Columnist Ron Kantowski: Deceit in seats good idea at LVMS

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

You've heard the expression that "X" number of spectators attended a game or sporting event disguised as empty seats?

Well, Las Vegas Motor Speedway is taking the opposite approach. It is taking empty seats and disguising them as spectators.

The new Dale Earnhardt Terrace, which will add a net 15,000 seats to LVMS' sprawling grandstands, will be fitted with red, white and blue chair back seats that will be arranged in a mottled pattern.

When viewed from a distance, the effect is dramatic. It gives the appearance that the stands are full.

That should help LVMS and the Indy Racing League avoid embarrassment when the open-wheel series gets around to returning to Las Vegas.

Part of the reason the IRL no longer runs here is all those empty seats on race day that forced the TV cameras to zoom in on the track, to disguise that the event was not very well attended. The trouble with LVMS and all these other NASCAR Winston -- er, Nextel -- Cup venues is that they are so vast, they even look empty even when 70,000 fans turn out.

This is such a good idea that I fully expect the new NFL stadium in Phoenix to adopt a similar approach with its seats when it finally opens in 2006.

Provided it wouldn't force Bill Bidwell to come out of his pocket, that is.

Around the horn

Roy Hammonds, the new "owner" of Las Vegas' latest rumored minor-league pro basketball team, said the reason he hasn't told anybody that our city would have an entry in a 7-team remnant of a league calling itself the American Basketball Association -- even though the other six teams began playing two weeks ago -- is that he "didn't want to hear" how this team, like all the others of its ilk, wouldn't make it here. So he'll have to read it instead: The Rattlers won't make it here, even if they do find a place to play their home games before Dec. 22, the date of their scheduled home opener. If no high school or middle school gym is available, I guess they can always spring for some nets and use the rims at Sunset Park. ...

One of two news releases posted on the ABA website, dated Nov. 7, trumpets the Long Beach Jam's signing of 5-foot-9 Yuta Tabuse, said to be the best point guard in Japan, which is kind of like being the best blues guitarist in Idaho. Let's see, the old ABA had Dr. J., George Gervin, David Thompson, Rick Barry, Dan Issel, George McGinnis, Connie Hawkins, et al, and it didn't survive. So forgive me if I don't see the "new ABA" riding the coattails of Yuta Tabuse to long-term viability, regardless of how many baskets Master P sinks in Tijuana and Juarez. ... No. 4 on the list of nine "positives" the ABA is promoting on its website to counteract several negative articles is that the league "has booked hundreds of hotel rooms," thereby boosting the local economies in its league cities, two of which are in Mexican border towns. The story did n't say whether the league actually had paid for the rooms. While I have never stayed at the Tijuana Hilton or the Juarez H! yatt, I'm sure they are lovely, provided you don't drink the water. ...

Joe Pendry, who will coach the West team in the Jan. 17 Las Vegas All-American Classic college football all-star game at Sam Boyd Stadium, was stunned to learn that somebody actually remembered, in order, the old USFL, that Pendry coached the Pittsburgh Maulers and that former UNLV star and Nevada State Athletic Commissioner Glenn Carano was his starting quarterback. "It wasn't his fault ... we just weren't very good around him," Pendry said, explaining the Maulers' lack of success. And here I thought it was the purple and orange uniforms. ... Southern Cal got Vandalized over the weekend, and this time it had nothing to do with the BCS computers. Nick Holt, a former UNLV football assistant under Wayne Nunnely and currently linebackers coach for the Trojans, has accepted the head job at Idaho. Holt replaces Tom Cable, anot her former UNLV assistant under Nunnely, who was fired after compiling an 11-35 record in four seasons. ...

Who said (besides me) that it's impossible for a Mountain West team to negotiate a home-and-home football series with one of college football's blue bloods? That's exactly what Colorado State did over the weekend, signing to play Southern Cal next Sept. 11 at the Los Angeles Coliseum and 2008 at Invesco Field in Denver. The series will undoubtedly help Rams coach Sonny Lubick get even more entrenched in Southern California, where 30 players on this year's CSU roster grew up. ... Bradlee Van Pelt, CSU's do-it-all quarterback, is recovering nicely from surgery on his broken hand after being injured against UNLV on Nov. 22 and is expected to start in the San Francisco Bowl against Boston College on New Year's Eve. ...

Rich Abajian, another former UNLV football assistant before he decided to make some real money by joining the Findlay automotive team, said there has been some talk about relocating the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame from its current home on the second floor of Findlay Toyota to a location in the Galleria Mall. That way, a lot more people would see it. ... John Moran, the father of longtime Las Vegas 51s ticket manager and executive assistant Denise Korach, was honored at halftime of San Jose State's season finale when the Spartans "retired" his seat on the 45-yard line. Moran was a longtime SJSU booster and fund-raiser. Denise Korach, wife of UNLV basketball and Oakland Athletics play-by-play voice Ken Korach, attended the ceremony in her late father's honor, accompanied by the couple's daughter, Emily. ... The Mountain We st finally picked up a quality basketball win over the weekend, as Rafael Araujo (32 points, 17 rebounds) and BYU be! at No. 25 Oklahoma State 76-71 on a "neutral" court in Salt Lake City. ...

If I were coach of one of UNLV's non-revenue sports, I would spend my entire recruiting budget on a starting lineup and have an entire bench of local players. That way, somebody actually might buy a ticket to the games. So kudos to Lady Rebels coach Regina Miller for signing Mojave High's Sequoia Holmes to a national letter-of-intent. Holmes will become the third local graduate on the UNLV roster, joining Silverado's Nikki Hitchens and Cimarron-Memorial's Tashina Terry.