Josh Swissman Quoted on Global Gaming Business News
Sin City to Sports Heaven: Las Vegas as an Athletic Destination
The emergence of Las Vegas as a premier sports city wasn’t always a foregone conclusion, and its recent success isn’t unjustified—it’s been earned through persistence and execution. GMA Consulting Managing Director Josh Swissman helps explore how the city has cemented itself as a high-caliber sports destination.
At a Portland Trail Blazers game in 1999, NBA agent Warren LeGarie approached Rod Thorn, the league’s executive vice president of basketball operations at the time, about the possibility of establishing a new summer league in Las Vegas.
Shortly after, Thorn contacted LeGarie with the news that then-NBA Commissioner David Stern had soundly rejected the idea—-according to Bleacher Report, Stern’s rejection of Sin City was, in fact, stern: “No summer league can be involved with a casino.”