Heat Is On For UNLV Football To Win But Also Draw Fans As Lights’ Cash Drop and VGK Rookie Game Bring Crowds Saturday

 

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

 

It was a toasty 106 degrees on the Sam Boyd Stadium field when UNLV’s football team staged its home-opener shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday.

 

But the Rebels endured another type of heat in the Las Vegas market tonight — the hot competition for the sports consumer dollar.

 

While UNLV crushed the UTEP Miners, 52-24, for its first win of the season, the Vegas Golden Knights’ rookies held on to beat the Colorado Avalanche rooks, 7-6, in the inaugural Vegas Rookie Faceoff tourney at City National Arena in Summerlin at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team was making fans $5,000 richer with a zany helicopter cash drop at halftime of the Lights-LA Galaxy II game at downtown Cashman Field for a game that started at 8 p.m. The Lights lost, 2-1.

 

 

 

 

One year ago, UNLV’s home-opener was a disaster when huge 45-point underdog Howard upset the Rebels, 43-40. But at least UNLV’s football team was not competing against other local Las Vegas teams for fans’ attention that night in early September 2017.

 

No more.

 

One year later, and the Lights are on the scene selling get-in tickets for $15 each. And the Golden Knights are putting on a micro NBA Summer League, a three-day rookie tourney with five other Western Conference teams at City National Arena in suburban Summerlin.

 

The UNLV game attendance was 14,122, a low number even by UNLV football standards, while the Lights announced attendance of 8,017 for the cash drop game.

 

Meanwhile, ticket sales were strong for the Golden Knights rookie game, where a Twitter post by RJ sports writer Adam Hill shows a packed bleachers at City National Arena.

 

UNLV Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois, who was making the rounds chatting with media in the Sam Boyd Stadium press box, wasn’t fazed by the other sports competition in town.

 

“It’s different demographics,” Reed-Francois said. “We’re a great value.”

 

 

Reed-Francois has spent her first year at UNLV on a listening tour and she ticked off new fan amenities she believes will help draw more Rebels backers to football and basketball games.

 

For football, she cited the new Loyalty Circle premium fan area behind one of the end zones at Sam Boyd Stadium, an eat-all-you-can ticket deal and new group ticket package deals. For basketball, the UNLV AD pointed to the new center-hung scoreboard that will be installed at Thomas & Mack Center thanks to a juicy $5 million donation by Boyd Gaming.

 

 

The Rebels better step up their football promotion game because Lights owner Brett Lashbrook was busy hiring a helicopter to drop $5,000 in bills of various denominations to 200 waiting pre-selected fans on the Cashman Field turf.

 

The chopper flew into Cashman Field and streams of bills were dropped. Then the fans went wild chasing the money.

 

And then, there’s the market’s big dog, the Golden Knights that thought it wasn’t enough just to make a miracle run to the Stanley Cup Finals and convert the hockey uninitiated to hockey believers in Las Vegas. The VGK went ahead and hosted a rookie tournament that included the LA Kings, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche. The rookie tourney has more games Sunday, then an off day Monday before games resume Tuesday at City National Arena.

 

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