Team leaves fans happy, but ticket window still has lessons to learn

By Ron Kantowski

Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008 | 12:23 a.m.

There were two surprises for fans who made it out to Sam Boyd Stadium on opening night of the college football season.

The first was that Russel Road, the main access road to the stadium, has been widened and paved. There are now sidewalks on both sides of the road and seven smooth lanes. For the first time in a long time, there were no reports of lost hub caps or broken struts.

The second surprise was that the Rebels won.

Actually, UNLV's 27-17 victory over Utah State of the Western Athletic Conference wasn't a huge surprise, given UNLV was a 12 1/2-point favorite.

Otherwise, it was a typical season-opening night at Sam Boyd. There were tailgate parties and pom-pons and a marching band and lots of girls in snug shorts. And lots of guys checking them out.

Oh yeah, and there was the usual snafu at the ticket window.

Two years ago, after a summer-long marketing campaign in which UNLV urged Las Vegans to "Make Us Your Team," the ticket windows were undermanned on opening night against Idaho State, resulting in long lines.

This time, the server that powers UNLV's ticketing software crashed about a half-hour before kickoff. The system came back on line 17 minutes later but the computer crash, combined with the usual late-arriving crowd, left thousands of football fans standing in line again as the teams lined up to start the game.

"What are you doin', closin' escrow?" said one impatient fan at the back of the line. "Sell 'em a ticket, let's go."

Another fan, headed toward the end of the line, stopped in his tracks and threw his arms in the air, like a referee signaling a touchdown.

"Look at those lines," he said. "The game's gonna be over by the time we get in."

Earlier, the atmosphere in the parking lots and on the grassy knolls that used to serve as practice fields for the short-lived Las Vegas Posse of the Canadian Football League -- and anywhere else you could set up a grill and haul out a cooler -- was much more jovial.

In the East parking lot, about a dozen people were grilling and drinking -- but mostly drinking -- out of the back and side of a 1971 Volkswagen bus painted like a Colorado license plate.

The bus belonged to attorney Mike Golden, who with his shaggy hair and mustache sort of looks like the type of guy who would drive an old VW van. In fact, most of the guys hanging around the bus were lawyers, too, although you couldn't tell because of their football fan disguises.

Some of the lawyers said they have been coming to Rebel football games for more than 20 years, which means they've seen UNLV lose just about every which way you can. Not that they seem to mind a whole lot.

"We'd just like them to be more competitive so we can come out here and have a good time," said Golden, who was having such a good time Saturday that he was considering just hanging out at the bus and socializing while his lawyer pals went inside to watch the game.

"There's not a better thing in the world than college football and tailgating," he said.

Just then, a UNLV campus cop pulled up in his patrol cruiser. No, he said smiling, he did not want a warm bottle of water. And no, he could not have UNLV coach Mike Sanford arrested in the event the Rebels were to lose to Utah State.

"Every year we're here, still hoping and praying ..." said Wayne Carter, one of the other lawyers.

" ... for at least three victories," said his pal Bill Brannon, finishing the sentence as the lawyers broke into laughter and headed in the direction of the marching band music.

During the game, the players ran and blocked and tackled. During timeouts, the Rebel Girls danced barefoot on the field and Sanford hawked chicken wings and other goodies on the low definition scoreboard screen that had a black patch of burned out bulbs. One time, Sanford's eyes were positioned right where the black patch was, making him look like a pirate or one of those people in the old detective magazines.

Afterward, there were lots of smiles as the stadium emptied and fans filed toward their cars.

It was hard to tell if that was because the Rebels had won or because they had finally paved Russell Road.