Should the NBA finally look into its much anticipated expansion, expect that Mexico City will be included on the shortlist.
As told by NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum to ESPN and Andscape’s Marc J. Spears, Mexico City is a valid candidate given its world-class facility of Arena CDMX and the short travel it can offer for teams.
“Expansion is currently not on the docket, but at some point, if we were to turn to expansion, there’s no doubt that Mexico City would have to be one the cities that would be in consideration along with a host of other very big and relevant cities in North America,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum told Spears. “One of the biggest challenges around international expansion has always been the travel issues, the facility issues. But there is a world-class facility in Mexico City in Arena CDMX, which is where we’ve been playing our games and our global games in Mexico. And that’s actually the home of the G League team, the Capitanes. And so that’s not an issue.
“And the travel is not an issue. It’s a pretty short flight for several of our teams, particularly our Texas teams, our Florida teams, our New Orleans team. Arizona actually is a pretty short flight. So, those are all the kinds of things that we would take into consideration, and for those reasons you’d have to consider it. But again, I’d say it’s not immediately on the docket right now.”
There hasn’t been an NBA team outside the United States and Canada, but there are plenty of reasons why Mexico City is a reasonable area to dwell for an expansion as noted by Spears: being the sixth largest city in the world, Arena CDMX, the interest of the NBA, and the nationwide support of Mexico and Latin America.
As such, there were concerns of safety around the city, but Tatum and several G League officials downplayed it. The likes of Mexico City Capitanes’ Jahlil Okafor and ex-player Eduardo Najera have been supportive of the campaign of bringing an NBA franchise down in the area.
Seattle and Las Vegas are the cities that are frequently being rumored as potential landing spots of an NBA expansion.