Columnist Ron Kantowski: Why spring into action for baseball?

Thursday, March 23, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at ron@vegas.com or 259-4088.

It must be hard to get a tee time in Las Vegas this time of the year. That would explain why no time and no place has been set for a meeting between the Los Angeles Dodgers (and other Major League Baseball franchises trying to extort more money from their current spring training hosts) and local tourism officials to discuss establishing spring training's equivalent of a Wal-Mart Superstore right here in Las Vegas.

Haven't we been here before?

When local baseball proponents made their first pitch to bring the Boys of Spring to town in 1997, then-mayor Jan Jones indignantly fouled it off. Armed with her own study, she said it was hard to justify spending $60 million to attract a not-so-grand total of 19,000 additional tourists to the Valley.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board voted down the proposal, 9-3.

So what has changed since then? Well, we have a new mayor, who has given his cellular phone number to any pro sports franchise that expresses the slightest bit of discontent with its current arrangement. In about 10 years, when our population is large enough to support a pro team, that should prove to be sound strategy.

But the baseball complex is an even bigger ticket item today. Think Cher-at-the-MGM prices. If it was $60 million three years ago, it's probably $90 million today. Who besides Steve Wynn is walking around with that kind of wad? Certainly not the LVCVA, which last year began cutting support of local sporting events and almost axed the popular Big League Weekend of exhibition games.

Another thing that has changed is now that they have the option of buying a ticket to games that count, fans in Florida and Arizona aren't turning out like they used to for ones that don't. That's why some of the spring training sites are starting to play hardball with their MLB clients.

Having outgrown autograph collecting when I was about 12, I don't really see a need for having spring training here. The games, to a point, are a nice diversion. But Big League Weekend is the perfect fix. By the time BLW comes to town, most of the rooks with jersey numbers in the 70s have been reassigned to the minor league camp.

The novelty of paying good money to watch a double-A shortstop boot a routine ground ball will wear off in a hurry here.

But the bigger issue is how these spring training locales have allowed Major League Baseball to hold them hostage when it comes to building these superfluous facilities.

Name another pro sport where training camps come with all the options. In the NFL, most teams train at remote colleges that usually have a hyphen in their name. The last time I checked, the Denver Nuggets held their preseason camp at Northern Colorado University. Does anybody know where NHL teams train? Does anybody care?

If the Dodgers want to have spring training in Las Vegas, I'll bet they could get dibs on Cashman Field and some cheap rooms at the Las Vegas Club. There are a couple of diamonds out in Henderson where the guys wearing No. 74 could do sit-ups. And it's only a 4 1/2-hour bus ride from here to Peoria, Ariz., the winter home of the San Diego Padres (3 1/2 if you don't get stuck behind an 18-wheeler in Wikieup), so scheduling a few exhibition games wouldn't be a problem.

On second thought, I believe we are ready for spring training right now.