NBA league and city officials weighed in Thursday on news that the Phoenix Suns might play a preseason basketball game at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden next October.
A deal to make the Suns' match-up against an undisclosed team a reality is still in the works. NBA director of basketball communications Mark Broussard said the league leaves preseason scheduling up to the franchises.
"They've got eight games they have to play. They work that out themselves," he said.
The teams use many of their preseason match-ups to market the league in areas without a franchise, Broussard said.
"With the preseason, we're able to bring our teams to destinations we normally wouldn't go to," he said. The league uses the early games to hit fans "not within reach of our NBA cities."
The Los Angeles Lakers, for example, regularly play preseason matches in Hawaii, Bakersfield, Las Vegas and Orange County, team spokesman John Black said.
The league also has gone global in recent years, with practice events in Europe and preseason match-ups in China, Broussard said.
League officials were still working Thursday to confirm if the Suns' game in the valley would be the league's first-ever outdoor game.
Indian Wells City Manager Greg Johnson said he met with Suns officials two months ago for a "conceptual" meeting on the idea, but he hasn't been involved in the negotiations to bring a pro basketball game to the valley.
He liked the idea, however.
"It would add to the cachet of Indian Wells as a premier location for high-end sporting events," said Johnson, referring to the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament and the LG Skins Game.
"It would be very interesting to play in a tennis stadium," he added.
