Columnist Ron Kantowski: Is UNLV TV deal worth it?

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

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

Ask Charlie Cavagnaro about UNLV's new sports television package, and he'll put a spin on it that would make Al Gore and George W. Bush blush.

The UNLV athletic director doesn't need a pulpit to tell you what a good deal he helped engineer. By the time he's done talking about the $800,000 check the athletic department will receive this year for parting with its broadcast rights and the unprecedented exposure the football team will be granted -- when was the last time the Rebels had nine games on TV? -- you'll be convinced the contract is the best thing to hit TV since the big screen and a satellite signal.

At least at first.

But then it may occur to you that more is not necessarily better when it comes to televising football from a business standpoint. And it makes you wonder if this deal is even worth rabbit ears and aluminum foil.

Name another school (outside of the Mountain West) that puts its home games on free TV and I'll show you a program that ... well, is gonna be a serious underdog against Nebraska.

Of course, if you're a Rebel fan, you've got to love that home games against Nevada-Reno, Air Force, Wyoming and New Mexico are now available on local TV. Traffic too backed up for the Reno game? No worries, just kick up your feet and watch it on the tube. If the weather turns nasty (as expected) this Saturday, not a problem. Pop open a cold one and watch the Rebels and Lobos do some leather poppin' on TV.

"If we had to pick and choose and had our druthers, clearly there are some times when you would not want the games on TV," Cavagnaro conceded.

Such as every time UNLV plays at home. But Cavagnaro said the negatives -- sparser crowds and shorter lines at the Sam Boyd Stadium concession lines -- are more than offset by the revenues and exposure the UNLV football and basketball teams will receive as a result of the MWC's six-year pact with ESPN Regional Television.

I might argue that a recruit on the West Coast watching the Rebels and New Mexico do battle in a half-empty stadium could wind up signing with Fresno State instead.

That said, this year's $800,000 windfall and the annual $1 million share UNLV will reap over the life of the contract beginning next year probably justifies the Mountain West's decision to join forces with ESPN -- at least until the two-year-old conference has something more to sell than the Ghost of BYU Past.

But that is a conference pact, and UNLV really had no choice but to go along. The Rebels actually have two TV deals, and it's the one with SportsWest Productions that seems a little on the dubious side. UNLV and six other MWC schools sold the rights to any games that ESPN (and parent network ABC) didn't want to SportsWest, a company that insiders say was hurting for business before scavenging the MWC for leftovers.

It was SportsWest that televised the home games against UNR and Wyoming. Nobody knows for sure how much cash UNLV is getting from SportsWest, but suffice to say it's a lot less than the ESPN deal -- or Utah would have signed up as well.

So this precinct is going to need a little more time before casting a vote in favor of the new TV package(s).

Just call me Florida.