Las Vegas is officially getting its first professional basketball team. The San Antonio Stars are moving to Las Vegas next season, and season tickets are officially on sale for Sin City’s first pro hoops team.
While the basketball world has made Las Vegas a huge part of its sphere, with Summer League likely heading there in earnest for most of the league and All-Star Game overtures in the past, the NBA has never committed to putting a team there full time. But the WNBA sure has.
The league announced in October that the San Antonio Stars would be relocating to Las Vegas, and ESPN reporter Arash Markazi reported early Friday that season tickets for Stars games in Las Vegas were officially on sale.
https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/939036053536522240
Las Vegas won the WNBA Draft Lottery and is trying to rebound after finishing last in the league with an 8-win season. But it’s a clear sign that pro sports are taking the Vegas market seriously. The Las Vegas Knights of the NHL started play this season, the Raiders are coming, and the Stars are a clear sign that basketball is coming to Vegas sooner rather than later.
The Stars are likely to keep their team nickname and move to Vegas to play in Mandalay Bay’s events center after MGM bought the franchise. It’s a smaller venue than T-Mobile Arena, which opened in 2016 and holds Knights home games, but it seems like the ideal venue if an NBA team were to ever call the Strip home.
