Ron Kantowski on Mexican futbol at Sam Boyd being more fun than Wyoming-UNLV football

Friday, July 20, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

Two weeks ago, there was a wedding reception in my back yard, about two hours before which I was still mowing the lawn and running to 7-Eleven for beer and ice. This leads me to believe I could have been a Mexican soccer promoter, provided the two years of Spanish I took in high school received some serious brushing up.

At first glance, the modest crowd of 8,000 that turned out to watch Mexican professional clubs Monterrey and Pumas kick the spotted ball around Sam Boyd Stadium on a sultry Wednesday night might be considered a bust - especially given that one of every four people who live here speaks Spanish a lot better than I do.

It sort of looked like a Wyoming-UNLV football game, only without the fumbles and confusion at the line of scrimmage.

But when you consider the promoters - er, promoter - put the game together in what basically amounted to a few minutes of injury time, they should have called it El Milagro Mexicano II.

The real El Milagro Mexicano The Mexican Miracle is the term historians use to describe Mexico's economic growth during the 20th century. But nationalizing the country's oil and mineral rights was poking the pinata without a blindfold compared with getting a couple of sides from the Mexican Clausura (First Division) to commit to a game north of the border.

Daren Libonati, who operates Sam Boyd Stadium for UNLV, said his staff usually requires four months to promote an event of this magnitude.

Gus Gutierrez, the local tortilla factory owner who promoted the Monterrey vs. Pumas game, had all of three weeks.

"Considering we assembled a team to make it happen in such a short period, I'm happy with what we did," Gutierrez said Thursday morning as he was taking down banners at the stadium, an indication that his team was held together by the same shoestring.

By cutting a few corners - there were no programs or replays shown on the stadium scoreboard and where the heck were the Tecate vendors? - Gutierrez said he needed only a crowd of 12,000 to 13,000 to turn a small profit. He came up a little short - just like Pumas, which lost 2-0, disappointing most on hand wearing the familiar blue and gold colors inspired by Notre Dame - the original Pumas Dorados de la UNAM was a state university - supported American football team.

But Gutierrez says he'll be back next year, with a better marketing plan. Most tickets were sold through local Hispanic businesses and the ones that weren't came with a hidden surcharge that Rolling Stones fans have complained about for years.

"Live and learn," Gutierrez said. "But I think the ones who were here had a good time."

He's right about that. For the price of a movie and a big box of popcorn, you could have your picture taken with one of the , oh, let's just round it off to a couple of hundred or so, Salma Hayek lookalikes roaming the concourse, bear witness to a decent corner kick and hear the public address announcer cry "G-O-O-O-O-O-O-L!" - just like they do on Univision when Brazil plays Argentina.

And for another price of a movie and a big box of popcorn, you could enjoy a cold beer. Or two. Or three.

Although I have never seen so few people drink so much beer, it also should be noted security did not have to issue a single yellow card for rowdy behavior.

Upon further review, forget what I said. It wasn't like a Wyoming-UNLV football game at all.