,” a 21,000-plus seat venue on the south end of the Strip near the A’s incoming MLB stadium, targeted as a home for a future NBA expansion team in 2028, per the Review-Journal. The concept video shows parking for private jets, so it’s a bit far out.

Las Vegas Diamond Arena hype vid https://t.co/SBaT2FGZl5 pic.twitter.com/5irGzPEf3V

— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) April 21, 2026

The NBA and Vegas already go way back. Sin City has hosted NBA Summer League every year since 2004, basically the league’s unofficial offseason capital with international exhibitions and Team USA games there as well. It also hosts NBA Cup finale. Over the years there’s been countless Lakers games and a few other teams have played there, too like the Jazz.

If Foley pulls this off, Vegas — a city that didn’t have a single major pro franchise a decade ago — would house teams in all four major North American sports: NFL (Raiders), NHL (Golden Knights), MLB (A’s, incoming) and NBA.

The Knights already broke our hearts. The Raiders are big time Broncos rivals. MLB expansion/realignment could shift the A’s into the Rockies division. Adding an NBA team in Vegas means the Nuggets could complete the four-pack of having Vegas to hate. New York has Boston, Los Angeles has San Francisco, Dallas has Houston and so forth — Denver could soon find itself with a real cross-sport city rival.

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