Adam Silver confirms NBA will consider expansion to Mexico City, but doing so

Expansion has been a back-burner issue for the NBA for quite some time. The league hasn’t added a new team since the Charlotte Bobcats, now Hornets, were born in 2004. Since then, the league has focused on maximizing its existing markets, but with revenue hitting all-time highs and the league bursting with enough talent to support more franchises, the idea has been discussed more frequently over the last several years. While Las Vegas and Seattle are frequently considered the next two cities in line for teams, NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed another possibility Saturday before the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs played in Mexico City.

“There’s no doubt we will be looking seriously at Mexico City over time,” Silver told reporters while acknowledging that the league is currently focused on negotiating new media rights deals as well as a collective bargaining agreement. He cited some of the logistical concerns that have arisen with NBA teams in Canada as a possible roadblock, but said that Mexico City is “doing all the things necessary to demonstrate to the league that ultimately we may be position to house an NBA team here.” He cited the city’s population, the existence of a state-of-the-art facility and existing fan support as reasons why such a team would make sense while also claiming that he believes it is the NBA’s “manifest destiny” to continue growing outside of the United States.

On paper, Mexico City offers quite a bit to the NBA as a possible expansion market. Its most notable trait is its enormous population. Recent estimates suggest there are roughly nine million people in Mexico City, which would make it the most populous city in not only the NBA, but all of North American professional sports. The nation of Mexico as a whole is roughly 130 million, and the NBA would surely hope that a team in Mexico City could represent the entire country as the Raptors do for Canada. As the NBA continues to focus on growing the game internationally, it would likely love the opportunity to give 130 possible fans a team to root for.

Mexico City Arena meets pretty much every criterion for an NBA building. It was opened in 2012, making it relatively new, and seats 22,300 fans. Without another team as a tenant, it would not come with the same scheduling difficulties that many other NBA arenas face, as basketball teams frequently share buildings with franchises in the NHL.

But for every positive, there is a major question mark. The biggest immediate question would be how players would adjust to the city’s elevation. Mexico City is 7,349 feet above sea level. That’s more than 2,000 feet higher than Denver, the NBA team currently at the highest altitude. Playing at higher altitudes requires better conditioning, and teams like the Nuggets and Jazz, which do so regularly, have always had strong home-court advantages because of it. While the NBA has played…