LVCVA wants to increase bowl purse

      Rumors concerning the Las Vegas Bowl's future have been swirling for months.
      Those rumors are about to be put to rest.
      Seeking to boost the status and alter the format of its annual postseason college football game, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will ask its board of directors today to increase annual funding from $300,000 to $1.6 million beginning this year.
      Should the 12-member board vote for approval during the 9 a.m. meeting at Cashman Field, the LVCVA would then move to finalize an agreement that would make the Western Athletic Conference the game's host league.
      "The issue of trying to bring a bowl game to Las Vegas started 15, 16 years ago; we thought it would be a good fit for our community," said Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing for the LVCVA. "The Las Vegas Bowl has been good for us the last five years, but we have always wanted to continue to improve on what we were doing. Now, we're taking this (bowl game) to the next level. We had all hoped it would happen, and with the board's approval, it will happen."
      And with the board's approval, the WAC -- of which UNLV is a member -- will come to back to town for yet another postseason event.
      Las Vegas already is home to the WAC's football championship game and men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball tournaments. Now, the league is set to send its No. 3 team to the Las Vegas Bowl opposite an at-large team from any Division I-A conference.
      "We anticipate an official invitation soon," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Monday. "I wouldn't anticipate that there is anything that wouldn't allow us to enter into an agreement."
      Last week, Benson sent Ralenkotter a letter stating that his conference will participate in the Las Vegas Bowl beginning in 1997. Specific terms of the deal haven't been completed, however, the WAC has agreed to purchase 6,667 tickets at $40 apiece.
      The WAC's Council of Presidents must ratify any deal, but that's expected to be a formality considering the WAC is in desperate need of bowl berths. The 16-member conference is currently guaranteed participation in just two postseason games.
      "It's a good fit and it comes at a time when the WAC needs another postseason opportunity," Benson said. "We're confident that it can become a major bowl. And we feel that with the success we've had in Las Vegas with the (WAC football) championship game and basketball tournament that the WAC could certainly be a partner with Las Vegas to make the bowl a very viable and successful venture."
      For the past five years, the LVCVA-sponsored Las Vegas Bowl has matched the champions of the Big West and Mid-American conferences at Sam Boyd Stadium. Although four of the five games have been competitive, the nationally televised event hasn't attracted many fans, as crowds have averaged 12,031.
      Despite the disappointing attendance, though, the LVCVA in August offered both conferences a chance to renew the contract for 1997.
      However, the Mid-American Conference (MAC) hesitated as it looked at committing its champion to a new, more regional bowl in Pontiac, Mich. Two months ago, the MAC indeed opted for the new Motor City Bowl, effectively ending the current Las Vegas Bowl arrangement because the LVCVA was unwilling to accept the MAC's second-place team and unhappy with sagging Big West fan support.
      To change the Las Vegas Bowl format, however, the LVCVA is being forced to increase its financial commitment.
      Because it was a "closed bowl" matching two minor conference champions, the Las Vegas Bowl had been exempt from the NCAA's required $750,000 per-team payout, instead offering the Big West and MAC approximately $150,000 each. The NCAA also has been waiving its bowl-game requirement of a 50,000-seat stadium. Sam Boyd has 32,000 permanent seats and slightly more than 8,000 temporary bleacher seats.
      Pending approval today, the two competing teams will receive $800,000 each. However, the LVCVA will seek to continue the stadium-capacity waiver when it appears before the NCAA's 10-member special events committee April 25. The special events committee is responsible for the certification of new bowls and recertification of existing bowls.
      "That's the only variance we have to ask for," Ralenkotter said of the seating exemption. "We're meeting all the other requirements, including offering more than the minimum payout."