THE ELEVATOR

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

Who's headed toward the penthouse on the local sports scene - and who's getting the shaft.

GOING UP

ArenaBowl attendance

Sunday's announced crowd for the indoor football championship at Thomas & Mack Center of 13,476 was not only a significant improvement over last year (10,822), it was pretty close to accurate. It also reaffirmed comedian George Carlin's notion that if you can find two things that have never been glued together before and glue them together, some guy with a camera around his neck will probably buy it.

Las Vegas 51s

That's going up as in to Los Angeles. At last count, 10 guys who started the season with an alien head on their uniform shirt are now wearing Dodger Blue. And yet Las Vegas is still eight games above .500. It's as if the 51s keep changing the names to protect the PCL's innocent.

UNLV at U.S. Open

Two former Rebels - Adam Scott and Chad Campbell - are among a small handful of players who are candidates to cut into Tiger Woods' airtime at Winged Foot this weekend. A share of the final-round lead and a few holes-in-one should probably do it.

GOING DOWN

ArenaBowl on NBC

With ratings flatter than a whoopee cushion, arena football's best option for a new TV contract once NBC officially pulls the plug may be the Outdoor Life Network. When that happens, the 50-Yard Indoor War will join the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers as one of the best rumors in professional sports.

Fans in Section 106

I don't know if it was the humidity or the spilled beer that turned the stairs adjacent to press row at Sunday's ArenaBowl into a slippery slope. But people kept tripping over them. If I were Thomas & Mack, I'd invest in some of those bathtub appliques before a lawyer takes a tumble.

The World Sumo League Mega Tour

In a development that will surely disappoint those who had their hearts set on watching giant men in diapers bump bellies, the World Sumo Tour event set for Thomas & Mack on June 24 has been canceled because of a sanctioning snafu. So you'll just have to settle for watching William Conrad chase the bad guy on "Cannon" reruns.