Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Ron Kantowski: Stickney’s new project also involves stars

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4088.

One of the more bizarre rumors making the rounds this week is that Las Vegas Stars managing director Ken Stickney has divorced himself from the day-to-day operations of the minor league ballclub -- one of four he and his father Hank co-own -- to pursue an acting career.

Cynics and local hockey fans would say the younger Stickney already is an actor -- he acted as if he cared about the future of the Las Vegas Thunder franchise (which he and his dad also founded) before it was put into mothballs last spring following a lease dispute with the Thomas & Mack Center.

But Stars president Don Logan, whose picture appears on the page after Ken Stickney's in the team's new media guide, had to stifle a laugh when queried about Stickney's Hollywood aspirations.

"You'll have to ask Ken about his acting career," Logan said.

But there is at least a bit of substance to the rumor. According to Logan, Stickney will head a new venture called Mandalay Sports & Urban Entertainment, a joint venture between SFX Entertainment, Space Station Television (SSTV) and Mandalay Sports Entertainment, which has controlling interest in the Stars and the three Class A teams also operated by the Stickneys.

The new entity will specialize in sports-themed projects with an urban flavor such as the upcoming TNT film "On Hallowed Ground," about Harlem's famed Rucker Park playground basketball courts; and "The Supreme Court," which chronicles the development of basketball in America.

Sean "Puffy" Combs is listed as the star of the first project. No word if Ken "Stuffy" Stickney will be his co-star.

But Logan, who said he still bounces all things Stars related off Stickney before acting on them, said the new projects may limit Stickney to a cameo role at Cashman Field this summer.

That may be how the rumor started.

* MORE STARS: According to a source close to the club, veteran Stars play-by-play announcer Jon Sandler didn't resign to "pursue other opportunities," as a perfunctory press release stated just before the Pacific Coast League season got under way. He was fired.

The source said Sandler felt he was above doing "grunt" work and other myriad tasks that usually are assigned to announcers at the triple-A level. Another insider confirmed that Sandler and Stars brass had a difference in philosophy that couldn't be ironed out.

Replacement Russ Langer, who last year worked for the Albuquerque Dukes, has been well received so far by most who follow the club.

* MORE ICING: Yet another rumor that has made it from the grapevine to at least one local talk radio show has the San Jose Sharks moving their American Hockey League affiliate to Las Vegas, where it would begin play in the fall at the Thomas & Mack Center as an International Hockey League franchise.

Giving the rumor some credence is that UNLV basketball coach Bill Bayno confirmed that he had been approached by university officials who took his temperature on the possibility of once again giving up practice time in the Mack.

(For the record, Bayno isn't too concerned about hockey, provided financing for the Cox Pavilion, the Rebels' new basketball practice facility, doesn't totally dry up before the slab of hardwood goes in.)

But Thomas & Mack director Pat Christenson iced this one pretty quickly. He said the earliest the Mack would consider another hockey tenant is fall 2001 and that there have been no discussions with the Sharks.

* IT'S GETTING HARTER: UNLV president Carol Harter and UNLV athletic banquets apparently don't mix.

According to those who were on hand at last Friday's basketball dinner, Harter's remark about Rick Pitino not being able to "carry Bill Bayno's jock" -- her attempt to defuse a crazy rumor perpetuated by a Providence TV station that suggested UNLV was interested in luring away the Celtics' money-grubbing coach -- rubbed many in the audience the wrong way.

And that came on the heels of the Rebel football banquet, where Harter apparently referred to UNLV as "Ohio" and made other verbal goofs at the podium, prompting one local TV sports director to question her role at the dinner, among other things.

Harter also has been conspicuous by her presence at other UNLV sports events. At the recent Mountain West Conference basketball tournament, for instance, one out-of-town observer wanted to know the identity of "the old lady" who was hanging out with Bayno in the Rebels' huddle.

Um, that was the university president.

* AROUND THE HORN: Is it any coincidence that the NFL and NBA drafts are big TV deals while their baseball and hockey counterparts are not? That's because college football and basketball are big TV deals with fans, and college baseball and hockey are not. ... Harder to explain: Why baseball managers are the only coaches in pro or college sports who insist on wearing a uniform. Can you imagine the pre-Slim Fast Frank Layden patrolling the sidelines in a Utah Jazz tank top and baggy shorts? ... Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch, co-founders of the Las Vegas restaurant and brew pub that bears their names, were on hand to serve their specialty garlic french fries to baseball fans at the inaugural San Francisco Giants game at Pacific Bell Park last week. According to Gordon and Biersch, baseball fans last season consumed more than 85 tons of garlic spuds, enough to c over the entire playing field (including foul territory) at old Candlestick Park -- at least on the rare days the wind wasn! 't turning them into mashed potatoes.

archive