Columnist Dean Juipe: New owners yet to help local teams

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999 | 11:05 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It was just a small item that barely made the paper, and, thankfully, no rush-to-judgment journalist in town tried to sensationalize it.

It had to do with the part-owners of the Las Vegas Stars and Las Vegas Thunder making a bid to buy the Oakland Athletics. There have been times in the past when such a revelation would lead to a speculative (and inaccurate) story that would have had a headline or a teaser like "Are A's Las Vegas bound?"

But in this case, last week's wire story came and went with little notice.

That's appropriate, as the A's will not be moving to Las Vegas under any conditions, even if they are purchased by Peter Guber and Paul Schaeffer.

It's said Guber and Schaeffer -- who formed Mandalay Entertainment and four years ago bought into the Pacific Coast League's Stars and International Hockey League's Thunder -- certainly have the financial wherewithal to buy the Athletics. As it is, they've submitted their credentials for review by Major League Baseball and they may make a formal offer for the A's in the near future.

That's good. Hopefully they'll get the team and sink some badly needed money into it.

But that brings us to this observation: On the surface, these guys haven't done anything for either the Stars or the Thunder. While they've pitched in with a few bucks, there really isn't any outward sign of it.

Maybe it was a misperception, but when Guber and Schaeffer purchased part of Ken and Hank Stickney's teams there were some grand visions bandying about. The incoming owners have strong ties to Hollywood and the movie industry, and there were hints that Las Vegas' minor-league teams might at least become backdrops or have cameo roles in a film or two.

At the very least, with Guber and Schaeffer involved in the Stars and Thunder it was reasonable to expect those teams to increase their profile. Instead, the Stars have coasted along doing their usual business while the Thunder has at least one foot in the grave.

IHL president Doug Moss is in town right now studying the Thunder's sorry situation and somewhere along the line he might ask this very question: "What have Guber and Schaeffer contributed?" Or, "Have they had any positive impact?" Or, "What happened to the financial infusion they supposedly were bringing to the team?"

The Thunder may be playing better of late yet its status as a virtual lame duck hasn't changed. The team is about to be bounced from the Thomas & Mack Center and it has no other attractive option if it wants to stay in Las Vegas beyond this season.

Attendance is down and oftentimes it's far less than what's reported in the box score. Worse yet, the team appears to have cut its advertising budget to all but zero.

For many years the Thunder went strong on print ads, TV ads and bus-stop ads, but those days are in the past. Now if you want to see the Thunder play you had better have a schedule in your pocket, because the team's owners aren't doing much of anything to entice you to a game.

If the Thunder actually folds or moves this summer, Guber and Schaeffer deserve part of the blame for sitting on their hands/wallets. In Texas parlance, their failure to open the vaults makes it look like they were all hat and no cattle.

Either that or they're saving their bankroll for the A's.