Columnist Steve Carp: Las Vegas is looking at a big weekend

Steve Carp

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 10:08 a.m.

PLEASE, TAKE YOUR hands off the panic button. Everything's going to be just fine.

You're going to have a place to stay. You may have to pay a small vig to the airline to change your flight, but you'll still get here. And besides, you can take in a little hoops before race day.

The news that NASCAR moved its Winston Cup date for the Las Vegas 400 from late February to early March set off a few tremors across the valley, and a couple beyond the desert.

"What about my hotel reservations?" "I already have a flight booked." "Can I still rent a car?" Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Take a chill pill, everyone. Truth be known, it's going to be better -- both for you and for the city.

Las Vegas doesn't have what amounts to "The Great Sports Weekend" in terms of live events. Sure, when we have a megafight here, it sometimes coincides with another big event such as the Super Bowl, the Final Four or the Breeders' Cup, something that will draw patrons into the sports books at the hotels.

But we rarely have two big events going on live to draw interest. You can argue that the Western Athletic Conference championship football game and the National Finals Rodeo make for a pretty good weekend. Or the Las Vegas Bowl-Las Vegas Shootout football-basketball parlay isn't a bad way for a sports fanatic to spend a day.

However, it doesn't come close to approaching a Winston Cup race combined with the finals of a conference basketball tournament -- especially if UNLV is one of the finalists. That has the makings of a "Great Sports Weekend."

Each event does well on its own. The WAC tourney set an attendance record last year thanks to the staying power of Bill Bayno's Rebels. An encore performance would ensure similar numbers at the turnstiles at the Thomas & Mack March 2-6.

Piggyback that to the NASCAR weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, home to the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event in Nevada. Figure on another crowd approaching 135,000 for the Winston Cup race on Sunday, March 7 and another 70,000 or so for the Busch Grand National Series race the day before and you're going to have a lot of filled hotel rooms.

While the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority probably would prefer to see the events kept separate to spread out the occupancy numbers, neither event would fill up the city's 103,000 hotel rooms on its own.

But with the two events running simultaneously, you've got a shot at seeing the "No Vacancy" signs flashing up and down the Strip.

The folks at Las Vegas Events, who promote the WAC tourney, aren't worried. Richie Clyne, who runs the speedway, isn't worried. So if they're not concerned, neither should you.

If you live here, you should take advantage of the opportunity. If you're from out of town and reading this on the Sun's website, make those travel adjustments and plan to enjoy yourself. Or if you haven't made up your mind whether or not to come out here, it's not too late.

Those who know will tell you -- nobody throws a party like Las Vegas. And if the town can handle COMDEX and not break a sweat, it sure can deal with a Great Sports Weekend.