Adam Silver says NBA Summer League isn’t leaving Las Vegas

When it comes to rumors about the NBA Summer League leaving Las Vegas, commissioner Adam Silver had two words of advice: “Don’t listen.”

“Las Vegas has served as a terrific host for our summer league for more than a decade,” Silver said Wednesday. “We’re really pleased with the growth in interest we’ve seen from our fans who attend the games and our media partners who now cover it around the clock. We have no plans to leave, and, in fact, are in ongoing discussions with Las Vegas Events about ways we can make it even bigger.”

Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson said his organization is kicking in $100,000 this year to promote the summer league, which begins its annual 11-day run Friday at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion.

“I appreciate Adam’s confidence in the event,” Christenson said. “From our perspective, we couldn’t be happier. When this started in 2004, we gave them $25,000 and hoped it would be one of those events that worked. It’s worked out better than any of us could have imagined.”

According to figures from Las Vegas Events, last year’s summer league produced a nongaming economic impact of $29.5 million for Las Vegas and attracted 22,000 visitors.

Attendance at the 2015 summer league was a record 99,437, an average of 9,040 per session, which was up 38 percent from 2014. The single-day record of 12,422 was set July 10 at the Thomas & Mack for the Minnesota-Los Angeles Lakers game, which featured the top two picks from the 2015 NBA Draft — the Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns and the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell.

Warren LeGarie, the San Francisco-based sports agent who started the summer league in Las Vegas and helps run it for the NBA, said it’s about keeping ahead of the curve.

“We’re no longer in survival mode,” he said, alluding to the early years of the event. “We’re looking to keep making it better.”

For the first time, ESPN will be televising games from Las Vegas. LeGarie said it may be the biggest boost the summer league has received.

“We’ve been on TV the last few years with NBA TV, and they’ve been great,” he said. “But having ESPN takes it to a whole ’nother level. The exposure will be unprecedented.”

Christenson said: “When I heard ESPN was doing the summer league, I got really excited. Having ESPN is huge.”

ESPN and its sister networks will televise 25 games from Las Vegas, including the July 18 championship game. ESPN3 will live stream all 67 games.

The summer league also will use a new timing system that the NBA will employ starting in the fall. The Thomas & Mack is in the final stages of its $72 million renovation, and fans should be more comfortable than a year ago when parts of the building were inaccessible.

Ticket prices have increased. It will cost $30 at the door for adults and $20 for children 12 and under. Tickets purchased in advance are $25 for adults and $15 for 12 and under.

“We’re trying to keep it affordable,” LeGarie said. “It’s expensive to put this on, and we’re trying to keep the quality of the summer league at its highest. But we don’t want to price ourselves out of the range of the Las Vegas fans. This is their event, and we want them to feel that this is their NBA franchise.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow on Twitter: @stevecarprj