Columnist Ron Kantowski: Las Vegas emerges as a real minor player

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2002 | 10:29 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.

The cover page of this week's e-mail from the Women's American Football League (WAFL) proclaims "There Can Be Only One!"

Unless, of course, the subject is minor league hockey franchises that plan to call Las Vegas home by 2003-04.

If there was any doubt Las Vegas is still a minor league city when it comes to team sports, it was quashed in the last couple of days with reports of not one but two lower level hockey teams coming to town, to play in not one but two minor league arenas (at least in terms of seating capacity) -- one downtown and one at the Orleans.

And then the missive from the WAFL arrived, stating that league is sticking to a story the Sun first reported in August, that women's pro football is coming to a high school field near you next season.

Man, how much euphoria can one city withstand in the span of a week?

My body looks like a giant red welt, from nonstop pinching. The way we're going, it's only a matter of time until the Jack Warden Film Festival lands in Boulder City.

All jokes aside, the WAFL proposal seems a little shaky -- think of the XFL on a tightrope after a 12-pack of Budweiser. A call to WAFL headquarters in Daytona Beach Monday resulted in two rings, followed by a tone last heard on the Seaview from the old "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" TV show.

And here you thought Vince McMahon had inherited the only set of keys to the "Flying Sub."

There was also an apology on the WAFL release that read as follows: "The WAFL would like to sincerely apologize to all of the fans expecting the Arizona-Sacramento game to be broadcast. The league is very disappointed also. There was no signal from Sacramento."

Every time the Brahmas hold Bikini Night, it pads (small pun intended) attendance by about 3,000 paying customers.

Brahmas GM Mike Barack said the club has faced little or no backlash since beginning the annual bikini promotions.

That wasn't the case with the defunct Las Vegas Thunder. Devoid of entrants for its one and only Bikini Night, Thunder brass recruited ringers from local topless joints the night before the game to fill out (another small pun intended) the roster.

Season ticket holders were outraged. Most season ticket holders, anyway. In my section, a bunch of guys smoking cigars started a poker game.

Nevertheless, there was so much backlash over Bikini Night here that it was put on ice for good.

Give new athletic director John Robinson credit for trying to create some interest in the Lady Rebels. Put down the marketing staff for a fumble.

It may have intended to tuck Robinson's idea away and run with it, but like Tom Brady against the Raiders on Saturday, it appears to have dropped the ball.

In a related note, Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight doesn't have a distant cousin named Beavis. But put Butthead in a coaching sweater and give Knight a Metallica t-shirt and you might not be able to tell them apart.

That said (and as anybody who watched Tech run Oklahoma State out of the west Texas town of Lubbock on national TV Saturday will confirm), it also should be noted that the man sure knows his hoops.

And finally, the day of intrastate basketball games featuring teams from Northern Nevada against their Southern counterparts at Durango High commemorating the Martin Luther King holiday is such a good idea, it makes you wonder how anybody around here thought it up.