More anything? More everything!
The popular sports leagues realize that greater inventory leads to greater revenue. And the NBA is moving toward adding more games by adding more teams.
Shams Charania of ESPN reports that the NBA will explore adding expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle at meetings scheduled for later this month. They’d join the league in 2028, and expansion fees could land in the range of $7 billion to $10 billion.
Expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle would increase the number of NBA teams from 30 to 32.
The NFL is surely paying close attention. For now, the effort to increase the total number of games focuses on expanding the regular season from 17 games to 18 (which would increase the length of the regular season from 272 games to 288). And while that could be followed by a push for 19 (and then 20), another way to grow the total number of games is to add teams.
With two more teams and an 18-game season, that’s 18 more games (306 total). With four more teams, it’s another 18 games (324 total).
From 256 games under a 16-game, 32-team slate to 324 with 18 and 36. Push it all the way to 40 teams, and it’s 342.
The maximum potential number, which probably won’t happen in my lifetime but could in yours (depending on your age and health) would be 40 teams and 20 games per team. That’s 400 games — a 144-game increase over the 256 that were played through 2020.
Given the league’s ongoing international obsession, the long-term play could entail a four-team European division in one conference and a four-team Pacific division in the other. That also could include reconfiguring the conferences from American and National to East and West.
In the East would be (based on simple geography) the Bills, Patriots, Jets, Dolphins, Steelers, Ravens, Eagles, Giants, Commanders, Panthers, Buccaneers, Jaguars, Titans, Falcons, Browns, Bengals, and the European division. In the West would be the Lions, Bears, Packers, Vikings, Cowboys, Texans, Saints, Colts, Chiefs, Broncos, Cardinals, Rams, Chargers, 49ers, Raiders, Seahawks, and the Pacific division.
It sounds a little ridiculous on the surface, I know. But these changes would be made eventually, working toward something that would in time be regarded as inevitable.
For now, the one thing that is inevitable is more. And more will keep happening until there’s no more left. The absolute ceiling is 20 and 40. The question is whether it happens in closer to 20 than 40 years.
