Rebels gearing ticket campaign toward families

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

During his head coaching days at Southern Cal, one of John Robinson's strong sales pitches to recruits was to join what longtime alums commonly referred to as "The Trojan Family."

"You can go to Westwood and be a UCLA Bruin for four years," Robinson and his coaches would say, "or you can come to USC and be a Trojan for life."

Now Robinson is hoping to make UNLV athletics more of a family affair.

Robinson announced Monday that the school will debut a Family Fun Zone for home football and men's basketball games starting this fall. The packages, which will run $38 for a family of four at football games and $30 for selected home basketball games, will also include four meals (football only), four giveaway items and special visits from cheerleaders and school mascot Hey Reb.

Families will sit in special alcohol-free sections with additional security and, according to Robinson, "additional potties."

"Our future success depends on developing new fans and building a base and tradition," Robinson said. "The Family Fun Zone is a big step in that direction."

The sections for football games will be on the press box side of the stadium near the UNLV locker room. There will be 1,041 seats available for each game except the season-opener against Wisconsin.

There will be 986 seats set aside for all Saturday regular season Rebel home basketball games (except the Las Vegas Showdown and the Jim Thorpe Classic) in upper level sections 220-223.

"When I was 7 years old living in Chicago, my dad took me to two sporting events -- the NFL vs. the College All-Stars and a Chicago Cubs game," Robinson said. "After that I was hooked for life. I was a sports fan and it was because my dad took me to those games. We want to make it affordable for families here to do that, too."

Robinson also announced the launching of a new online ticketing venture called unlvtickets.com that will begin July 1.

The school's three-year contract with tickets.com expires at midnight June 30. UNLV and the Thomas and Mack decided to take their ticketing in-house with the new site. All university events, including performing arts, athletics and other special events at the Thomas & Mack Center, Sam Boyd Stadium, Cox Pavilion and the university's performing arts venues will be affected.

"I think it's a great thing that our ticket department and the Thomas & Mack ticket department will merge and make this a really good thing," Robinson said.

The merger could signal the end of a rift that had developed between UNLV and the Thomas & Mack in recent years. Coaches have been critical of the T&M for booking events in the facility during the heart of basketball season and also for wearing out the sod at Sam Boyd Stadium during football season with concerts and band competitions.

"It's definitely a beginning," Robinson said of the improved relations. "I feel very strongly about that. I think we are all working for that. I think we will see some extremely positive things in the future along those lines. For both of our futures, we just have to be good partners."