UNLV defenders were chasing the Howard quarterback, Caylin Newton, all night long and now the university's sports marketers will face a challenge drawing fans and advertisers after Saturday's embarrassing loss to a 45-point underdog. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

Did UNLV Football Just Become America’s Toughest Sports Marketing Sell with Saturday’s Embarrassing Loss?

By ALAN SNEL   A half-hour before kickoff of UNLV's football season, alum Tony Iverson held a beer in a coolie in a grassy Rebel pre-game area and scanned the fans who had gathered for the Rebels' game against Howard.   "The better the team gets, the bigger this gets," said Iverson, a teacher who is a 2002 UNLV graduate before earning a Masters at UNLV in 2007.   Sadly, it can also work in reverse. After Saturday night's embarrassing loss to 45-point underdog Howard, now it will be even a more daunting challenge to sell tickets, ads and sponsorships for a football team that had bowl game aspirations this season.   Before the game, UNLV officials tried to improve the fans' pre-game experience with live music
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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.