NBA Expansions in 2026: 32 Team League and the Bold European League Plan

We have a month to go before the 2026 NBA playoffs begin, the volume on futures bets are piling up, and the Thunder have emerged as strong favorites to win – ahead of the Celtics, Spurs, Nuggets, Cavaliers and Knicks. March Madness is in full swing, and it is projected to exceed $3.3 billion in betting volume, shattering records and yet drawing controversy at the same time. But the big news that is sweeping the headlines is not based on the ongoing tournaments, but two potential expansions of the NBA.

The more realistic expansion is the 32-team league structure, which is going to be put to voting this month, and we will soon learn whether or not the NBA will feature teams from Las Vegas and potentially Seattle, Washington, from 2028 onwards. Another expansion that is being mulled behind the scenes is the NBA’s European League. What started as a speculative experiment is now gaining major traction by NBA and FIBA officials. The NBA wants to move into Europe, and major European club franchises have until the end of this month to bid for a license, which could give us the clearest indication of how that would potentially look.

NBA 32-Team Expansion

These ideas have been in the pipeline for a while now, but soon we will know more about how, and if, they can be practically implemented. The NBA 32 expansion was first floated back in 2024, with Commissioner Adam Silver stating there was a possibility of a Las Vegas team candidate. In 2025, a more palpable direction was given, with Silver announcing that in 2026 it would be put to a vote, which now we know will happen between March 24 and 25.

This meeting will involve the Board of Governors of the NBA, discussing behind closed doors about the possibility of expanding the NBA again. The last NBA expansion happened back in 2004, when the Charlotte Bobcats – now the Charlotte Hornets – were added to the league, taking the number of NBA teams up from 29 to a round 30.

The Bold Move for a European League

The other expansion, the NBA Europe League, is something a lot more ambitious. It needs more permissions, more investment, and there is a much bigger risk of failure. For anyone who remembers – it has a whiff of the NFL Europe project, which took off in the late 1980s, and only ran until 2007, failing to bring football to European audiences. That experiment cost the NFL around $30 million a year, and what was meant to be an alternative European football league – potentially a development league for up and coming talents to enter into the US market – crashed and has seemingly vanished from history.

But the difference here is that the NBA wouldn’t be bringing a completely new sport to Europe. It would just be adding a super league, if you like, that would compete with the current EuroBasket and EuroLeague competitions.

Going Into More Detail

Both these expansions have been circulated in the news recently, with the NBA 32 team expansion being put up for review in the Board of Governors, and the NBA Europe setting a deadline of March 31 for potential clubs.

It is all happening at an exciting time, right before the playoffs being and during what could be the biggest March Madness by sports betting handle, with a projected $3.3 billion target in sight.

Potential New Teams for the NBA

Should the governors approve the historic 13th expansion in NBA history (6th in modern NBA since 1976 ABA merger), then the big name going around among the candidates is Las Vegas. Famous for its landbased casinos along the Strip and reputation as Sin City, Las Vegas has seen a recent boom in sports. It began with the 2017 NHL expansion franchise, the Vegas Gold Knights. The ice hockey team, located in the middle of the Nevada desert, were not just an auxiliary midtable team, but actually wnet on to win the Stanley Cup Final in 2023. This was no publicity stunt, but an actual growth into sports, and it was the first of many.

The Utah Starzz relocated from San Antonio to Las Vegas, bringing the WNBA to Sin City, and in 2020 the Oakland Raiders moved to Las Vegas, signalling Vegas’ branch out into the NFL. Another move in the pipeline is the Oakland Athletics of the MLB moving to Vegas, which is expected to happen by 2028. And in the meantime, we have also seen Las Vegas F1 races. So Vegas is a very real contender for the NBA expansion, and if they can bag the Oakland Athletics too it will mean that Nevada will become one of just 11 states that has a franchise in all four major leagues.

The other name on the board is Seattle, Washington. Since the Seattle SuperSonics left the league in 2008, because of a dispute with the KeyArena lease, Seattle has been left without a major NBA team. They have a historical claim to the extra NBA expansion franchise, having hosted an NBA team from 1967 up to 2008, and Seattle would be a pretty confident choice. It has the infrastructure, a receptive fan base, and is seen as a forerunner in this race, alongside Vegas.

