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[ FE A T UR E ]

NBA SUMMER LEAGUE

NBA Summer League in Las Vegas has evolved from a handful of teams to include a team of rookies and young players from every team. The Thomas & Mack
Center and Cox Pavilion attract huge crowds daily and the event also is a who’s who of basketball greats who attend from Magic Johnson to Lebron James to
Larry Bird and many others. NBA Summer League is July 5-15 and comes off a record-setting attendance mark of 139,972 from a year ago.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NBA SUMMER LEAGUE

The Vegas Attraction

As Christenson alluded to, Vegas is on the brink of securing some
of the world’s largest and most high-profile events. Within the next
decade it is not out of the question for Las Vegas to host the Super
Bowl, the NCAA basketball Final Four, a college football playoff or
championship game, a World Cup soccer match and who knows what
else. Plans to secure many of these “signature events” are already being
discussed and bids prepared. WEST COAST CONFERENCE
With the Las Vegas experience now more mainstream than ever before The West Coast Conference basketball tournament each March is
due to the recent legalization of sports betting in several states around played at the Orleans Arena and features perennial power Gonzaga
the country, a major Vegas stigma is mostly gone and teams and against quality programs like St. Mary’s and Brigham Young. The
leagues are embracing gaming sponsorships. While there used to be Orleans is always rocking for the championship game and other rounds.
both fictional and valid excuses not to host an event in Las Vegas for PHOTO COURTESY OF WCC
hypocritical sports leaders and organizations, those hurdles have pretty

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