The race for a Las Vegas NBA expansion franchise just got significantly wealthier. Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill Laurie are considering a bid for the Las Vegas expansion franchise, according to three people familiar with the league's process, as reported by Sportico on July 20, 2026.
Walton Laurie is the youngest daughter of Bud Walton, who co-founded retail giant Walmart with his brother, Sam. She and her husband live just outside Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada, and are worth $17.8 billion according to Forbes — making them among the wealthiest potential owners in NBA history.
Monday, July 21 was the deadline for interested parties to detail their sources of capital and management plans for a Las Vegas franchise to PJT Partners, the investment bank the NBA hired in March to evaluate expansion in Las Vegas and Seattle.
"Multiple various, serious groups are in the process of presenting plans to our bankers," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told the press after the league's latest Board of Governors meeting. "And those plans not only include who the potential owners would be, but their vision for what Las Vegas basketball could look like: where they would play, how they would present the game. And it's music to my ears."
This would not be the Lauries' first attempt at NBA ownership. The couple previously owned the NHL's St. Louis Blues, which they sold in 2006 to a group led by Dave Checketts for $150 million. Their previous efforts to acquire NBA teams in Denver (1999), Vancouver (2000), and Charlotte (2001) all fell short.
Walton Laurie's sister, Ann Walton Kroenke, is married to Stan Kroenke, who controls the world's most valuable sports empire with ownership of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, EPL's Arsenal, NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, and MLS' Colorado Rapids. The Walton family's deep ties to professional sports ownership make Nancy Walton Laurie a credible and formidable bidder.
Other known contenders for the Las Vegas franchise include a bid fronted by former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, and the Las Vegas Jacks group featuring Jerry Colangelo and Magic Johnson. The expansion fee is expected to land between $7 billion and $10 billion per team.