Another Las Vegas Sports Debut: NBA G League Ignite Open Regular Season With Loss At Dollar Loan Center Arena In Henderson Friday
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Cassandra Cousineau, NBA G League Ignite Writer
The Las Vegas market’s newest professional sports team made its regular season debut at its arena home in Henderson Friday night.
It’s the NBA G League Ignite, a minor league basketball team with young players who might be high draft picks in upcoming NBA Drafts.
For the record, the Ignite jumped out to a big lead but ended up losing to a team from Oklahoma City called the Blue, 134-125.
But the big news is that the Ignite made their regular season home debut at The Dollar Loan Center arena, a 6,000-fan venue managed by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley’s sports and entertainment operation.
It looked like a couple thousand fans attended the game in the arena that is also home to the minor league Henderson Silver Knights and the Vegas Knight Hawks of the Indoor Football League.
The NBA is already here with the Summer League in July at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, with the WNBA Las Vegas Aces and UNLV Runnin’ Rebels sharing the growing Las Vegas market, too.
If you attend the Ignite games, keep in mind the arena charges $15 for parking and the arena food prices are notoriously high.
Players on the Ignite are basketball athletes who finished high school, but didn’t want to go to college to play basketball. So, the Ignite and other G League teams are good alternatives for talented young players who want to play in what is basically the minor leagues of pro basketball. In the case of the Ignite, this team is not affiliated with an NBA team. So, the league itself — the NBA — runs the team.
