Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

OPINION:

If we build a football stadium, we can also rebuild UNLV

2015 Photo Favorites by L.E. Baskow

L.E. Baskow

UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez and his players get ready in the tunnel to meet San Jose State on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Where could UNLV go?

A billion-dollar stadium in one of the world’s most recognized cities would instantly make UNLV an attractive option for any conference looking to expand. Head coach Tony Sanchez is a big-picture guy, so surely he sees beyond the first move of building a stadium and envisions a scenario down the road where the Rebels are playing in a power conference. But where?

The Big 12?

Why: Despite calling itself the Big 12, the league has just 10 teams and is eyeing a two-team expansion. It needs a league championship game to enhance its status in College Football Playoff standings, where two seasons ago TCU and Baylor where narrowly left out of the four-team playoff.

Why not: At the earliest, UNLV’s stadium wouldn’t be ready until the 2020 season, which might be too long for the Big 12 to wait. Texas isn’t going to play a league game at Sam Boyd Stadium in the interim. Some will say Las Vegas isn’t in the region where the league’s other schools are. West Virginia, though, also isn’t.

The Pac-12?

Why: The Pac-12 already has a successful relationship with Las Vegas, where each March it sells out the MGM Grand Garden for its conference basketball tournament. It could use the new stadium for its football championship game. And, it’s an easy drive for fans from USC and UCLA in Southern California.

Why not: The conference expanded to 12 teams and it would be crowded with 14. And UNLV is awful at football, which wouldn’t help the league’s other teams in jockeying for position in the College Football Playoff standings.

UNLV fans know the frustration.

You spend most of Saturday running errands and hustle home in time to watch the Rebels. You turn on CBS Sports Network, but it is showing another game. You try ESPNU, same result.

You immediately think you missed the game. Then, you realize it is only available online, and open your computer with hopes of having strong enough connectivity to watch with no hassles.

Seems to happen every weekend, right?

UNLV is stuck competing in the Mountain West Conference, a league with little exposure, especially on major television networks, and few chances to make a national splash. The Mountain West is a perfect fit for UNLV, which like other mid-major athletic programs, struggles with resources and facilities.

That may soon change if a proposed $1.2 billion, 65,000-seat football stadium near campus is built. Plans call for it to be paid for by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and with taxes on visitors. UNLV football, which until Tony Sanchez took over last year operated on the bare-minimum necessities, may have just hit the lottery.

Once the first shovel goes into the earth to start construction, UNLV officials would be wise to start some demolition work of their own: Breaking up with the Mountain West to join a new league such as the Pac-12 or Big 12. Sanchez is a big-picture guy. Surely he sees that.

He’s already selling recruits on the vision of a state-of-the-art stadium on land the university purchased last year at Tropicana Avenue and Koval Lane near the Strip, buzzing with activity on a college football Saturday. The goal, however improbable given the NFL’s view of legal sports gambling, would be to have the Oakland Raiders relocate there.

But with or without the Raiders, Sands officials plan to build.

Touchdown, Rebels.

After decades of playing at Sam Boyd Stadium about 10 miles east of campus, where there is little excitement, or students, on game days, UNLV would have the solution to its biggest problem.

The poor football program, which consistently ranks as one of the worst in the nation in everything from attendance to points allowed, prevented UNLV from being considered for a better conference about five years ago when TCU left the Mountain West for the Big 12 and Utah bolted for the Pac-12.

The landscape of college athletics was changing, with multiple schools already having switched leagues, including Colorado, Nebraska and Texas A&M leaving the Big 12. But with football driving the decisions, UNLV lacked the resume to join the Big 12 or another prestigious conference. A billion-dollar stadium, though, in one of the world’s most recognized cities, would instantly make UNLV an attractive option for any conference looking to expand. Hello, Big 12.

It would be a major score for UNLV, and not just the athletic programs.

UNLV’s athletic department operates on a $33 million annual budget. For schools such as USC in the Pac-12, it’s north of $100 million.

With broadcasting rights, advertising, revenue from being in football bowl games and basketball’s NCAA Tournament, each school in the Big 12 received $25.6 million in 2015, according to the San Jose Mercury News. For the Pac-12, it was $25.1 million. In 2013-14, by contrast, the 12 schools in the Mountain West shared $29 million, according to the Idaho Statesman.

Imagine how an extra $20 million or so could transform academic programs at UNLV. A stadium would do more than give the Rebels or Raiders a new home, or bring cool events to town. It would transform UNLV from top to bottom.

It’s an easy equation: Get the stadium, get better players, build a better team, win games, get into a better league and make more money. Spend that money on making a better university.

And, along with the way, play a few games on a station viewers can easily find.

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