Columnist Ron Kantowski: Orleans is just right for prep gig

Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.

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

As he strolled into the lounge on the mezzanine level of the Orleans Arena Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Jerry Hughes, the executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, took a pass from Steve Stallworth, the facility's general manager, and tossed a jump shot at a miniature rim and backboard set up for the occasion.

It was an airball. Hughes' shot was blocked by the low ceiling, a bit of symbolism that seemed appropriate in announcing that after an 18-year hiatus, the state boys' and girls' basketball championships will be returning to Southern Nevada Feb. 24-26.

It is the lower ceiling of the two-year-old arena from a seating capacity standpoint that makes it a slam dunk as a biennial site for the prep hoopfest. Provided, of course, Southern Nevada will support it more enthusiastically than the last time it was here.

As Hughes recalled, the 1987 Battle of the Vikings -- South Tahoe's from Northern Nevada and Valley's from the South -- was more lightly attended than the graduation ceremony at Ridgemont High.

"It was pretty pathetic for a state championship game," Hughes said of the basketball season's marquee event that was played in front of nearly 18,000 empty seats and a couple of custodians at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The tournament made a hasty exit and was played in Carson City in 1988. The year after that, it moved to Lawlor Events Center on the Nevada-Reno campus, where it has been ever since.

While Reno has by and large embraced the tournament, the boys' championship game generally has featured two Las Vegas-area schools, part of the reason that playing the tournament here makes sense.

The other is the Orleans Arena. Before it opened, the only tournament site options in Southern Nevada were the much-too-big T&M and the bit-too-small high school gyms. With its 7,500 seating arrangement for basketball, the Orleans is like baby bear's porridge, only with a marble concourse and a state-of-the-art message board.

Unlike in the Norman Dale states, where they hang rims from barn doors and still believe in the bounce pass, high school basketball has really never caught on in Nevada, where there are so many entertainment options. But at least with a moderately sized arena such as the Orleans coming on board, there's now a suitable place to play high school hoops in Southern Nevada other than Sunset Park when the wind's not blowing.

I remember bumping into Marc Ratner, the chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and head of the local high school officials association, during the arena's soft opening. There was a light bulb shining over his head.

"I've gotta call Dr. Hughes and tell him about this place," Ratner said.

That's basically where the idea of bringing the tournament back to Las Vegas originated.

"On the first week on the job I got a call from Marc Ratner," Stallworth said. "Then I got another call from Marc Ratner. And then Marc Ratner called again, asking me to get with Dr. Hughes and make it happen down here."

Hughes said the Orleans made the NIAA a sweetheart deal, letting it have use of the building and its meeting rooms -- the NIAA will also hold its Hall of Fame banquet and athletic directors and cheerleading conferences in conjunction with the tournament -- for the same rental fee it paid for Lawlor. In return, the NIAA agreed to let the Orleans sell sponsorships to offset its operating expenses.

The goal from the landlord's standpoint is only to break even. So were it not for Coast Casinos chairman Michael Gaughan's philanthropy and the fact that Stallworth has a regulation basketball court that only gets used by the Harlem Globetrotters, Las Vegas wouldn't be an option. Then Palo Verde, Bishop Gorman and Cheyenne, et al, would be headed back to Virginia Street during Frozen Spit season.

The Orleans Arena is best known as home of the Las Vegas Wranglers hockey team, but Stallworth said it could just as easily be a basketball arena, if anybody were interested in playing ball there.

Lots of UNLV basketball fans grumble about the Rebels having to go on the road during the National Finals Rodeo. But Stallworth said when he tried to talk business with athletic department officials, they weren't interested.

The NIAA's thinking apparently is a little more forward (or a little less backward) than the NCAA's when it comes to holding an athletic event down the hall from -- gasp! -- a roulette wheel and a blackjack table.

"No. 1, it's not in a casino, it's adjacent," Hughes said of the Arena, situated on the back parking lot of the resort. "And No. 2, this is Nevada, where casinos are legitimate business in our state. This isn't something we see as an issue at all."

Like most everything else about the Orleans, tournament tickets will be reasonably priced -- all-event passes, $15 for adults and $10 for students, will go sale after the holidays. Combined with the Orleans' marketing muscle, the cheap tickets should give the event a chance to succeed where it failed in the past.

"You won't be able to walk around the bowling alley or sit down at a buffet and not know we're going to be hosting the high school basketball tournament in February," Stallworth said.

Hughes said the goal was to fill 5,000 of the Arena's 7,500 seats for the boys championship game. In that he senses an interest level that wasn't here before, he thinks that's doable.

"Over the years, I think we've had three press conferences," Hughes said. "But this is the first time people actually showed up."