Officials pleased with record crowd

Friday, Dec. 22, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.

At halftime of Las Vegas Bowl IX, Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson scanned the Sam Boyd Stadium stands from the press box and decided he liked what he saw.

Although Thompson didn't see a sold-out stadium, he did see the seeds of what he said he hopes will bloom into a long-term partnership with the Las Vegas Bowl.

A Las Vegas Bowl-record crowd of 25,868 watched local favorite UNLV defeat Southeastern Conference representative Arkansas 31-14 Thursday night in the 36,800-seat facility. The total paid attendance of 29,113 also was a game record.

"You just don't go from 20,000 (fans) to 40,000 overnight," Thompson said. "We set an attendance record ... and the Mountain West Conference is looking at helping grow with this bowl.

"You always want to have a full house, but that will come in time."

Both Thompson and Las Vegas Bowl managing director Tina Kunzer-Murphy said one of the things the bowl committee will consider is whether to move the game to the week after Christmas.

The matchups for this year's Las Vegas Bowl were not decided until Dec. 3, which gave game organizers only 18 days to promote the teams and Arkansas fans less than three weeks to make plans to attend the game.

"Had (Arkansas) been given five weeks notice instead of two weeks notice, maybe things would have been a little it better," Thompson said.

Kunzer-Murphy agreed.

"It would have been nice to have (a set matchup) early on; it really made it difficult to get all these (Arkansas) people here in such a short time," Kunzer-Murphy said.

"That is one of the things we keep looking at: Do we move the game back until after Christmas. This year, we waited, really, until the last possible minute ... but in the end it turned out great."

Like Thompson, Kunzer-Murphy was pleased with the turnout in light of pregame predictions of a crowd of only 20,000. It is believed the local television blackout of the game led to a stronger walk-up crowd than anticipated.

"I thought it was a great crowd," she said. "I don't know if Arkansas sold more tickets or not, but (the stadium) filled in pretty well.

"With 25,000 in the house, it was a great college football atmosphere ... we're delighted."

Kunzer-Murphy also said the Las Vegas Bowl committee will look into having a permanent tie-in with the Southeastern Conference as opposed to an at-large opponent for the Mountain West Conference representative.

"It was a great game and it was great having the SEC here," she said. "I talked to their associate commissioner and he said they like coming to Las Vegas.

"Now it's up to our selection committee to decide whether we tie up (with the SEC) or do we leave it open."

Thompson left no doubt that he wants the Mountain West Conference involved in the Las Vegas Bowl for many years to come.

"There are people in our league who would like to see our champion come here," Thompson said. "We're playing in a bowl right now (the Liberty Bowl) that has a $1.2 million payout, so it's hard for us to look past that.

"This (Las Vegas) bowl is very important to our conference ... and it is a bowl we hope to be in forever and we are committed to working with the (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority) and the Las Vegas Bowl to help them be successful."