Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie are considering a bid for an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas, according to three people familiar with the league’s process.
The Walmart heiress would bring deep pockets and a local flavor to the Vegas expansion process. She and her husband live just outside Sin City in Henderson, Nev., and are worth $17.8 billion, according to Forbes.
A representative for Walton Laurie declined to comment, while PJT Partners, the bank the NBA hired in March to evaluate league expansion in Las Vegas and Seattle, did not respond to request to comment.
Monday is the deadline for interested parties to detail their sources of capital and management plans for a Las Vegas franchise.
“Multiple various, serious groups are in the process of presenting plans to our bankers,” commissioner Adam Silver told the press after the NBA’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.”
