Columnist Dean Juipe: Arena league will learn the hard way

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2002 | 9:23 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Nevada has a stranglehold on what's perceived to be a worthwhile attribute: On a percentage basis, it annually attracts the greatest population growth of any state in the union.

That nugget of information hasn't escaped the attention of anyone who thinks he can make a buck here, including a slew of would-be sports entrepreneurs.

Accordingly, every year or so a sports franchise that we have lived without and would be happy to continue living without either emerges or relocates to Las Vegas.

Its backers routinely espouse the same public sentiments, that the incoming team will fill a gap or a need in our entertainment schedule. Privately, those same backers are thinking in unison: If we can get just 1 percent of this city's newcomers to take an interest in our product, we can turn a tidy profit.

Yet, lo and behold, these new teams and leagues inevitably topple and fold despite their grandiose plans.

They never fail to fail.

So it's dumbfounding when someone comes in and decides to try it again, as will be the case in February when the Arena Football League takes a second stab at this standoffish market.

Ironically, on virtually the same day the owner of the New Jersey Gladiators announced he was moving his team to Las Vegas, this city's most recent unwanted team -- the American Basketball Association's Las Vegas Slam -- confirmed that not only it but its entire league has capitulated after just a single year of existence.

Within 24 hours we lost a team we didn't want and replaced it with another whose fate will all but certainly be the same. It's just a matter of time before the Gladiators, who will play at the Thomas & Mack Center, are added to the roll call of teams that died a predictable death in the desert.

They'll get no sympathy on this end, nor, does it appear, should any be deserved.

The Gladiators, it seems, have a low-life quality to them, running out on their lease, their debts and their few New Jersey fans. They will arrive here with baggage in tow, including what is expected to be at least one lawsuit filed against them by the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority for breach of contract.

Another potential suit may never come to pass, but it has its arguable merits: The team reportedly was selling tickets for the 2003 season as recently as a week ago, even though it obviously had no intention of playing that season in New Jersey.

Isn't this great? The valley's newest team has the appearance of being run by a graduate of the Flim Flam Man school of deceit.

UNLV is among those who should be forewarned: Get your money up front.

As for their product, arena football was tried here in the previous decade and the Sting appeared to be a fairly well-run organization that gave it a good shot. But the team couldn't cut it and, after two years, meekly gave up the ghost.

Its owners learned a lesson that may as well be written in stone. They learned that when it comes to most minor-league sports, we just don't care.

And all those newcomers who find their way to Nevada each year apparently feel the same. They have their own grandiose plans, none of which have anything to do with supporting something as disposable as arena football.