Las Vegas Already Feels Like An NBA Town — Just Without A Team (For Now)
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
It’s the buzz of the NBA Summer League, where hobnobbing, schmoozing and pro basketball gossiping are in overdrive.
Chat up anyone in the concourses or along courtside and the word on the street is that Las Vegas and Seattle will eventually be host cities for NBA teams. For Seattle, it would be the return of the NBA.
But for Las Vegas –the hottest pro sports market in the U.S. — it’s a matter of when, not if.
Summer League has become the hub of worldwide professional hoops. International scouts are here and so are veteran and aspiring player agents. All 30 teams are represented here, and you can see Jerry West and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center as easily as you would see NBA vendors.
The NBA unveiled a glorified fanfest event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center called NBA Con and will be hosting seven tech companies that are part of the Association’s annual tech launch. The seven companies will have an expo Tuesday.
There’s also a Showtime documentary on Wilt Chamberlain that will be promoted later this week, while sports-business programs attract people who want to learn about the business side of the NBA.
There’s so much NBA brandness around Las Vegas that Las Vegas already feels like an NBA city. It just doesn’t have the team — yet.
Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said he already believes the NBA is coming to Las Vegas and mentioned an NBA team could even fit into T-Mobile Arena, the VGK’s home.
An NBA team could play there before Tim Leiweke and his Oak View Group arena-building organization builds an NBA arena as part of a $10 billion hotel/casino project at Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road about two miles south of the Strip.
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Having the NBA plant a team in Las Vegas would mean three major league sports teams and three Triple-A clubs would share the same market.
You have the Vegas Golden Knights and their Silver Knights in Henderson; the Athletics supposedly opening a new stadium on the Strip in 2028 and their Triple-A Aviators playing in suburban Summerlin. And the NBA G League Ignite already play at the Dollar Loan Center arena in Henderson where the Silver Knights also play.
With this kind of NBA presence in place, it seems the NBA is more of an organic fit into the Las Vegas market than even Major League Baseball. It should be noted that the Aviators’ stadium in Downtown Summerlin does host a weekend or two of MLB spring training baseball in March.
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The NBA Summer League had its third straight sellout to open the July 7-17 event at Thomas & Mack. That’s 17,500 strong a night.
For years, the NBA Summer League organizers have worked closely with Thomas & Mack Center Executive Director Mike Newcomb, who coordinates the facility operations with the summer league and the NBA.
