Columnist Ron Kantowski: We missed the setup in Formula One race

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

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

Another reason Nevada should secede from the union that Sun sports columnist Dean Juipe did not mention in his tongue-in-cheek column last Friday:

Maybe then we would have a Formula One race in the streets of Las Vegas like they do in Monaco.

In reality, it wouldn't have taken an insurrection to bring the world's most glamorous auto racing series to town, only a little vision on the part of local politicians and resort owners when they had the opportunity to rubber stamp an F-1 proposal a couple of years ago.

For whatever reason (I have yet to hear one that makes sense), they didn't. Which means the United States Grand Prix at Las Vegas will be held 1,854 miles to the east this weekend in Indianapolis.

The engines don't start for "free practice" (as they call it on the other side of the pond) until Saturday. But the inaugural U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis already has exceeded everybody's wildest projections as far as interest level goes.

They sold 250,000 reserved seats for the race -- which is about 249,990 than were purchased Monday for Game 1 of the Triple-A World Series at Cashman Field (our "big" event this week). And they could have sold even more, were the sight lines at cavernous Indianapolis Motor Speedway not quite so horrendous.

But if you want a truly mind-boggling number to mull over, try this one: The race is expected to generate revenues of $170.8 million for the city of Indianapolis.

Regardless of how much money is going into the casino drop box, you shouldn't look gift horsepower in the mouth. Or turn it away.

It's too bad Oscar Goodman wasn't mayor a couple of years ago and wasn't there to greet Bernie Ecclestone when the invisible czar of Formula One came to town on a fact-finding mission (or to sign papers for a Las Vegas race).

Our good mayor may not know the difference between a McLaren-Mercedes and a Chevy Impala -- er, Lincoln Town Car. But he does know a lot about cold, hard cash -- the kind the wine-and-cheese F-1 fans spend indiscriminately wherever they go.

Around the horn

I wish the person responsible for attendance figures at UNLV home football games also processed my Visa balance. UNLV shortchanged the crowd at Saturday's home opener to 16,544 when no matter where you were sitting, Sam Boyd Stadium (cap. 36,800) appeared two-thirds full -- and that doesn't count the bluebloods in the luxury boxes.

If UNLV basketball coach Bill Bayno feels an imposing presence looming over his shoulder this winter, it just might belong to hulking John Thompson, the former Georgetown coach (when Georgetown was good). According to a source, the Hoyatollah bought one of the first homes on the ritzy Street of Dreams in the Seven Hills sector of town for an Allen Iverson-outrageous $2.5 million.

OK, so when the brainiacs at Mississippi State scheduled two basketball games on one day and decided to skip out on playing the Rebels, UNLV had little recourse but to line up an opponent at short notice -- hence, the recently announced game against not-so-mighty Old Dominion. But why go to Norfolk, Va., to play? And why sign to play the Monarchs home-and-home?

I remember when teams such as North Carolina State and Temple and Michigan and UCLA would visit the Thomas & Mack Center. Now the Rebels can't even get an easy mark like Old Dominion to come out and play.

Strange but true: If Dallas is successful in landing the 2012 Summer Olympics, it will name auto racing as one of its demonstration sports. If you think understanding Portuguese is difficult, just wait until a foreign journalist tries to interview American gold-medal hopeful Ward Burton.

Several boxes of Wheaties bearing Ken Griffey Jr.'s picture were pulled off shelves over the weekend when a shopper complained an "off odor" was emanating from them.

I think it was Junior's batting average.

Hits and misses

Last week, a bogus new pro baseball league (National Baseball League) said it wanted to put a team in our sometimes fair city in 2004.

As often stated in this space, there doesn't a week go by when some new league doesn't announce it will be putting a team in Las Vegas. This one, like most of the others, should last about the length of a successful bull ride -- eight seconds. MISS.