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December 18, 2025

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Adam Silver addressed major decisions ahead, offering a clearer timeline for NBA expansion and possibly stepping closer to the WNBA’s ongoing CBA talks.

— Alex Schiffer [[link removed]], Annie Costabile [[link removed]], and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

NBA Will Finally Decide on Expansion Next Year [[link removed]]

Jeremy O'Brien/Front Office Sports

Adam Silver’s long-awaited promise to expand the league is finally coming into focus. For years, the NBA commissioner has talked about adding two teams, but the arbitrary deadline of a new media-rights deal [[link removed]] came and went without expansion. Then a flurry of team sales this year caused further delay. Now, it looks like 2026 will finally be the year the league makes it happen.

“We’re in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams,” Silver said Tuesday night. “Sometime in 2026 we’ll make a determination.”

It’s the most explicit Silver has been about an expansion decision in a year when the league has seemed to flip-flop on adding teams.

Three team sales this year kept expansion talks on ice because the rising team valuations would have increased the cost of an expansion bid. When the Celtics sold in March to Bill Chisholm for $6.1 billion [[link removed]] it was the largest sale of a North American sports franchise. Then the Lakers sold in June to Dodgers owner Mark Walter for $10 billion [[link removed]]; and the Trail Blazers sold in August to Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon for more than $4 billion [[link removed]].

“As I’ve said before, domestic expansion … is selling equity in this current league,” Silver said. “If you own 1/30 of this league, now you own 1/32 if you add two teams. So it’s a much more difficult economic analysis. In many ways, it requires predicting the future.”

Earlier this summer, Silver acknowledged both the desire for expansion and the challenges that come with trying to serve fans everywhere. “ We recognize there are underserved markets [[link removed]] in the United States and elsewhere,” he said. “And I think markets that deserve to have NBA teams, probably even, if we were to expand, more than we can serve.”

In July at Summer League, Silver cited the “ broken model [[link removed]]” with the league’s regional sports networks as another hurdle for expansion saying it “ would be malpracticing [[link removed]]” to give two new markets teams without figuring out how fans can watch games.

And in September, Silver said rising team valuations are another hurdle for expansion despite the same factor previously being used as a reason to support it. “ It’s a high-class problem [[link removed]], but some of the recent jumps in franchise valuations sort of created some confusion in the marketplace about how you might even price an expansion franchise,” Silver said.

The question remains of where two new NBA teams could land. Both Seattle [[link removed]] and Las Vegas have been floated, but Silver made clear that the league is considering other markets as well.

“I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we’re somehow teasing these markets, because I know we’ve been talking about it for a while,” Silver said.

With Stateside expansion finally coming into view, the league is also eyeing opportunities abroad.

Many of the league’s current stars hail from Europe, and the NBA has partnered with FIBA for an international league. Silver went to Europe this summer with deputy commissioner Mark Tatum exploring cities and meeting with teams and politicians to discuss a new league on the continent with cities such as London, Paris, and Madrid being considered as potential markets.

At the Front Office Sports Tuned In event in September, Silver said the goal is to launch the league within the next “two to three years,” but pointed to European arena infrastructure and regulatory issues as hurdles the league is currently working through.

“I would say we’re casting a very, very wide net right now and essentially saying to anyone who’s interested, come see our bankers, explain to us why you’re interested, how you view the opportunity, what resources you would put behind opening a team,” Silver explained on Tuesday. “And then we’re taking all that information back, and then I think sometime in late January … we’ll be in a position to have more serious conversations with those interested parties.”

After years of mixed messaging, 2026 could be the year Silver expands the NBA—both domestically and abroad.

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Adam Silver Says He Could Join WNBA CBA Negotiations [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has a lot on his plate.

Roughly eight weeks into the season, he’s already facing a gambling scandal [[link removed]], an investigation into the Clippers for alleged salary-cap circumvention, and the league’s potential future [[link removed]] in Europe.

On Tuesday night, Silver vowed to take on another high-level item on his to-do list: the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement.

“We’re available to do whatever is necessary to help get a deal done,” Silver said ahead of the Knicks’ NBA Cup win over the Spurs. “I’m encouraged by the fact they extended the deadline once again into January. Presumably the sides wouldn’t have been willing to do that unless they thought there was a constructive path to getting a deal done.”

Later in his nearly two-minute-long answer Silver said, “I remain optimistic we’ll get something done.”

The WNBA and WNBPA are more than a year into negotiations for a new “transformational” CBA and coming up on a Jan. 9 deadline, the result of a second extension. As both sides continue to exchange proposals—with sources telling Front Office Sports meetings are taking place almost daily—players are not feeling as hopeful as Silver.

During a three-day USA Basketball camp at Duke last weekend, the WNBPA’s first vice president Kelsey Plum used the word “ disheartening [[link removed]]” to characterize the state of negotiations. On a call with reporters Wednesday, three-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart took Plum’s sentiments a step further.

“More often than not we’re the ones that are willing to compromise and they still aren’t budging,” Stewart, who also serves as a vice president on the union’s executive committee, said. “So if they are not going to budge, we’re going to get to this point where we’re going to be at a standoff. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

The salary model has remained the crux of both sides’ discontent.

Earlier this month a WNBA proposal included a $1 million max base salary, according to multiple sources familiar with negotiations. In addition, the league proposed a revenue-sharing model that would give players 50% of a revenue metric that would not include all revenue and would have some expenses deducted. Under this proposed model, players would end up receiving less than 15% of the league’s total revenue, these same sources said.

The salary cap would increase from $1.5 million to $5 million under the league’s latest proposal, bringing the average salary to about $417,000. Projected earnings with the league’s proposed revenue-sharing model factored in would push the average to more than $500,000 and the max over $1.2 million.

