SEATTLE – Samantha Holloway is staying hopeful about the potential of NBA expansion and the return of the SuperSonics even as the process has dragged on and likely won’t reach a conclusion for a bit longer.

Holloway, the owner and managing partner of One Roof Sports and Entertainment that includes the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena as part of its portfolio, spoke Tuesday at the VenuesNow Conference taking place in Seattle and said their group is ready for whenever the NBA makes its decision on whether to expand.

“What I can say is that I’m hopeful and I think Seattle is really ready for a team. Obviously, we’re ready. The building is ready. The fans are ready,” Holloway said during a fireside chat that was one of the main sessions on the first day of the conference. “This has the opportunity to weave people together in a way that hasn’t happened before at a time when it’s really needed. And so we’re really excited about it. The NBA has said they’ll sort it out by the end of the year, and I hope that they do and I’m hopeful about it, but time will tell.”

Holloway has been mostly quiet when commenting on anything related to the NBA since the league announced in March that it was focused only on Seattle and Las Vegas as potential expansion possibilities. One Roof has been the primary publicly known bid related to Seattle and is the favorite to land the expansion bid should the league approve expansion.

Following the latest NBA owners’ meetings earlier this month in New York, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reiterated that the goal is to make a final decision before the end of the calendar year. There are more questions about the situation in Las Vegas because of multiple bidders and arena uncertainty than there is in Seattle, creating an expectation that decisions need to be made about what happens in Vegas before a final decision is made about Seattle.

During Tuesday’s event, Holloway was asked what the return of the Sonics would mean to the city.

“There’s a whole generation of people who grew up going to Sonics games who have it in their heart that this is going to happen and it will change their lives. And then there’s a whole generation of people who didn’t, and they still want the Sonics back, and they still wear the gear and they still are excited at what it could be,” Holloway said.

“It’s interesting because I think there are quite high expectations for what that return will look like in a different way than we had with the Kraken, where people were super excited, but nobody knew what to expect. So it could be different to execute upon, but an exciting challenge and something we hope we get to do.”

The next step in the NBA process is a bit unknown at this point. A second round of bids related to the Las Vegas expansion franchise were due a couple of weeks ago. But expansion is a lingering item on the horizon that some NBA executives are already starting to consider.

Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti, who was the GM when the team was still in Seattle before it’s relocation, spoke last week about how unique it could be to add these two cities to the league’s portfolio.

“It’s a sign of growth and especially, I don’t know many leagues that when they choose to expand, that they feel it’s necessary, that can add cities of this caliber to their stable of teams,” Presti told reporters in Oklahoma City about Las Vegas and Seattle. “Which I think is part of this opportunity that is pretty remarkable for Adam and the team of people he has working on these things.”