Columnist Dean Juipe: Stadium squabble could put Chargers on the move

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | 9:55 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.

Notes today, leading off with this not-so-random thought: The heck with the Montreal Expos, Las Vegas might soon be in position to go after the San Diego Chargers.

The Chargers, who have the first pick in this weekend's NFL draft, are having stadium problems with the City of San Diego. They want a new stadium and the city, insiders say, doesn't want to build it. If a May 2 deadline for a verbal agreement passes, the Chargers will become a free agent of sorts with the right to begin the relocation process. The guys who are trying to lure the Expos here should take note: Football would be a much easier sell. ... The Las Vegas Country Club looked beautiful hosting the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour last week, yet the members have agreed to shut the course down in a couple of weeks for three months to replace the greens. Looks can be deceiving, I guess.

The Kenyans and Ethiopians who dominate events such as Monday's Boston Marathon are inspired, in part, by the great financial rewards. Little is ever said or written about prize money for marathoners, but the Boston winners are apt to take home as much as $200,000 apiece; it's $80,000 in official prize money to win, plus another $75,000 to $120,000 in bonuses from sponsors and apparel companies. But take this into account as well: A family of four in Kenya or Ethiopia can live comfortably on $300 per month (in the U.S. currency equivalent). ... Bonus marathon tidbit: It takes only seven seconds for blood to circulate through the body, from head to toe, for someone in the midst of running a lengthy race.

Did you even know there was a Western Nevada Community College? There is, in Carson City, and it is planning on introducing baseball and women's soccer programs within the year. Trying to avoid the financial trauma that caused the Community College of Southern Nevada to drop programs in men's basketball, women's basketball and women's soccer, WNCC is looking to generate the needed $200,000 per year via fundraising events such as one hosted by former baseball star Steve Garvey two weeks ago. WNCC is either overly ambitious or it's onto something that CCSN ought to copy. ... Here's a rarity, a boxer retiring with an undefeated record. It almost never happens, of course, but super middleweight Sven Ottke -- who held the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association championships -- recently called it quits with a perfect record of 34-0.

Former, unloved UNLV basketball coach Rollie Massimino is living in Tequesta, Fla., and allegedly playing 27 holes of golf a day off the $1.9 million severance he received from the school. He's 69 and suffered a stroke last year but, apparently, he's well enough to live a life of leisure at UNLV's expense. ... Of the 65 men's basketball teams that competed in this year's NCAA tournament, 44 fell beneath the 50-percent graduation rate that reformers have proposed as a minimum standard to qualify for postseason play. The tournament's finalists, Connecticut and Georgia Tech, each graduated only 27 percent of their basketball players during the most recent six-year period that was studied. An easy conclusion: No way the NCAA is going to boot all those teams out of a tournament and impose the rigid standard that has been suggested.

Terry Kennedy, the new manager of the Las Vegas 51s, lost his job as starting catcher for the San Diego Padres in 1986 when a farmhand from Las Vegas, the popular Benito Santiago, was summoned to replace him in the lineup. ... Frank Haege, who coaches the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena Football League, has to be on thin ice. His team is 3-7 after going 8-8 last season and 9-5 in 2002. It's said he's on good terms with team owner Jim Ferraro, but if the Gamblers lose Sunday at home to Detroit I wouldn't be surprised to see Haege go. ... After Phil Mickelson won the Masters golf tournament it was suggested that now it will be easier for him to win a second major. But it certainly isn't automatic, as a number of great players -- Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman and David Duval among them -- won one but have yet to win another.

I don't know Michael Douros and would rather not, but give him credit for moxie. Appearing before a federal judge in Utah, Douros was found guilty of obtaining fraudulent loans to buy large blocks of tickets to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Undeterred, Douros asked the judge to postpone or set aside his 21-month jail sentence -- which is to begin May 1 -- so that he could go to Athens and find and sell tickets to the 2004 Games there. The judge declined the offer.