The Cavaliers, and the city of Cleveland, have sunk a lot of money — $185 million total — into upgrading and renovating the Quicken Loans Arena (only phase one is done, the rest will be completed next NBA offseason).
The payoff for that? Cleveland will host the 2022 NBA All-Star Game. The NBA made the rumors official on Thursday.
“Cleveland is a passionate sports city with a proven track record of hosting large-scale, global events,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in a statement.
“We are proud to host NBA All-Star weekend in Cleveland in 2022,” said Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. “We have been working with the NBA, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to deliver this iconic event to Northeast Ohio for the last couple of years. The transformation and new state-of-the-art Quicken Loans Arena was an important factor in the NBA’s decision to choose Cleveland for this exciting classic broadcast across the globe. The world will get to see the modern Cleveland and all of its diversity, innovation and promise for the future.”
This is the third time Cleveland will host the All-Star Game, previously the game came there in 1981 and 1997. This time the events will run from Feb. 18-20, 2020.
The 2019 All-Star Game will take place in Charlotte. After that the NBA goes to Chicago (2020) and Indianapolis (2021).
It’s a little surprising the NBA would go to the Midwest three consecutive years with the All-Star Game, the league make a conscious effort to move its showcase event to different parts of the country. So why Cleveland in 2022? Nate Jones (NBA Twitter must follow and part of the Goodwin Group) has the best theory I have heard.
That would make sense. It will likely be a year or more before the NBA announces plans for 2021 (and 2022).