UNLV football is back.

Las Vegas Saturday Tripleheader Matches Aviators vs. UNLV Football vs. Aces

By Alan Snel

LVSportsBiz.com

 

The UNLV football season is coming and the Las Vegas Aces and Aviators seasons are going.

But the three sports teams will be intersecting Saturday night when the Rebels play their season-opener at Sam Boyd Stadium while the Aces and Aviators finalize their home schedules this upcoming weekend.

Aviators at home.

 

UNLV football at Sam Boyd Stadium.

 

Aces at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

 

On Saturday night, there will be a three-way competition for the Las Vegas sports dollar when the UNLV football team plays Southern Utah in the first game of the Rebs’ last season at Sam Boyd Stadium near the Las Vegas Wash, the Las Vegas Aces wrap up their home schedule with a 7:30 p.m. game with the Los Angeles Sparks at Mandalay Bay Events Center; and the Las Vegas Aviators play their third-to-last home game of the season at 7:05 p.m. when they host the Tacoma Rainiers in a Pacific Coast League contest.

The football Rebels are selling lots of season ticket deals because those fans who buy the ticket agreements for 2019, the final season at Sam Boyd Stadium, will get an automatic shot at buying similar placed seats at the new Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium in 2020.

UNLV football plays at Allegiant Stadium in 2020.

Meanwhile, the former 51s Triple A ball team is finishing its first season as the re-branded Aviators at the $150 million palatial ballpark in Downtown Summerlin, which is owned by Howard Hughes Corporation. Howard Hughes also owns the Aviators, which are averaging attendance of 9,241 per game after 66 dates — best in the minors. The Aviators, in their first year as the Oakland Athletics’ Triple A affiliate, are red hot and have a record of 80-54.

The Aviators ballpark has been the star of the Las Vegas summer.

The WNBA Aces are in the playoffs, but slumping after a rough three-game road trip in which they lost all three games, including Tuesday’s 86-71 loss to Indiana. The Aces are 19-12 and the Sparks showdown will carry playoff position implications because the Los Angeles team is 18-11. The Aces’ attendance is down this season after their inaugural season in Las Vegas in 2018.

A’ja Wilson and Aces hope to turn things around Saturday night.

 

Look for LVSportsBiz.com coverage Saturday evening.

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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.