By Joe Vardon | The Athletic, 2025-12-16 12:17:15
拉斯维加斯电 — 就连圣诞节也花了不止三年的时间才深入人心。然而，NBA杯在其举办的第三年，就已经面临着重新评估。
据联盟消息人士透露，NBA与位于拉斯维加斯大道南端的T-Mobile球馆并未签订明年的季中冠军赛承办合同，而且联盟对这项赛事的现场热情度感到失望。
联盟主席亚当·萧华 (Adam Silver) 于2023年创立了NBA杯，旨在赛季初期就激发球迷和球员的更多兴趣，而这一举措在很大程度上取得了成功。收视率有所上升，拉斯维加斯半决赛和决赛的上座率也看似稳定，因为两个关键动态因素预计不会改变。其一，四强球队直到比赛前几天才能确定；其二，联盟希望冠军赛在中立场地举行。
今年九月，联盟宣布从明年开始，半决赛将在各队主场进行。NBA杯的新媒体合作伙伴亚马逊Prime Video希望转播内容更具吸引力，他们认为，更庞大、更具主场倾向性的观众群体能带来更好的转播效果。但NBA和Prime Video仍决定将冠军赛安排在中立场地，他们正在讨论，如果将比赛场地移出拉斯维加斯，球馆的上座率和声势是否会更高涨。
萧华计划在周二圣安东尼奥马刺队与纽约尼克斯队的NBA杯决赛前接受媒体采访，届时这个话题肯定会被提及。
过去三年，联盟每年都与T-Mobile球馆签订为期一年的合同来主办NBA杯。下赛季的合同尚未签署，但这只意味着赛事的举办地存在变数——而非NBA杯本身。
NBA杯是Prime Video与NBA签订的媒体版权合同中的重要组成部分。季中锦标赛同样被写入了球员与老板之间签订的劳资协议中。如果取消NBA杯，联盟不仅要面临提前重开劳资协议谈判的麻烦，还要为补偿Prime Video付出巨大代价。换言之，这项锦标赛至少在未来10年内都会继续存在。
当球队打进半决赛时，球员和教练通常都对这次经历真心表示赞赏。球员们喜欢这笔奖金——赛事冠军每位球员可获得53万美元——教练们则欣赏能在赛季早期打更多有意义的比赛，为季后赛做准备。各支球队会利用这次拉斯维加斯之行，在当地庆祝球队取得的成功；企业赞助商和球员家属也常常作为参赛队伍的受邀嘉宾出席。
“你必须得称赞NBA，”尼克斯队主教练迈克·布朗 (Mike Brown) 上周表示，他的这番话几乎代表了所有在拉斯维加斯出席过NBA杯新闻发布会的教练心声。“人们天生会抗拒改变，或者对改变说三道四。当他们提出NBA杯这个想法时，我就是其中之一，我当时想，‘哦，天哪，为什么？在赛季中期？我们还要做这个做那个，还要训练，等等等等。’但随着时间的推移，你必须承认——从亚当（萧华）开始，你必须高度赞扬他在NBA事务上的创新精神，而这就是其中之一。”
“这真的是一件非常、非常棒的事情。”
马刺队明星后卫德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 表示，球员们喜欢NBA杯是因为“大家都喜欢钱”。
“人们希望为了一些东西去打球，”福克斯在周一说道。“在我们的更衣室里，包括那些双向合同球员在内，人人都想赢下这个冠军。你可以去任何一支球队的更衣室问问，如果有人说他不想赢，那他一定在撒谎。”
“能够身处这样的环境中，努力去赢取那样的奖品，这很有趣。”
NBA并非唯一一个将目光投向拉斯维加斯之外的大型篮球组织。尽管规模小得多，但多年来，美国男篮一直将重大国际赛事的训练营设在这座“罪恶之城”，但该项目内部消息人士暗示，为了备战2027年FIBA世界杯和2028年洛杉矶奥运会，这种情况可能会改变。
此外，NBA内部目前正发酵一起体育博彩丑闻，其中一些涉及现役及前球员和教练的指控罪行，就发生在拉斯维加斯被操纵的扑克牌局中。如果联盟考虑将赛事搬离拉斯维加斯大道以撇清与非法博彩的关系，那将是可以理解的，但拉斯维加斯夏季联赛并不会搬迁。因此，同样的负面观感问题依然存在。
关于NBA对拉斯维加斯作为主办地日益失望的消息，在周六半决赛第一场比赛期间及赛后传开，当时，官方公布的观众人数为16,697人，这是NBA杯四强赛史上最低的上座人数，见证了尼克斯队击败奥兰多魔术队。上层看台有肉眼可见的成排空座，下层看台也有不少空椅子。
尼克斯队是世界上最受欢迎的球队之一，球迷遍布全球，并且拥有一批乐于随队远征的纽约本地支持者。因此，周六的比赛出现这么多空座或许有些令人惊讶，但大多数观看NBA杯比赛的观众可能都居住在大拉斯维加斯地区。（一个迹象是：在奏国歌唱到“gave proof through the night”时，现场观众会高喊“KNIGHTS”……就像NHL拉斯维加斯黄金骑士队主场观众的习惯一样。）
在周六的第二场比赛，即马刺队对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆队的比赛中，官方宣布门票售罄（18,519名观众——与去年雷霆队对阵密尔沃基雄鹿队的NBA杯决赛观众人数相同）。那场比赛的对阵双方，一边是卫冕冠军和联盟MVP谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)，另一边则是可能是联盟未来门面的维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)，比赛氛围紧张而热烈。
周六是全美牛仔竞技总决赛的最后一晚，这是拉斯维加斯另一项年度盛事。圣安东尼奥和俄克拉荷马城无疑是两个来自牛仔竞技文化浓厚地区的球队，但观众席中并没有太多头戴宽边牛仔帽的观众。更有可能是本地球迷对吉尔杰斯-亚历山大和文班的热情更高，而且下午6点也是一个更适合出来看球的时间。
2023年的首届NBA杯半决赛是在一个周四晚上进行的，参赛队伍包括洛杉矶湖人队，他们在拉斯维加斯市场拥有统治级的影响力。湖人队参加的NBA杯半决赛和冠军赛门票均告售罄。
每年，NBA都会向当地学校发放免费门票。往年（除了湖人队的比赛）也出现过空座和稀疏掌声的情况，即使在检票员统计为门票售罄的夜晚也是如此。但目前尚不清楚将冠军赛移出拉斯维加斯是否能改变这一状况。
如果有某个城市或场馆愿意向NBA掷下重金，并以拉斯维加斯所没有的方式来推广NBA杯冠军赛，那么联盟或许应该好好考虑一下其他选择。但对于一项本已在不断成长的锦标赛而言，仅仅因为反响不佳就更换地点，可能并不会对其人气的提升有太大帮助。
联盟表示，今年NBA杯小组赛的电视收视率增长了90%，这是该锦标赛在Prime Video播出的第一年，并且自NBA杯创办以来的三年里，小组赛的观众人数都超过了2022年10月和11月（即没有NBA杯的最后一个赛季）的常规比赛。
