Despite Low Attendance At UNLV Basketball Games, UNLV’s Sponsors Not Bailing; Runnin’ Rebels Upset Utah State, 70-53, Wednesday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It wasn’t a very large crowd at Thomas & Mack Center, but it was a feisty one and several thousand fans enjoyed the UNLV’s men basketball team taming a heralded Utah State team, 70-53, on New Year’s Day night.
Interestingly enough, even though the Runnin’ Rebels games are filled with empty red seats all around the Thomas & Mack bottom bowl, the low attendance has not prompted UNLV basketball sponsors to bail, said Dan Dolby, general manager of Learfield IMG College at UNLV.
Dolby said UNLV Athletics have 85 sponsors, and they’re a varied lot from the well-known brands like Toyota, Terrible Herbst, Taco Bell, Chevron and even good ol’ Peppermill restaurant in Las Vegas to new ones like Clark County’s Family Services.
The diversity in sponsors is by design, Dolby said.
“We don’t want to cannibalize a category,” he said.
The sponsors are not dropping despite the low attendance at basketball games because “we sell a story,” Dolby said before UNLV’s upset of Utah State, the Mountain West’s defending champs that entered the game with a 13-2 record.
He said sponsors are sold on more than just the access to the UNLV fan base because “we also have 120,000 alums,” Dolby said.
UNLV reported the Wednesday game attendance at 7,571 but the crowd was obviously smaller than the announced number. It looked to the naked eye that it was closer to half that number.
After the win, LVSportsBiz.com asked UNLV basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger was had to be done to draw more fans to Thomas & Mack, a venue where a UNLV basketball game ticket was once a hot commodity.
Otzelberger said he wants his team to be seen as a blue-collar squad that represents Las Vegas and worthy of attracting fans. He noted his players also scored well in the classroom with the program’s highest GPA in the first semester.
“Our guys worked harder than they ever worked,” he said. “So if that’s something that people believe in and want to be a part of, come out and support us.”
Fans at the game put it in a more tidy fashion.
“Win games,” said UNLV alum Nat Shupe, a 46-year-old Blackford employee who works on Golden Gaming projects.
“Students show up when we’re winning,” he said.
Students are on holiday break now, but the student showing Wednesday was rather small.
A band member named Ben, 22, looked on the bright side and observed, “Tickets are free so that’s a plus.”
Keep in mind that Utah State was without one of its stars, center Neemias Queta. Still, it was a strong hustling defensive performance by UNLV, which held a team averaging nearly 82 points a game to only 53 points. Utah State’s other star, Sam Merrill, was held to 10 points.
Leading UNLV in scoring was Bryce Hamilton with 20 points, while Amauri Hardy chipped in with 14 and Mbacke Diong added 10. UNLV has now won three straight games and improved to 7-8, including 2-0 in the Mountain West Conference. The Rebs’ next game is Saturday at 7 p.m. when UNLV hosts Air Force.
Here’s Otzelberger’s quote on his team’s performance Wednesday: “I feel like we have been here before talking about how if we play with tremendous focus, effort, be the physical team, the team on the glass that we need to be, the team defensively that we need to be, that allows us to have some pace and flow offensively. I feel like tonight is what that needs to look like, and that is Runnin’ Rebel basketball – and that is what it needs to be every night. It is my job to work tirelessly to make sure that is what Runnin’ Rebel basketball becomes from this point forward. Really proud of our guys. Tremendous effort and focus.”
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