Columnist Ron Kantowski: Lady Rebels making effort to fill seats

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

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

While it might seem perplexing that UNLV would target the upcoming Air Force game at the Thomas & Mack Center -- a weak opponent in a cavernous arena that will appear empty, even with 4,000 spectators in it -- to promote the attention-starved Lady Rebels, at least it's a step in the right direction.

UNLV has kinda, sorta let it out (there has been no official news release yet) that it will launch a ticket giveaway in an effort to put some fans in the stands for the Jan. 24 outing against Air Force. The announced goal -- 4,000 -- seems modest by New Mexico standards, where the Lobos and Lady Rebels played in front of more than 17,000 paying customers on Jan. 6. But at least it's something.

Ben Chulick of the UNLV sports marketing staff credits new athletic director John Robinson for making the Lady Rebels a priority. He said Robinson called multiple meetings in the aftermath of UNLV's victory over New Mexico before that sellout crowd in Albuquerque to get the ball rolling for a similar effort here (although on a much smaller scale).

"That's the first time I've ever met with the A.D. here," Chulick said.

The inference was obvious. Marketing women's sports was not high on former athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro's things-to-do list.

As for choosing the Air Force game -- rather than say, a later contest against nationally ranked Colorado State -- to base the promotion on, Chulick said it was only a matter of wanting to get started as soon as possible.

He said UNLV may conduct a similar fill-some-seats campaign for the Utah game, the regular-season finale set for March 2.

In a regular feature/bit called "The Jump," the magazine printed a series of ink blots and then had sports celebrities "describe" what they saw. (Of course, it wasn't the actual celebrities doing the describing.)

For instance, this is how ESPN The Mag "quoted" ex-Nuggets coach Dan Issel: "No comment. I mean, it actually looks exactly like a chimichanga, but don't quote me on that."

And for George O'Leary: "I must disqualify myself. You see, I invented the inkblot test."

So you know former Rebel basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian wasn't going to get off easily.

"It's looks like a diploma," said ESPN, putting words in Tark's mouth, "but I can't be sure."

KRLV was home to a lot of sports -- including NASCAR, the Indianapolis 500, the Anaheim Angels, various pro and college football game telecasts, local high school sports and a bevy of Las Vegas-based call-in shows -- that will have to find new homes, or go away altogether.

Alex Shelton of Nevada Sports, whose company buys air time for the programming mentioned above, said some of the talk show guys already have found new spots on the dial. But Shelton is scrambling like Fran Tarkenton to relocate some of the other sports programming. And he is most concerned about high school sports.

"Right now, we are really searching," said Shelton, who added that KRLV has agreed to carry this year's boys and girls zone and state basketball tournaments, but nothing beyond that.

Shelton said Nevada Sports has had informal talks with KSFN 1140-AM about the prep package, but nothing has been agreed upon.

He said in a worst-case scenario, prep sports would be available only on the Internet next year.

And finally, exotic dancers in the Philippines, consider this a warning: Former UNLV basketball coach Bill Bayno is headed your way, to coach one of your pro basketball teams, and he'll have a lot of dollar bills in his wallet.