The NBA Summer League in Las Vegas has grown into what feels like a post NBA Draft two-week extension of the season in a way that captures moments of high excitement and anticipation around NBA rookies. It is a coming out party for the NBA stars of the future and everyone wants to be there to see it unfold. Each year a new story line emerges and this year it was all about the debut of Victor Wembanyama, the most anticipated NBA rookie in years.

The economic impact of NBA Summer League to the city of Las Vegas is significant. In 2022, the Summer League was estimated to have an economic impact of $140M million. This figure includes spending on hotels, restaurants, transportation, and entertainment by fans, players, and team personnel.

I attended the NBA Summer League this year and it reminded me of a scrappy startup with the operation, production and marketing support provided by the co-promoters and Summer League impresarios Warren LeGarie and Albert Hall, along with a host of eager interns. Warren is front of the house greeting nearly every attendee from the NBA’s 30 teams with his primary goal that they have a great experience at Summer League. Albert is back of the house but equally important, making sure that all roads lead to Summer League and every production element is in place at the arena as well as throughout the city. Evidence of this is the photo below of the new Las Vegas Sphere which transformed itself into an advertisement for Summer League that could be seen from nearly everywhere in Las Vegas.

When I asked Legarie and Hall their thoughts on the growth the Summer League has enjoyed, they responded jointly: “We started this league with the understanding and purpose of making sure that the teams got what they needed for both practices and games but to make sure that it was always done in a fun atmosphere. Despite all the great players who have begun their careers here, our laser focus still has always been on making the Summer League the real star, where you can truly see the Stars of Tomorrow today in our two gyms, and feel as if you've had a genuine NBA experience.”

This year the NBA launched alongside Summer League the first ever NBACon, its version of an NBA fan fest. Moreover, with the increased attention, support and investment coming from the NBA, brand extensions will no doubt be forthcoming in areas such as music, film and fashion.

However, from the NBA’s perspective, the most important thing is that Summer League bolsters its power as media company at a time when the NBA is ready to conduct its next round of talks relating to its media rights. In recent years, the ratings for NBA Summer League have been on the rise. This is a significant increase from just a few years ago, and it is a testament to the growing popularity of the Summer League which has become the go to place for NBA teams to showcase its young talent, evaluate potential draft picks, and extend their brands off-season. The good news for the NBA is that Summer League was not even factored into its last media negotiations. It evolved into an added programming bonus for ESPN.

The first weekend of the NBA Summer League averaged 456,000 viewers across 12 games, making it the most-watched opening weekend ever. The Wembanyama effect was also noticeable in the ratings, as his debut game averaged 1.386 million viewers. The NBA is expected to seek a significant increase in its media rights fees when its current contract with ESPN and TNT expires in 2025 and it is likely that talks are already beginning behind the scenes. During those talks, the league will be able to point to the strong ratings for the Summer League as evidence of its growing popularity and potential for future audience growth.

The NBA's upcoming media negotiations are sure to be hotly contested as well as complicated based upon the proliferation of broadcast platforms and the power of technology to parse content and personalize media offerings. But no matter what, the Summer League is certainly another arrow in the NBA’s quiver as they head into their media negotiations not only with the traditional media companies such as Disney and Turner but with the technology giants like Amazon AMZN and Apple AAPL .