在Prime Video加入之前，这项锦标赛从未像今年这样得到大力推广。但在过去三个赛季的每一个赛季初，联盟都向球迷们解释和宣传了NBA杯的概念和场上行动。他们正开始收看比赛。
只要不厌其烦地提醒他们——无论他们身在何处——冠军赛就在拉斯维加斯举办，那么现场的热情很可能会随之增长——就像NBA夏季联赛在拉斯维加斯创办几年后所经历的那样。
圣诞节，是的，就是圣诞节，根据《国家地理》和众多其他历史网站发布的记载，曾是一种庸俗、酗酒的庆祝活动，在17世纪和18世纪的美国，经常被清教徒控制的社区所禁止。当德国移民在19世纪30年代来到美国时，他们带来了冷杉树和给孩子们的礼物。19世纪40年代，查尔斯·狄更斯 (Charles Dickens) 创作了《圣诞颂歌》，使其一炮而红。内战后，国会为了促进南北双方的团结，将圣诞节定为美国首个联邦假日。
有些事物——即便是那些最受欢迎的理念——也需要时间来深入人心。
那么，或许我们对在拉斯维加斯举办的NBA杯期望过高，也为时过早了？
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
点击查看原文：Move the NBA Cup out of Vegas? What to know about the future of the tournament
Move the NBA Cup out of Vegas? What to know about the future of the tournament
LAS VEGAS — Even Christmas needed longer than three years to catch on. But the NBA Cup, in its third year, is already being reviewed.
The NBA is not under contract with T-Mobile Arena on the south end of the Vegas Strip to hold its in-season championship next year, league sources said, and the league is underwhelmed by the on-the-ground enthusiasm for the event.
Commissioner Adam Silver created the NBA Cup in 2023 to generate more interest earlier in the calendar among both fans and the players, and it has largely worked. Ratings are up, and attendance for the Cup semifinals and finals in Las Vegas would appear to be steady, given that there is no foreseeable change to two key dynamics. The final four teams aren’t known until just a few days before, and the league wants the championship held at a neutral site.
In September, the league announced that beginning next year, the semifinals would be held at home sites. Its new media partner for the NBA Cup, Amazon Prime Video, wants a more compelling broadcast, which it believes is generated by larger, more partisan home crowds. But the NBA and Prime Video are still set on holding the championship game at a neutral site, and they’re discussing if the arenas could be fuller, and louder, if the venue were somewhere other than Las Vegas.
Silver is scheduled to address the media before Tuesday’s NBA Cup finale between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks, and the topic is sure to come up.
For three years, the league has signed one-year contracts with T-Mobile Arena to host the NBA Cup. No signed contract is in place for next season, but that just means the event site is in doubt — not the Cup itself.
A huge portion of Prime Video’s media rights package with the NBA is the Cup. An in-season tournament is also included in the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners. The cost to the league to make Prime Video whole without a Cup, to say nothing of the headache of reopening the CBA early to cancel the Cup, would be enormous. The tournament, in other words, is going to be here for the next 10 years, at minimum.
