A second group is developing a plan to bring an NBA expansion franchise back to Seattle, with BlackSun Private Equity partnering with the Tulalip Tribes on a proposed arena and entertainment district north of the city.
The Athletic reported Friday that BlackSun, a New York-based private equity firm that submitted a bid for an NBA franchise in August, is working with the Tulalip Tribes to build a new arena on tribal-owned land near Marysville, approximately 35 miles north of Seattle.
Nick Rathod, BlackSun’s chief global strategy and communications officer, confirmed the partnership to The Athletic and said the two groups are “100 percent partnering” on the project if the NBA selects their bid.
“Our hope is that the fans really are the drivers of this,” Rathod said. “Obviously, the NBA makes the final decision. But we want the fans to help make the decision here because we feel like our bid coming into this is different and the most compelling.”
The proposal adds a new arena option to Seattle’s expansion race at a time when the NBA is evaluating whether to add one, two or zero teams. The league is targeting the 2028-29 season for potential expansion and is expected to make a decision by the end of 2026.
Seattle is competing with Las Vegas as the leading potential expansion markets. The NBA has already conducted a second round of detailed submissions for Las Vegas, while Seattle has gone through one round, with sources indicating that the league could select a Las Vegas ownership group before turning to Seattle.
The Seattle field is also being affected by the expected sale of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, which could draw investor capital toward that transaction rather than an NBA expansion bid.
BlackSun’s proposal reportedly values an expansion franchise at $8.1 billion. That figure falls within the broader reported range of $7 billion to $10 billion for an NBA expansion fee, underscoring the financial scale of the league’s expansion process.
Rathod also emphasized the role of the Tulalip Tribes in BlackSun’s proposal and said the group wants to place the local community at the center of the project.
“We are coming in with the Tribes, who were the original inhabitants of that land,” Rathod said. “We want to center the local community and get feedback from the local community.”
If Seattle ultimately receives an expansion franchise, the return would also carry significant historical implications. The Oklahoma City Thunder currently retain the SuperSonics’ franchise history after the team relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008, but a new Seattle franchise would be expected to receive that history back.
The NBA Board of Governors is scheduled to meet in September, providing another important checkpoint in the expansion process. A formal expansion decision requires approval from 23 of the league’s 30 governors.
With BlackSun and the Tulalip Tribes now presenting a new arena and ownership proposal, Seattle has another contender seeking to convince the NBA that the SuperSonics should return.
