Summers in Las Vegas are not just for vacations as serious business will continue to keep the No.1 trade show destination in the country booming. Over the next few months, Las Vegas will have a full calendar of sporting events to occupy visitors while vastly impacting the local economy.
In the past year, Las Vegas has solidified itself as a mecca for professional sports with the arrival of the National Hockey League (NHL)’s newest team, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the upcoming relocation of the National Football League (NFL)’s Raiders to the destination. However, Las Vegas has had a long history of sports in the destination with special conventions also bringing thousands of attendees during the summer months.
Kicking off Las Vegas summer sporting events is 2017 USA Table Tennis National Championships, the foremost international table tennis tournament in the country. This year, the tournament is expected to attract more than 1,000 players from around the world to the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) July 3-8.
For the fifth consecutive year, future basketball stars will congregate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion for the Samsung NBA Summer League, July 7-17. Now in its thirteenth year, the Summer League will see a record 24 National Basketball Association (NBA) teams compete in a 67-game tournament, and is expected to attract more than 108,000 attendees for a projected $20.5 million in direct visitor spending.
Younger basketball hopefuls will return to the LVCC for the Jam On It Basketball Academy July 14-24. Jam On It has five distinct tournament events featuring 48 basketball courts with boys and girls ages 5 to 18 competing under one roof.
Rounding off the summer of sports, RollerCon 2017 will put roller derby fans in a spin July 26-30 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino’s Convention Center. As the original roller derby convention in the world, RollerCon will bring skaters at every level together as they compete on especially-built tracks.
Las Vegas convention business heats up during the summer, with the above sporting events, conventions and trade shows resulting in more than $340 million in direct visitors spending to the destination. Yet, this is only a snapshot of the group business hosted throughout the destination during the summer months. In 2016, nearly 4,000 meetings, conventions and trade shows took place in Las Vegas June through August, for a total attendance of nearly 1.4 million delegates. Meetings and conventions play a key role in Southern Nevada’s economy, supporting 85,000 jobs and generating $12.4 billion in local economic impact.