The other names in the hat are Mexico City – a first for a US major league – and Vancouver in BC. From a betting angle, this isn’t just a long-term headline, it has immediate implications. Expansion fees are expected to run into the billions, talent would be redistributed through an expansion draft, and within 2–3 seasons, you’re looking at a completely reshaped competitive landscape.

Can the NBA Break Europe?

The NBA Europe League is a fundamentally different type of expansion, and one that could backfire in a big way. The main obstacle here is that Europe already has a big club league – the EuroLeague Basketball. This features clubs from all over Europe competing in a two tier system (EuroLeague and EuroCup). These are run by the EuroLeague Basketball, but there are unofficial alternatives – the Basketball Champions League (3rd tier) and the FIBA Europe Cup (4th tier), which are run by FIBA Europe.

FIBA is the global governing body for basketball, which runs the major international events such as the FIBA World Cup, Olympic games, and other tournaments that feature national teams. Think of it like FIFA for soccer. EuroLeague Basketball, on the other hand, is a private organization that runs the EuroLeague, with FIBA holding no power over that contest.

So that is why it is so controversial that FIBA and the NBA have partnered up and are planning to launch their own contest by 2027, which would jeopardize the integrity (and prestige too) of the EuroLeague. In soccer terms, this is not too dissimilar from the European Super League that was discussed after the pandemic, when a handful of top European clubs wanted to break away from the UEFA tournaments (Champions League, Europa League and Conference League) to create a competition of their own.

Not that we are comparing the two, but the political circumstances are eerily similar. Also, it would bring up tensions about the schedules, club/player participation, and create competing markets for fan viewership.

What we know about this NBA Europe League is that the deadline for the license applications is on March 31. And while there are no officially confirmed teams, there have been links with the Spanish giants Real Madrid Baloncesto, FC Barcelona Basquet, and other major European franchises such as Bayern Munich, Alba Berlin, ASVEL Basket, Paris Saint-Germain, Panathinaikos, Olimpia Milano, and Fenerbahce. The NBA is also cited to be targeting some English soccer clubs, such as Manchester United and Manchester City. English teams, which do not have basketball teams and represent a massive untapped market (think of all those historic English soccer clubs, and how none of them have basketball teams).

Timelines and Potential Outcomes

These announcements are just days away, and with the NBA 2 franchise expansion, we have precedents of this happening before, so it is a pretty straightforward procedure. Should the voters approve the expansion, then the two franchises could be formally awarded their positions in the next year to year and a half. With the two forerunners right now standing head and shoulders from the rest, it is probably going to happen sooner than later, and they will have ample time to get their affairs in order for the 2028 season. The chances of this happening are very likely, and while questions may be raised about how they fund the teams, their marketing, and details like where they will play, these can be ironed out with solid proposals in the coming year.

As for the NBA Europe League, the March deadline will indicate how much support the NBA, and FIBA, get from existing European clubs and interested parties without clubs yet. Should the NBA secure bids from at least 10 teams, including those in major cities such as Paris, Berlin, London, Barcelona and Madrid, it will have a clearer way forward. This would show intent to break away from the current system in Europe right now.

The middle ground here comprises numerous scenarios. In one, the NBA gets its major teams on board, but ends up creating a league that runs parallel to the existing European leagues. More fixtures and more games, it may take years to win the support of fans and get serious attention from the clubs involved. Another is that they move in and take those 3rd and 4th tiers, boosting the existing league structure but without disrupting the current state of affairs. The NBA won’t get its big league, but it will get a breakthrough for discovering new talent, and a safe shoe inside Europe.

The worst case scenario is that either the NBA doesn’t get any approvals and is forced to shut down this idea (or put it on hold forever like the European Super League). Or, they create a new league, with new teams (such as the English ones and invite mid-tier existing European clubs), and you get a league for teams that don’t play in any other league. An exclusive one that has little to no fanbase and the only marketing power behind the league is that it is affiliated to the NBA.

Ground needs to be treaded carefully with the NBA Europe League project, and backlash is practically inevitable. But learning from the mistakes of the European Super League and the NFL Europe, and the NBA may be able to make history with this controversial and unprecedented move.