February 21, 2007

Vegas Wants an NBA Team

It seems that Las Vegas is pushing very hard to add to its sports venues. And while the NBA All-Stars game was just held there, It will be an uphill battle for the fast-growing city to land a permanant team.

The odds, however, that the NBA or any other league will soon come to Las Vegas for more than just a vacation — through relocation or expansion — are low. For now.
David Stern, the NBA commissioner, has made "integrity of the game" his battle cry and says that local gambling on the league, though regulated, would violate that tenet. He maintains that casinos must take all NBA games off their oddsmakers' books before Las Vegas could be a viable site.

"There's only one stumbling block," Stern said in a recent interview, referring to the betting on NBA games. "It has to be off the books for consideration. It is that, more than any other issue."

We are pulling for you Vegas, we'd love to be able to swing in, grab seats at a game, and enjoy yet another form of entertainment in the city that is famous for it.

Read the whole story over at the International Herald Tribune