LeBron James

SF, Los Angeles Lakers

MGM Resorts International, which owns over a dozen casino-hotels in the Las Vegas area, has launched numerous proposals to various sports leagues across the country, including the NBA, WNBA, MLS and NHL. The latest proposal for the NBA and WNBA includes a "quarantined campus" consisting of one full block of the Las Vegas Strip so that the leagues can carry out games and practices as needed.

There are thousands of empty hotel rooms in Las Vegas right now and the city's dependency on tourism, or rather the current lack thereof, makes it a logical potential suitor to host quarantined sporting events. There are obviously a plethora of obstacles that come along with it, especially seeing that Las Vegas is one of the hardest areas impacted by the coronavirus. With the current NBA/WNBA proposal, players' families, league employees, essential broadcast/media staff, as well as staff vendors would accompany the players on the quarantined street block. Access to restaurants, spas, and lounges would all be accessible. However, with most states still imposing stay-at-home orders and tests for COVID-19 are still needed in large quantities for plans such as these to come to fruition. The plan also lays groundwork to build 20+ basketball courts at a convention center, which can be done quickly but requires full commitment to the proposal. All this being said, it does not appear that any American sports leagues are close to announcing plans to return to competition. Mostly, ideas are being tossed around while we wait for more tests and, eventually, a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Source: Kevin Draper in NY Times