Columnist Dean Juipe: Decibels up as Gladiators win one

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2003 | 10:05 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Anyone wanting to converse with me today faces one ironclad requirement: They're going to have to speak very loud. Taking in an Arena Football League game will do that to a guy.

What little hearing I had left after a Saturday night metalfest of Dokken, Whitesnake and the Scorpions at Mandalay Bay was curtailed yet again by Monday night's debut of the Las Vegas Gladiators at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The game itself was OK, but the experience came with a price. An overamped public-address announcer, who doubled as a cheerleader, combined with the normal high-voltage music and ancillary nonsense had all but the most resilient of spectators conscious of the noise.

For those who attended -- and the crowd count was certainly respectable -- that ringing in your head will only dissipate with time. You're only temporarily deaf.

Which has me wondering: Has anyone ever done a comprehensive survey in which fans at sporting events are asked if they really enjoy the excessive hollering that p.a. announcers feel compelled to force on them these days? Or is this a lingering trend, some 10 years or so into its informal existence, that would be shortcircuited if team owners and their marketers merely polled their beleaguered crowds?

Besides, it's insulting. Do you really need or want a guy to tell you when to cheer, when to make noise, when to let out a yell for your team?

If you do, then the Arena league -- sans ear plugs -- is right down your alley.

It's a strange game, of course, with a narrow 50-yard field and skinny goal posts and nets behind the end zone, but we knew that already. The AFL was here with the Las Vegas Sting for the 1994 and '95 seasons, and the sport's peculiarities were duly noted -- if not appreciated by our city's endlessly skeptical sports fans.

The Gladiators, however, certainly have a chance to succeed.

People like football, even this ersatz variety, and they like the amenities that come along with it, such as tailgating in the parking lot. The fact that it's the heart of basketball season and that baseball is on the horizon may not hinder the Gladiators' ticket-selling ability whatsoever.

It's football, even if there are only eight men on a side and even if cheerleaders and coaches are allowed on the field with the ball in play. It's football, even with its odd strategies and playground motif.

Of course the Gladiators need to win to build a fan base, and they came through on that count in their home opener by outdistancing the Tampa Bay Storm by the typically outrageous score of 61-55 (in overtime). That makes the Glads 1-2 with 13 games to play, including seven more in Las Vegas on assorted Saturdays and Sundays.

If Arena football is an acquired taste, perhaps, in time, they'll be able to pull back the curtain that limited some of the upper-deck T&M seating and take a stab at selling the building out. I suspect, at the least, that most of those who saw the opener will come back a second time.

But newcomers need to be forewarned: This is definitely not your father's brand of football or entertainment.

It's for the hale and hearty, and for those who would put their heads in a vice if given the chance.