Addressing the CAA World Congress of Sports October 12 in New York, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Las Vegas will definitely be under consideration when the league expands, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
“We always thought it was a good market,” Silver said in a video during the event.
The NBA already has a presence as home to the Summer League. “We sell well over 100,000 tickets and all of our teams are out there,” he said.
As for expansion, “It’s on a list at the point that we do turn to expansion, which isn’t right now, but at some point, no doubt Vegas will be on the list.”
In other Las Vegas sports news, the National Football Foundation will hold its College Football Hall of Fame awards dinner in town in December. And next year, Notre Dame will play BYU.
“Las Vegas is built to host these types of events,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “This will bring the college football and college athletics spotlight to Las Vegas for, really, that entire week. The landscape of sports in Las Vegas is rapidly growing. We’re really the sports capital of the world now.”
The December 7 dinner at Aria called New York home for more than six decades but moved because of availability problems, said Steve Hatchell, president, and CEO of the foundation. The move to Las Vegas for the year was a no-brainer, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
“It’s important to be in Las Vegas,” Hatchell said during a news conference at UNLV on October 11.
Among the 32 legends expected are former Eastern Illinois and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, former Clemson running back C.J. Spiller, former Oklahoma national championship coach Bob Stoops, and former Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer (Southern Cal) and Eric Crouch (Nebraska).
With a who’s who of college officials in town, along with 150 athletic directors, conference commissioners and network television officials are scheduled to attend. The goal for Las Vegas is to convince the powers that be that Las Vegas could host a national championship game.
