Seattle basketball fans have been burned enough times to be suspicious of good news. This one is worth paying attention to anyway.
Exploratory talks are underway about building a new arena near Marysville, Washington, involving a second bidder for a potential Seattle franchise and the Tulalip Tribes, according to Christian Clark and John Hollinger of The Athletic.
BlackSun Private Equity submitted a bid in August to bring the NBA back to Seattle, and the plan involves housing the franchise on tribal-owned land.
The partnership is further along than you would expect
BlackSun’s chief global strategy and communications officer, Nick Rathod, described the arrangement bluntly, saying the Tulalip Tribes and BlackSun are “100 percent partnering” on the project.
That is stronger language than these situations usually produce this early. Arena talk in Seattle has been a cottage industry for eighteen years, and most of it has been vague enthusiasm with no site attached. A named partner and a specific location is a meaningful step past that.
Marysville sits roughly 35 miles north of downtown Seattle, which is a real distance. Whether a franchise branded around Seattle can succeed in Snohomish County is a fair question, and it is the obvious weakness in the proposal.
There is a competing bid
BlackSun is not alone. One Roof Sports and Entertainment, which owns the majority stake in the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, is also pursuing ownership of a Seattle NBA franchise.
That group has an obvious advantage. It already operates a modern arena at Climate Pledge, it already runs a professional franchise in the market, and it does not need to build anything. If the NBA is picking on execution risk alone, One Roof wins that comparison easily.
Which makes the BlackSun and Tulalip approach interesting rather than favored. They are offering something different: a purpose-built arena, tribal partnership, and presumably a revenue structure that does not require sharing a building.
The league opened the door in March
The NBA Board of Governors approved a plan in March to explore adding two franchises, with Seattle and Las Vegas as the obvious targets. That approval was for exploration, not expansion, and the distinction matters. The league has explored things before and done nothing.
But the economics have changed. Reported expansion fees now run into the range of $7 billion to $10 billion per team, and the new media deal makes the math work for existing owners in a way it never did before.
Do not celebrate yet
Nearly two decades have passed since the Sonics left for Oklahoma City. In that time, Seattle fans have been through multiple arena proposals, a failed Sacramento Kings purchase, and years of league officials saying encouraging things at press conferences.
The needle is moving. It has moved before. Buy the jersey when the schedule comes out.
Sources
- https://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/notable-update-emerges-possible-seattle-nba-franchise-comeback/769104
- https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7564250/2026/09/04/nba-seattle-expansion-bid-blacksun-tulalip-tribes/
- https://www.nba.com/news/nba-board-of-governors-exploration-seattle-las-vegas-expansion
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
