By Joe Vardon / The Athletic
An Uber driver picked up a rider behind a crowded basketball arena where an NBA game had just ended.
He traversed dark alleys on the outskirts of one of the largest, most congested cities in the world. He drove over curbs, slowed to a crawl to avoid damage from large potholes and, at one point, stopped the car, threw it in reverse and turned a corner backward.
The zigging and zagging ended on a main thoroughfare 2 miles ahead of the massive traffic jam in front of Mexico City Arena. The 6-mile ride to the hotel, situated in the affluent Polanco neighborhood, where the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards were staying for their game, took 46 minutes.
Nick Lagios was not so lucky. Lagios, an American who once worked for the Los Angeles Lakers, is the general manager for one of the two major professional basketball teams based in Mexico City. He hopped in a taxi in the stalled parade of cars after the game. He was also headed to Polanco, where he lives, but it took him three hours to get home.
“Coming and going at this arena, especially if it’s crowded, is an absolute traffic disaster,” Lagios said.
If the NBA eventually puts a team in Mexico City, which the league commissioner, Adam Silver, has said is possible, it would be because of the massive potential of the market, including the ability to draw a crowd. And while postgame traffic is far from unusual after an NBA game, 41 home dates of gridlock like this are only one reason to question whether a league expansion to Mexico is viable.
There are plenty of other factors for the league to take into account: the overcrowding; a complicated geography, which could make building a new arena difficult; and the socioeconomics of the world’s fifth-largest city.
On Nov. 2, the night the Heat and Wizards played in Mexico City, Silver bumped into Ted Leonsis, owner of the Wizards, at the arena.
“The first thing he said to me was, we should have a team in Mexico City,” Silver said.
In an interview here, Silver acknowledged that American cities like Las Vegas and Seattle would most likely get an NBA team before Mexico City and that potential expansion south of the U.S. border was probably “many years off.” But he also said expanding to Mexico City would be “more additive because we would be flipping a switch” in a massive, receptive market.
The NBA held its first exhibition game in Mexico City in 1992. Since then, there have been 32 more regular-season or exhibition games in the city. In 2022, the Mexico City Capitanes began playing G League home games in Mexico.
The arena where the Heat and Wizards played, and where the Capitanes have home games, was built for $300 million and opened in 2012. Around that time, the Maloof family was looking to move the Sacramento Kings, and Robert Hernreich, who held a minority stake in the Kings, pushed the family and David Stern, the NBA commissioner at the time, to consider Mexico City. Hernreich said he even accompanied league officials on a tour of the arena.
“I didn’t fight for it strong enough, and I should have,” said Hernreich, who remembers Stern telling him, “Bobby, look elsewhere. We’re not going to do Mexico City.’”
Under Silver, that tune has changed.
Mexico City is the largest city in North America, with a population of 22 million. Mexico has a population of 130 million and, according to the league’s own research, 32 million NBA fans, including 13 million fans ages 14 to 30.
The NBA has major offices in Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil. It counts more than 121 million fans across Latin America and the Caribbean, and considers Mexico one of its top-five markets for League Pass subscriptions.
Mexico City Arena is, by any accounting, an NBA-caliber venue. The concourses are spacious, the scoreboards jumbo, the sound system excellent and the locker rooms large enough. It also hosts major concerts.
“I think culturally, just watching the changes that we’ve seen, even over the 30 years that we’ve been playing games here, we went from sort of a novelty to a mainstream sport here,” Silver said. “If we were to bring an NBA franchise here, there’s no question it would ignite and accelerate the growth of the game.”
Yes, Mexico City has a traffic problem. According to anthropologist Lachlan Summers, who has studied it, residents of the city lose about 6.5 days per year stuck on the clogged highways and main streets. A separate study of Los Angeles traffic said commuters there lose about 3.5 days per year in traffic jams.
But the traffic issue, as it relates to the NBA’s setting up permanent residence in Mexico City, is more complex than too many cars on the road. It starts with the security of the millionaire players who would live in Mexico City for at least six months of the year.
According to Numbeo, a website that tracks crime rates internationally, Mexico City’s crime rate in mid-2024 of 67.7 crimes per 100,000 residents is the 32nd highest in the world. There were two NBA cities — Detroit and Memphis — with higher crime rates, and Milwaukee and New Orleans are 33rd and 34th on this list.
Mexico City is also poorer than major American cities. According to a 2022 study by the Mexican government, the average salary for a Mexico City resident fluctuates from $660 to $720 a month.
“When a lot of people think of Mexico, the first thing they think about is safety and things along the border,” said Lagios, who was general manager of the Capitanes for three years before taking a similar job with the Diablos Rojos of Mexico’s top pro basketball league. “But I think, as time goes on, I’d hear other teams were scared about coming here, and then they get here and they love it.”
That is partly because those visiting teams from the G League stay in Polanco. If an NBA team were to play in Mexico City Arena full time, Polanco would be the most likely option for players to live.
But on game nights, the 6-mile drive from the arena to Polanco can feel like a drive from Dallas to Houston. The arena is surrounded on three sides by a wall, and there are not many parking options other than the attached garage, which has, at most, two exits, which empty onto the same street.
Also, the neighborhood in which the arena is situated is dilapidated. Wealthy basketball players would be unlikely to move closer to the arena for a better commute — an issue that could extend to the paying customers.
“The people who can pay the cost of NBA tickets, they live far from the arena,” said Othon Díaz, CEO of all the Diablos Rojos’ sports teams. “The area is not the best place — like security, the streets are not so nice. You can go to a concert every three or four months, but four to six games a month? That’s a problem.”
It is a risky exercise to compare the Diablos Rojos or the Capitanes to a potential NBA team in Mexico City because they are playing minor league basketball. The two teams have enjoyed success but, for what it’s worth, neither is profitable yet.
The Diablos Rojos play their basketball games in the 5,000-seat arena where the 1968 Olympic tournament was held in Mexico City. Alfredo Harp Helú, who owns the Diablos Rojos and is a part owner of the San Diego Padres, and his son, Santiago, 24, vice president of the Diablos Rojos’ board, want to build a new arena — not only for the Diablos Rojos, but perhaps for an NBA or WNBA team.
The Capitanes practice at the Mexican Olympic Committee’s old facility, which is well below NBA standards. An NBA or WNBA team would need a practice facility too.
“Mexico City needs a new arena,” Santiago Harp said. He added, “I’m really excited to just have a nice arena.”
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