Columnist Ron Kantowski: Cox officials upset by move

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2002 | 10:10 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

From the looks of things, "A New Place To Call Home," as the UNLV women's basketball media guide refers to the new $16.8 million Cox Pavilion, may turn out to be little more than a weekend rental.

UNLV officials confirmed Wednesday that the Lady Rebels, deluded by a couple of paper-the-house crowds in the 4,000 range during their last home stand, would be moving their remaining home games into the Thomas & Mack Center.

According to the original schedule, the Lady Rebels were to play 12 of their 15 home games at the Cox, the 78,300-square foot facility adjacent to the T&M that, according to the press release rhetoric, would enable them "to compete at the highest level of college basketball."

Four of the Lady Rebels' final six home games were scheduled for the Cox Pavilion. All six will have been played in the T&M.

Let the record show the Lady Rebels played a grand total of eight games in their new digs before thinking they had outgrown them at least temporarily, and perhaps permanently.

New home? I've had stays at Motel 6 that lasted longer than eight days.

Forget for a moment the check-out time. The bigger issue is that Cox Communications doled out a pretty nice chunk of change -- $ 5 million -- to become the new "(Practice) Home of the Lady Rebels."

"We're disappointed," admitted Cox spokesman Steve Schorr in an early candidate for understatement of the year.

Let's just say that if the cable goes out in the UNLV athletic department during the next few days, it might not have anything to do with calling before digging.

Schorr said a big part of the reason Cox agreed to the hefty sponsorship was that the building would come to be known as the home of UNLV women's athletics. Now it appears that the UNLV volleyball team will be its primary/sole tenant, at least for games.

"Now that they've had some success," Schorr said, alluding to the Lady Rebels' impressive 17-4 record, "the university feels there's a need to move into the Thomas & Mack. I guess if they sold out the Cox Pavilion, I could understand it better."

Fact is the Lady Rebels never came close to filling the Cox Pavilion, which seats a quaint 2,500 for women's basketball. In fact, they only drew four figures once in eight outings in the Cox, and that was for the ribbon-cutting against Cal State Fullerton, when 1,277 bothered to show.

So once again, it would appear UNLV has managed to take a positive situation -- the first tangible proof of interest within the community for its resurgent women's basketball program -- and somehow turn it into a negative.

It's almost as if the Rebels have become the Beaver Cleaver of the Mountain West Conference. Give the UNLV athletic department a birthday cake, and chances are Eddie Haskell's hair will catch fire when it blows out the candles.

Aw, gee, Wally. Here's how "The Beav" goofed up this time:

The sports marketing types, taking their cue from the University of New Mexico's "Pack the Pit" promotion, which resulted in a crowd of 17,000-plus for the Lobos' game against the Lady Rebels last month, decided on a similar approach to UNLV's date with Air Force on Jan. 24. That game was moved from the Cox Pavilion to the Thomas & Mack Center, but instead of offering discounted tickets (as they do in New Mexico), UNLV simply gave them away.

A record crowd of 4,626 took advantage of the handout, and many came back on Saturday night for the rematch with New Mexico, when ticket stubs from the Air Force game were honored. The live gate that night was 4,713 -- another record turnout.

Still not convinced the team can draw on its own, UNLV is planning similar giveaway promotions for each of the four remaining home games. And it doesn't want to risk turning away spectators at the Cox. Hence the decision to play in the spacious Mack, where there's room for everybody and his grandmother, the Baldwin brothers, Liz Taylor's ex-husbands and perhaps even a limb or two off the Kennedy family tree.

"This is where we're at right now," Lady Rebels coach Regina Miller said about having to give away tickets to attract a crowd. "It's great for our players to enjoy playing in front (of a big crowd). We're hoping it doesn't go backwards."

Miller said if Cox officials are upset, she understands. "But as a coach, if there's an opportunity for our players to play in front of 5,000 or 6,000 fans ... I have to do what's best for the team.

"As far as I'm concerned, let's take the roof off the Cox Pavilion and play in front of 5,000 or 6,000."

Therein lies the rub. The original plans called for the Cox to seat 5,000 for women's hoops, but when building costs came in way too high, the pavilion was scaled back. It lost one of its three floors and about half of its seating capacity.

The original building costs were projected at $8.5 million. The finished (sort of) building came in at $16.8 million, forcing UNLV to take out a loan to supplement the Cox sponsorship.

"My feeling is that we shorted that building, and we shorted Cox," University regent Mark Alden said, citing the fact players must ride a freight elevator to reach the arena level of the building and other inadequacies, such as lack of adequate press facilities.

"I understand why we are moving the games, but I think we should have at least consulted with Cox. I've been quoted as saying there needs to be more cohesiveness between the management operations of Cox, Sam Boyd (Stadium), Thomas & Mack and the athletic department. This points out that it still doesn't exist."

Alden would not place the blame on new athletic director John Robinson, suggesting that the decision to move the Lady Rebels games is simply a test to see if a permanent move to the Thomas & Mack is necessary and/or viable.

"John's just trying to inspire them (the players), to help them out," Alden said. "I'm sure he just got some bad advice."

Maybe Alden's onto something. When Robinson was told that Cox management was upset, it seemed to catch him off-guard. Of course, you could also argue that he should have considered the ramifications of such a decision before pulling the trigger.

"I'll be happy to call and tell them I'm sorry," Robinson said earnestly.

"I don't think we need to make a decision (whether the move will be permanent) right now. But it's important to Regina Miller that her program be on the level of the Pac-10 or any other program in the western United States. And (playing in) a big arena has to be part of that.

"What we're trying to do is move the perception of women's athletics forward. This isn't any kind of statement against Cox or anything like that, because Cox is a very good arena for us."

As Alden said, it would be an even better arena if it had 5,000 padded chairback seats instead of 2,500, but what's done is done.

However, Robinson needn't call on Ward and June Cleaver to make this one right. Why not just have the Lady Rebels play three or four marquee games in the Mack every year, and paper the house for those contests? Then charge for the remainder of the schedule at Cox, where 2,000 or so fans can fill the place up and make one hell of a racket.

Works for the Duke men's team, doesn't it?

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