Utah's Rocky Mountain Revue NBA summer league may return

The Utah Jazz are hopeful the once-popular Rocky Mountain Revue NBA summer league returns to Salt Lake City as soon as the summer of 2015, three league officials familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

The people requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly until details are finalized.

Preliminary plans aim to to keep the event intimate — five to six teams — and bring professional summer basketball back to Salt Lake City, where the league had set up from 1984-2008.

The Jazz, who also plan to play in the Las Vegas summer league, could be joined in Salt Lake City by an international team, a team of D-League players and possibly one or two other Western Conference teams who want to play in two summer leagues but don't want to send a team across the country to Orlando's summer league.

Basketball is big business in Utah. The Jazz have longed to bring back the popular fan experience, and a packed community college gym was the norm at the Rocky Mountain Revue.

It's also a popular participatory sport. The youth basketball program Junior Jazz has more than 50,000 participants annually and the sport gets lots of support from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community.

Last summer, the Jazz conducted an open practice just before they departed for the Las Vegas summer league and more than 9,000 fans attended. Jazz basketball is so popular that that local TV and radio carried Jazz summer league games from Vegas in July.

While Orlando's summer league is closed to the public and the Las Vegas summer league is a destination event, the Rocky Mountain Revue is for basketball fans in Utah and teams who want another summer league event.

The Rocky Mountain Revue started in 1984 and had has many as 16 teams participating. Declining participation from other teams forced the Jazz to stop operations after 2008. The last year of the Rocky Mountain Revue included the Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, New Jersey Nets, San Antonio Spurs, a team of D-League players and the Iranian national team.

Area fans still crave a summer league in Salt Lake City, and Jazz President Randy Rigby broached the topic in July, 2013, telling The Salt Lake Tribune then, "There seems to be an interest from teams in bringing it back. We have an interest, and I think we have a fan base that would support it."