UNLV’s Turnaround Season Continues Friday With 34-14 Win Over Wyoming, But What Will It Take To Draw More Fans To UNLV Football Games And Fill Allegiant Stadium??
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
The upper bowl at UNLV football games at Allegiant Stadium is empty. It was empty again Friday night when the resurgent Rebels defeated a tough Wyoming team to win their eighth game out of ten contests this season.
The university, which pays more than $350,000 a game to the Raiders to play in the stadium managed by the NFL team, announced a crowd of 25,568 fans for UNLV’s 34-14 win over Wyoming Friday night.
How will UNLV get more fans to its football games and get people in the stadium’s upper bowl?
“Keep winning,” said Dan Dolby, UNLV’s Learfield general manager overseeing sports properties and sponsorships. “This town loves a winner.”
It’s a 62,500-seat football stadium, so 25,568 fans means less than one-half of the seats in the building have a fan sitting in them. Keep in mind UNLV paid the Raiders $354,141 to $371,775 a game to rent the stadium for its six games in 2022.
But now a football program with a legacy of losing sports an eight-win, two-loss season, with new coach Barry Odom telling his team that it can write a new narrative and put the losing years behind the program.
“It’s a new team. You get to write your story,” Odom told his players.
Let’s change the narrative — UNLV football coach Barry Odom
The Rebels jumped out to a 21-0 lead after the first 11 minutes of the game, saw Wyoming cut the lead to 21-14 at halftime and then salted the game away by shutting out the Cowboys in the second half for the 34-14 win.
The Rebels travel to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for a giant Mountain West Conference showdown with the conference-leading Falcons. UNLV has a shot at winning the conference with only two conference games left.
Who saw that coming when the practices began Aug. 3?
Through the years, UNLV has tried every type of coach from the big name John Robinson to the local high school coach Tony Sanchez since the program’s first year in 1968.
But UNLV Athletic Director Erick Harper did not waste time after last season’s 5-7 record to fire former coach Marcus Arroyo and hire Odom, a former Missouri coach who was the Arkansas defensive coordinator.
Odom coached in front of giant crowds at the Southeastern Conference. But the UNLV football crowd does not require police to close the Hacienda Avenue bridge to allow fans to walk from the Strip to the stadium. UNLV’s attendance is just not big enough.
Earlier in the week, LVSportsBiz.com posed a question on social media about why UNLV does not draw more fans to football games with the team playing competitive, exciting football. The LVSportsBiz.com question on X drew nearly 19,000 views and lots of responses.
Many focused on the fact that it will simply take years to reverse the history of losing, while others said parking was too expensive at the stadium.
For tonight’s UNLV/Wyoming game, the cheapest ticket was $31.
Less than two miles away, the Vegas Golden Knights drew a crowd of 18,423 for a 5-0 win over San Jose than improved the VGK record to 12-2-1 after 25 games.
The Knights have showed Las Vegas what a winning team brings — sellouts.
The Rebels are trying for the same thing.
