When it comes to NBA business, what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.
The league for the past two years has held multiple league department meetings in Las Vegas during its annual Summer League event, bringing more than 1,000 team and league staff together for the sessions. The increased off-court activity followed the on-court Summer League action becoming more watched and talked about among fans and throughout league circles.
This summer, the NBA is taking those various department meetings back out of Las Vegas and will instead hold them independently, at various other locations. For example, the NBA held its marketing and digital workshops in Austin, Texas, last month. That’s something that was held in July in Las Vegas last year. Other such department meetings that will be on the move involve areas like merchandising, sponsorship and public relations.
Only a board of governors meeting and a team presidents meeting will be held next month in Las Vegas during the Summer League activities.
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The meeting relocations won’t be permanent, though. The NBA plans to bring the various departments back together in Las Vegas for consolidated meetings again next year.
“Every other year we will plan to do those large summer meetings,” said Amy Brooks, executive vice president of the NBA’s team marketing and business operations division. “There is a benefit of getting 1,300 people together at once, and there is a tremendous benefit of getting one function of 200 people at once — and we want to alternate in order to continue to share best practices.”
This year’s NBA Summer League, sponsored for a third consecutive year by Samsung, is scheduled for July 8-18 and will have 24 teams competing at the Thomas & Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion.
Last year’s Summer League set records for viewership on NBA TV and both total attendance and single-day attendance, according to the league.
