Columnist Ron Kantowski: Regent’s ticket plan got shut out at UNLV

Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2001 | 11:41 a.m.

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

Sometimes the price of poker increases (except perhaps at Binion's Horseshoe) and UNLV probably felt it had little recourse -- especially considering the athletic department is facing a $750,000 budget deficit -- other than to up the ante on football and basketball season tickets.

But it could have shown a little finesse in doing it.

It could have put its sports marketing team on the job, or just dialed up University Regent Mark Alden.

A lot of people have said a lot of things about Alden over recent years, including the one guy who paid for a billboard that suggested Alden is so far out he requires a flying saucer. But you have to concede he had a pretty good plan for instituting the ticket bump.

Alden said what UNLV should have done was inform fans that the ticket hike was coming, then offer them the opportunity to renew their seats before the increase took effect -- at a 10-percent savings.

Alden suggested the offer could have been made at the end of the basketball season through June 30, at which time tickets would be raised 20 percent.

Instead, UNLV A.D. Charlie Cavagnaro didn't tell anybody about jacking ticket prices -- including his own president -- before he made it official. Observers say that probably was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as Cavagnaro's potential for longtime employment at UNLV.

On second thought, maybe it was a good thing Alden kept his plan to himself.

Invite one of them to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch, a la the Chicago Cubs.

Initially, the Cubs thought they would have trouble finding guest crooners to warble at Wrigley Field as their late play-by-play announcer, Harry Caray, had for so many years. The 51s do a similar routine, with announcer Russ Langer doing the singing and then tossing bags of peanuts to fans.

But Langer is no Stephen Tyler.

"It's disappointing when Aerosmith calls and you have to tell them you have no openings," John McDonough, the Cubs' vice president of marketing, told Crain's Chicago Business magazine.

Others who have taken their turn at the mike include Mel Gibson, Dick Clark, Gov. Jesse Ventura, Donald Trump, alternative rockers Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder, and of coach, Coach (Mike) Ditka of Da Bears.

With Las Vegas' abundant supply of entertainers with big names and politicians with big egos, the 51s would never lack for guest singers.

Stapp believes the dietary supplement creatine, which many athletes use to repair and/or freshen muscles after a strenuous workout, may be part of the reason heat-related deaths have been on the rise.

Stapp said his son has done some research and found that creatine also acts as a dehydration agent.

William Stapp, 68 and a physical fitness buff, had a slightly different reaction upon trying the drug. He said after digesting a week's supply his breasts began to grow.

* BELL LAP: There's a new face in the UNLV sports information department as Marlene Navor has been hired to help get the word out on women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, and track and field/cross country. Hopefully, Navor won't find staffing Lady Rebels games much of a letdown after working in athletic communications for the juggernaut UConn women last year. ... At least one college basketball program has come to its senses, abolishing the tired tradition of opening college basketball practice with "Midnight Madness" on Oct. 15. "It had its moment ... (but) I think that wave has crested," said Xavier A.D. Mike Bobinski about the Musketeers' decision to stop the Madness. UNLV, despite being situated in the ultimate 24-hour town, never has shown much interest in lacing up the high-tops at midnight. ... Those boos you heard during the latter half of the sixth round probably had more to do with the time that Wladimir Klitschko stopped Las Vegan Charles Shufford in Saturday night's heavyweight fight (2:55 of the sixth) at Mandalay Bay, than the performance of either fighter. The over-under round proposition was 5 1/2 and sources said a lot of the big money was on the under.