What (and who) league expansion is for

Geography is an important on-ramp to dedicated, long-term, sometimes generational fandom. And in a pro sports league, fans are customers.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Dawn in the Hills; Julian Onderdonk; 1922

Howard Beck is one of the most thoughtful Big Topic writers in the NBA, and has been for a long time. He’s currently at The Ringer, and he wrote their lead piece for the site’s week of content around potential NBA expansion. The primary thrust of Beck’s thorough, well-researched piece is that expansion might be bad for the league, and NBA power brokers might be having cold feet.

There’s a ton to chew on here, including a deep discussion of whether the NBA star pool is really much deeper now than the last time the league grew and what talent dilution would look like. There are debates to be had in these details. But the question I kept coming back to while reading Beck’s piece is this: what is the purpose of expanding a sports league?

More money, of course. Duh. But how does expansion make for more money? By opening new markets. Building new fandoms. (Or in the case of Seattle, reanimating a murdered fandom.) Bringing new people to the sport, the league, the live experience.

There are 4 million people in Metro Seattle. There are 3 million people in the Las Vegas market. Metro Mexico City is a staggering 22 million people. With expansion instead of relocation, to set up shop in one of these markets is to directly grow the NBA’s core local audience. Sure, there are already activated NBA fans in Seattle, Las Vegas and CdM, just as there are in Kansas City, Hampton Roads, Nashville, Vancouver, Montreal, St. Louis and Des Moines. But geography still plays a major role in locking in generational fandoms, and helping those fans part with more money to attend games, wear gear as is local custom and support team sponsors (consciously or not).