Columnist Ron Kantowski: Federation Cup tennis, anyone? Anyone?

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday. His page one column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

If last week's Federation Cup represented Las Vegas' best chance to land a regular men's or women's pro tennis tour stop ... then Las Vegas can forget about landing a regular men's or women's pro tennis tour stop.

The crowds at the four-day event, women's tennis' answer to the Davis Cup, were abysmal. The body count was generously estimated at 3,000 for the weeknight matches, and 5,000 for matches played Friday and Saturday.

In terms of local interest, this Cup runneth under.

Forget spacious Mandalay Bay. They could have held the Fed Cup at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the UNLV campus or even Sunset Park, for that matter. When I drove by last week, at least two of the lighted courts were vacant.

But this is one instance where you can't pin the city's indifference on the city's mostly indifferent sports fans. It was as if the tournament did everything within its power not to draw a crowd.

For starters, the promoters based the advance tickets campaign on the sensational and wildly popular Williams sisters. The only problem was that neither Venus nor sister Serena played -- nor planned to play -- in the Fed Cup.

Instead of using the likenesses of Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles, superstars in their own right, to generate ticket revenue, Mandalay Bay wound up alienating those fans who either paid good money or planned to pay good money to watch the Williams sisters play.

Fault.

Then there was the schedule. Matches were played at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday and noon on Friday and Saturday. That might have worked for TV viewers on the East Coast, but forced local fans to call in sick or leave work early to witness the opening sets.

Double fault.

Given those circumstances, you didn't have to be Bud Collins or Mary Carillo to deduce that the Fed Cup was destined to be a flop, at least from an appearance standpoint.

Around the horn

"I would have much rather come back and played a low RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) team that we knew we could beat," Bayno said, referencing the Rebels' 1-2 effort last week at the Maui Invitational.

But that's exactly what the Rebels thought they were getting when they scheduled Northridge, which only recently joined the irrelevant (at least in Division I hoops) Big Sky Conference. Up until the Matadors knocked off UCLA at Pauley Pavilion last week, the initials CSN usually conjured images of a fading rock band, not fadeaway jump shots.

Let's not forget, however, that the Big Sky Conference is only 10-35 in its NCAA Tournament history. Even its best team should not be able to compete against a team of UNLV's talent -- or at least its basketball pedigree -- bucket for bucket.

Las Vegas Bowl officials announced Monday that barring a sellout (which has never happened), the Dec. 21 postseason college football game at Sam Boyd Stadium would be blacked out in Las Vegas.

Then earlier today, Cox Communications faxed over a statement that said a blackout of Saturday's Felix Trinidad-Fernando Vargas welterweight championship fight at Mandalay Bay is also in effect.

Cox said "negotiations are continuing" to lift the blackout but added there are "currently no plans" to lift it. Which means that local fans will not be able to purchase the bout on the cable system's pay-per-view channels.

According to Cox, fight ads have been airing on local channels, causing confusion whether Cox will carry the fight. The cable company said the fight will be aired only if the bout's promoter, Don King, decides to lift the blackout.

The arena is not yet sold out and pay-per-view buys for most marquee bouts held this year have been flagging.