The union has since countered with a proposal seeking roughly 30% of all team and league revenue, sources familiar with negotiations confirmed to FOS.

“What we’re doing right now isn’t really getting us anywhere,” Stewart said. “If that means Adam and Mark need to come to the table, we’re more than happy to have that,” she said, referring to Silver and deputy NBA commissioner Mark Tatum.

In addition to swapping economic proposals, the union has also proposed that teams be permitted to add two developmental players. WNBA coaches and executives have been vocal in their support of expanded rosters, including during competition meetings in November.

Erasing the core designation was another non-salary proposal made by the WNBPA, along with improved parental leave for non-birthing parents, reimbursement for mental health care costs, and improved staffing requirements.

“We know as players how important it is to play and to be on the court,” Stewart said. “But at the same time, if we’re not going to be valued the way that we know we should be, in the way that every kind of number situation tells us, then we’re just not going to do something that doesn’t make sense.”

Separate Group of 6 Playoff? Bowl Season Organizers Would Support It [[link removed]]

The Montgomery Advertiser

As debate continues around the future makeup of the College Football Playoff [[link removed]] and how that impacts traditional postseason bowl games, the place of non-power conferences in this new era has come into the spotlight.

Despite two teams outside the Power 4 conferences (Tulane and James Madison) earning automatic CFP bids [[link removed]] this season, one idea continues to be brought up: a separate playoff for non-power conferences.

Traditionally, there have been five of those leagues, but with the Pac-12 relaunching [[link removed]] with mostly non-power teams next year after more realignment, there will now be a clear “Group of 6” outside the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC: the American Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West, Pac-12, and Sun Belt.

Group of 6 Tournament?

Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli, whose organization oversees the scheduling of bowl games, tells Front Office Sports that bowl game operators would support facilitating a Group of 6 playoff.

“We’re in constant dialogue with all the conferences and the consistent message is: We are here to serve the game of college football, like we have for a long, long time,” Carparelli says. “So, if the Group of 6 were to want to put together a series of bowl games that determine some type of champion, in their group, we would be excited to be a part of that conversation.”

Carparelli believes providing neutral postseason sites, like most other NCAA sports have, is paramount. “When you get to that level, having a competitively fair, neutral site environment is very important,” he says.

Meetings between the 10 FBS conferences and Bowl Season execs about the 2026 landscape and beyond will take place sometime after the Jan. 20 CFP national championship game.

Dealing With Opt-Outs

Carparelli has not spoken with anyone from Notre Dame about the school opting out of Bowl Season [[link removed]] after missing out on the CFP, but he plans to eventually. “There were a lot of emotions going on there,” he says. “They handled their decision with the ACC, of which they’re part of their bowl lineup. So, I was respectful of that process. And I have not wanted to speak to them directly just yet, because I think it’s still a little bit raw and emotional, but time will come for that for sure.”

Kansas State and Iowa State were fined $500,000 each by the Big 12 for turning down bowl invites amid coaching changes. There are three 5–7 teams competing in bowl games this postseason, after multiple games struggled to attract participants.

“Certainly we have a lot to talk about in the offseason with our conference partners,” Carparelli says. “No one wants to force anyone to go to a bowl game if they don’t want to.”

Attracting Fans a “Challenge”

There are 43 bowl games this season, including CFP matchups, the same number as last year [[link removed]], when the 36 non-CFP game broadcasts averaged 2.7 million viewers, up 14% from the prior season.

Total bowl game attendance has hovered around 1.5 million in recent seasons, and Carparelli admits attracting fans to games “continues to be a challenge.” On Saturday, the Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk, featuring Washington and Boise State, drew an announced attendance of 23,269 at the 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium.

Nine bowl games have different branding this season. Three changed title sponsors, four added sponsors, the New Orleans Bowl lost its sponsor, and the Xbox Bowl in Frisco, Texas, has replaced the Bahamas Bowl.

SPONSORED BY AT&T BUSINESS

The WNBA and WNBPA agreed to a second extension of their current collective bargaining agreement just minutes before the first extension expired Sunday night. The CBA now runs through Jan. 9, 2026. [[link removed]]

The league initially proposed a 21-day extension, while the union countered with six weeks on Nov. 30, the day the original CBA was set to expire, a source told Front Office Sports. Both sides ultimately agreed to extend the agreement by nearly six weeks. As with the previous extension, either party can opt out with 48 hours’ notice.

Despite meeting consistently over the past month— including through the holiday weekend [[link removed]]—the league and union have yet to make sufficient progress to ratify a new CBA.

Check out the women’s sports content hub [[link removed]], presented by AT&T, to read the full story [[link removed]] and stay up to date on all things women’s sports.

Conversation Starters Lakers center Deandre Ayton’s mother prepared a full Jamaican meal [[link removed]] for the holidays for the entire team. Andrea Ayton made curry mutton, jerk chicken, fried chicken, oxtail, and rice and peas. Shaquille O’Neal gave presents to 600 kids as part of his annual Shaq-a-Claus [[link removed]]. He provided kids with winter coats, backpacks, shoes, toys, and more. A Warriors fan emailed owner Joe Lacob [[link removed]] about his issues with the team. He got a response 2 minutes later: “You can’t be as frustrated as me. I am working on it.” Editors’ Picks MLB Succession Questions Rise With Manfred Confidant’s Departure [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]A key executive in the commissioner’s office will leave at year’s end. Ohio Fires Football Coach for ‘Serious Professional Misconduct’ [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]The university hasn’t said what Smith did to get fired. Question of the Day

Should the Group of 6 form its own playoff?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Wednesday’s result: 97% of respondents think Arch Manning made the right decision by staying at Texas.

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