Players from UNLV and Seattle warm up prior to their game Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, in a near-empty Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay. The arena didn’t get much fuller the rest of the night. Announced attendance was 637.
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021 | 2 a.m.
A few minutes before the start of the UNLV basketball game on Wednesday, the Sun’s Mike Grimala started taking inventory of the fans in attendance.
Actually, it wasn’t that tough of a job — he simply needed to count to 300.
That’s about how many fans he spotted at Michelob Ultra Arena inside Mandalay Bay ahead of a victory against Seattle University. Others were still en route or in line at the snack shack, pushing the announced attendance to 637.
Yep, 637.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse crowd in program history, even dating to its initial years in 1958-60 at the Dula Memorial Gymnasium off Bonanza Road.
But let’s not go overboard and blame the attendance on locals having a waning interest in the program. That, simply, isn’t fair.
Here’s the reality: With games relocated to the Strip because of the National Finals Rodeo taking up residence at the Thomas & Mack Center, a small attendance was expected. The Seattle game, after all, wasn’t part of the season ticket package and many aren’t willing to navigate the resort corridor and absorb parking fees for a game against an unattractive opponent.
It was different for games at the Orleans Arena a decade ago, because parking was free, and most important, the team was more capable. It was standing room only for the 2011 upset of then-No. 1 North Carolina, and a similar crowd in 2009 against Kansas State.
Yep, those teams were definitely more notable opponents than Seattle, or Hartford, whom UNLV hosts at noon today at Michelob Ultra Arena.
And don’t say, because 20,000 people were at T-Mobile Arena last month for Gonzaga-UCLA, at least a few thousand could have made it Wednesday to Mandalay Bay. The Gonzaga-UCLA tilt was a Final Four rematch, and many of the attendees were from outside the market. It was an event with much hype, and nobody hosts one-off events better than Las Vegas.
Let’s not assign all of the blame of the poor UNLV crowd to an unappealing midweek game in a tough-to-get-to venue.
The attendance at the Thomas & Mack Center has continued to dip in recent years, as just 4,937 were announced last month for the game against Cal and 6,392 against UCLA.
This is a trend that should be worrisome for athletic department officials who have failed to attract a new generation of supporters over the past decade. That is directly related to the results — football is traditionally bad; basketball hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2013. Las Vegans, remember, historically only support winning teams.
Part of it could also be the emergence of the Golden Knights, who have the same popularity with a younger generation as UNLV basketball did with the children of my era in the 1980s. Some of it could be supporters finding other interests during the pandemic, when games last season were contested at an empty arena.
Also consider: Many of the basketball team’s fan base is elderly. Those people who lived and died with the Final Four teams during the program’s glory years simply aren’t making it out of the house as frequently. Some, sadly, are no longer with us.
The others aren’t driving at night, don’t want to risk exposure to COVID-19 because they are part of a vulnerable population, and definitely don’t have the stamina to climb the steep stairs at the Thomas & Mack.
But they are watching at home, even when the game is streamed online — it’s a fun battle for my elderly parents. They have been UNLV diehards since the 1970s and don’t miss a minute, although they aren’t physically able to make every game.
The good news is the lack of fans is fixable. The easiest solution: Starting to win consistently. And I firmly believe that’s on the horizon with the talent that first-year coach Kevin Kruger quickly assembled.
If Kruger makes the Rebels again relevant, fans will return on game day. If he sustains it, we’ll see crowds of 10 years ago, when the Rebels had more than 18,000 fans for big home games.
That was the season of the North Carolina win and when the hype surrounding the program was arguably the greatest since the 1991 Final Four season — even greater than when Kruger led UNLV to the Sweet 16 in 2007.
But fans simply won’t show up because there’s a game on the schedule, even if it’s UCLA and even if the halftime festivities include retiring the jersey of one of the program’s greatest players.
You could point to the vacant athletic director seat as a hurdle in marketing the program, but much of that promotion strategy was already in place for the season when Erick Harper was elevated to the interim role in August. And, unfortunately, they’ve exhausted much of what is appealing to market — hometown hustler Marvin Coleman, shot-block artist Royce Hamm Jr., and slick-passing Jordan McCabe.
They’ve even rolled out specials, such as the family four-pack of tickets, hot dogs, popcorn and soda for $60. A lower-bowl ticket for three games for $165; upper bowl is $110 for five games. Heck, UNLV on Thursday announced a giveaway of 2,500 tickets for today’s Hartford game.
Poorly attended games Wednesday and likely today aren’t the end of the world. The Seattle win snapped a three-game losing streak, and a likely win over Hartford today will put the Rebels at 6-5 overall. Mountain West play in a few weeks seems to be manageable, which equates to some meaningful games on the horizon.
Here’s hoping those games have more than 637 attendees.
