SEATTLE — Seattleites will once again have the chance to catch a National Basketball Association (NBA) preseason game in person next season.
The Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz will face off on October 10 at Climate Pledge Arena, the arena said in a tweet on Thursday.
It will be the second annual Rain City Showcase. In October 2022, Climate Pledge Arena hosted a preseason game between the Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Redmond-based Microsoft for 15 years. He tried to purchase the Seattle Supersonics before the franchise was relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, and he also led an effort to attempt to purchase the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle in 2013 before he purchased the Clippers in 2014.
When will Seattle get an NBA team?
Every time the Emerald City is mentioned in the same breath as the NBA, people ask when the league will bring a team back to the Pacific Northwest.
Part of the Climate Pledge Arena project included building a locker room with NBA specifications, likely in an attempt to pre-emptively welcome a new team.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is asked about expansion just about every time he steps in front of a microphone, and all indications are that Seattle will be among the front-runners to be awarded an expansion franchise when the time comes. However, the NBA plans to negotiate a new television contract in the spring of 2024, and the current crop of 30 owners has little incentive to add another team to the league and diminish the cut each team will receive from it.
Both the National Football League and National Hockey League have 32 franchises, and it would make sense that the NBA would increase to that number as well in the coming years. Seattle is the most common team associated with NBA expansion, with Las Vegas just behind it as a rapidly-expanding sports hub.
