Saturday’s Mountain West Title Game At Allegiant Stadium Will Be Modified UNLV Home Game With A Few Wrinkles
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
The Mountain West Conference championship game between UNLV and Boise State at Allegiant Stadium will have the look of a modified UNLV home game with the UNLV and Rebels logos on the field Saturday.
But there will be some wrinkles.
LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Javan Hedlund, MWC senior associate commissioner of external communications strategy, to find out how the Mountain West will stage the contest.
When it comes to sponsors, Hedlund explained, UNLV’s normal advertisers like Star Nursey and Findlay will not have signage at the title game that starts at 12 noon.
Instead, Mountain West’s sponsors like Gatorade and ZenWTR will have signage at the stadium.
UNLV sponsors had the option to pay to be sponsors at the championship game, but none signed up, Hedlund said. Companies often have a budget cycle for sponsorships and may not have had funds to pay for a one-off football title game.
And while UNLV is selling tickets for the MWC championship, the conference will hand out honorariums to both the Rebels and Boise State for their appearances in the title game.
Boise State has an allotment of tickets that university can sell and use.
UNLV typically spends about $350,000-$370,000 per home game to rent Allegiant Stadium from the Raiders.
But Saturday’s game expenses will be paid for by the conference, Hedlund said.
The Mountain West Conference football championship game is much different than when the conference pays UNLV to use the Thomas & Mack Center as a neutral court for its basketball tournament in March.
Some conferences stage their football championship at a neutral site. But since the Mountain West Conference started its football championship game in 2013, the team with the best regular season record has hosted the game.
Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez will conduct the coin toss and the conference will have a stage after the game for an awards ceremony.
The MWC game at noon Saturday will follow the Pac-12 title game between Oregon and Washington at 5 PM Friday at Allegiant Stadium.