By the time teams reach the semifinals, players and coaches are typically genuinely appreciative of the experience. The players love the prize money — $530,000 per player to the tournament winner — and the coaches appreciate playing in more meaningful games earlier in the year to prepare for the playoffs. The organizations use the trip to Vegas to celebrate success on location; corporate sponsors and players’ families are often invited guests of the participating teams.
“You’ve got to give the NBA credit,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said last week, echoing virtually every coach who has sat at an NBA Cup podium in Las Vegas. “Everybody naturally fights change or wants to say something against change. I was one of those guys when they came up with the Cup idea, I was like, ‘Oh, man, for what? In the middle of the season? We are trying to do this and that and practice and blah, blah, blah.’ And as time goes on, you have to give — starting with Adam, you have to give him a lot of credit for being innovative when it comes to things happening in the NBA, and this is one of them.
“This is a really, really neat thing.”
Spurs star guard De’Aaron Fox said the players like the Cup because “people like money.”
“People want to play for something,” Fox said on Monday. “In our locker room with the two-ways and everything, people want to win this. You can go into any locker room, if someone says they don’t want to win it, they’re lying.
“It’s fun being able to go out into an environment like this and try to win a prize like that.”
The NBA isn’t the only major basketball entity looking outside of Las Vegas. Albeit on a much smaller scale, USA Basketball has for years held its training camps for major international competitions in Sin City, but sources within the program suggest that could change for the 2027 FIBA World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
There is also an ongoing sports betting scandal inside the NBA, and some of the alleged crimes involving current and former players and coaches took place at rigged poker games in Las Vegas. If the league was considering moving off the Strip to separate itself from illegal betting, it would be understandable, but the Las Vegas Summer League isn’t going anywhere. So, the same perception problem would still exist.
Word of the NBA’s growing disappointment with Las Vegas as host site for the Cup spread during and after Game 1 of semifinal Saturday, when the smallest announced crowd for a Cup final four game of 16,697 watched the Knicks beat the Orlando Magic. There were visibly vacant rows of seats in the upper deck, and more than a few empty chairs in the lower bowl.
The Knicks are one of the most popular teams in the world, with fans spread out all over and a New York-based support system that travels well. So, perhaps it was a little surprising to see that many empty seats for Saturday’s game, but most of the people who attend Cup games likely live in greater Las Vegas. (One indicator: the crowd chants “KNIGHTS” at the point in the national anthem when the song comes to “gave proof through the night” … like the home crowd does for Las Vegas Golden Knights NHL games.)
In the second game on Saturday, between the Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder, there was an announced sellout (18,519 fans – same crowd for last year’s Cup finale between Oklahoma City and Milwaukee). That game featured the reigning NBA champs and the league’s MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, against perhaps the next face of the league in Victor Wembanyama, in a tense and loud environment.
Saturday was the last night for the national rodeo finals, another annual event in Las Vegas, and San Antonio and Oklahoma City are definitely two teams that come from rodeo country, but there weren’t too many gallon hats in the audience. It was far more likely that local fans were more enthused about Gilgeous-Alexander and Wemby, and 6 p.m. is a better time of day to come out for a game.
The first Cup semifinals, in 2023, were played on a Thursday night and included the Los Angeles Lakers, who dominate the Las Vegas market. The Lakers’ Cup semifinal, and their Cup championship game, were both sellouts.
The NBA has, each year, distributed free tickets to local schools. And there have been empty seats and muted applause in years past (save for the Laker games), even on the nights when ticket takers count a sellout. But it’s unclear how moving the championship outside of Las Vegas would change that.
If there is a city or venue that wants to throw money at the NBA, and market the Cup championship in a way that Vegas has not, perhaps the league would do well to consider its options. But simply changing locations as a reaction to the reception, just three years into an otherwise successful experiment, might not do much to grow the popularity of a tournament that is growing anyway.
The league says TV viewership for Cup group stage games was up 90 percent this year, the tournament’s first year on Prime Video, and group stage games for all three years of the Cup’s existence drew more viewers than games in October and November in 2022 – the last season there was no Cup.
The tournament had never been marketed like it was this year with Prime Video entering the fold. But at the start of each of the last three seasons, the Cup concept and on-court action has been explained, and promoted, to fans. They’re starting to tune in.
Remind them, no matter where they live, over and over, that the championship is in Las Vegas, and the excitement on the ground will likely grow — much like it did a few years after the NBA Summer League was established … in Las Vegas.
Christmas, literally Christmas, was, according to accounts published by National Geographic and numerous other historical sites, a tawdry, drunken celebration that was often banned in Puritan-controlled communities in America in the 1600s and 1700s. When the Germans emigrated to the U.S. in the 1830s, they brought with them their fir trees and children’s presents. In the 1840s, Charles Dickens penned “A Christmas Carol,” and it blew up, and after the Civil War Congress made Christmas the country’s first federal holiday as a way to promote unity between the North and South.
Some things — even, occasionally, the most popular concepts — just take time to catch on.
Perhaps, then, we’re expecting too much of the NBA Cup in Las Vegas, too soon?
By Joe Vardon, via The Athletic