Bill Foley has achieved a lot as the Vegas Golden Knights's principal owner. His team has made six Stanley Cup playoff appearances, four semifinal appearances, two Stanley Cup Final appearances, and a promise kept in 2023. That's an impressive resume for a hockey owner since 2017.
However, he has a new goal in mind for the upcoming years: Renovate T-Mobile Arena to bring in an NBA expansion team.
According to Alan Snel of LV Sports Biz, the Golden Knights owner wants to put in $300 worth of renovations to make T-Mobile Arena ready for a basketball team. He stated that building a new arena is a "waste of time" for a potential NBA team in Las Vegas.
"T-Mobile Arena is the perfect place for an NBA team to play. We have a plan in place to spend about $300 million to improve T-Mobile, add seats, add hospitality, add suites, in particular, and upgrade the park."Bill Foley to Amber Dixon (Vegas PBS)
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the NBA is eyeing Las Vegas for a potential expansion team. The league hosted its Annual All-Star Game in 2007 at the Thomas and Mack Center. T-Mobile Arena also hosts the NBA Emirates Cup for a second straight year, with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the inaugural event.
Bill Foley will have some stiff competition, though
While Foley's intentions to renovate T-Mobile Arena into a full-fledged sports arena, he'll have stiff competition for the venue.
The biggest competitor is the proposed venue on Blue Diamond Road, three miles south of Mandalay Bay. Arena builder Tim Leiweke hopes to build a $10 billion arena at this spot. If you're not familiar with him, he's the brother of Tod Leiweke of Seattle Kraken fame.
There's also the LVXP project, which sits at the former Wet N' Wild site. The complex would take 17 acres and consist of a trio of towers, a 6,000-foot grand theater, and a state-of-the-art stadium. The project would soar 15 feet past the Fontainebleau, making it one of the tallest structures in Las Vegas.
In a perfect world, Foley's idea would sound amazing. Save money and share an arena with an NBA team. Numerous cities are doing this, ranging from Los Angeles (Crypto.com Arena) to New York (Madison Square Garden) to Chicago (United Center). The Kings, Rangers, and Blackhawks are share venues with their NBA counterparts (Lakers, Knicks, Bulls), making them the go-to destination for big events.
However, money is king and a simple mention of $10 billion will sway any party. Look at what happened with the Athletics and the proposed MLB stadium at the old Tropicana Hotel. Anybody willing to bring money to Las Vegas (that is, if they have it) will be handsomely rewarded.
The Vegas Golden Knights owner has built a sterling reputation as an NHL owner, bringing a successful hockey team to the forefront. But the NBA prospects might prove to be too much, especially if that price tag gets extraordinarily high in the short term. That's a bigger problem for Foley, whose venue will face stiff competition for the Las Vegas dollar. That means he'll lose out on more events and money.