UNLV soccer rocks; weigh in on stadium

If you get a kick out of soccer, or just want to give a member of the Las Vegas City Council a swift kick for supporting a $200 million downtown soccer stadium plan, there’s still time to get a word in edgewise.

The next “town hall meeting,” none dare call it a city-sponsored sales pitch, is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Durango Hills Community Center at 3521 N. Durango Drive.

But while we’re on the subject, here’s a Las Vegas soccer team all you fans clamoring for that stadium ought to get behind — and this one won’t cost you a bundle.

After a fast start to its season, UNLV’s soccer team under coach Rich Ryerson is now ranked No. 23 in the nation in the current Soccer America poll. It’s the first times since 1992 the Rebels have cracked the Top 25.

Despite that success, the team draws just a few hundred fans to its home games at Peter Johann Memorial Field on campus. UNLV is on the road Saturday at Gonzaga, but you can help improve its home attendance when the team returns for the Rebel Classic on Saturday, Sept. 26.Tickets are $8 and kids are free.

And if that bit of rah-rah reporting doesn’t get you to go watch a soccer game in Southern Nevada, nothing will.

TESLA TURMOIL: The trumpets have sounded in Nevada for Tesla Motors’ $5 billion lithium battery factory in Storey County, but the hits keep coming to Gov. Brian Sandoval for cutting such a fat deal with Elon Musk.

From Michael Hiltzik’s recent Los Angeles Times column: “Every big deal begets demand for more. ‘Once you open the door to massive taxpayer-funded packages,’ says Leigh McIlvaine of Good Jobs First, ‘it’s very hard to shut the door.’ Indeed, Nevada’s Tesla announcement was followed within days by a demand from Switch Communications, a data center company, for incentives to build $1 billion in facilities serving Las Vegas and Reno.

“The sad irony is that there’s no evidence that these handouts have any positive impact on economic growth.”

Sad for whom?

Not for Mr. Musk.

DEAR CAROLYN: If you had the good fortune to meet Carolyn Uber, the former Stephens Press publisher who died this week after a valiant battle against cancer, you’d immediately be misled by her small physical stature and unfailingly pleasant manner. Carolyn was a charming person, to be sure. But she was also a fighter.

She took on her disease without complaint and somehow managed to continue to work and produce beautiful books that will continue to contribute to a greater understanding of people and the Las Vegas experience for generations to come.

PLAY TIME: The folks at Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation are in a particularly playful mood this week, and that’s understandable. The charity’s headquarters at 8990 Spanish Ridge Avenue sports a new and improved playroom thanks to a $162,000 grant from the Engelstad Family Foundation.

ON THE BOULEVARD: A doo-wop tribute straight from the Boulevard to the memory of Bob Crewe, who died recently at age 83. Don’t remember him? All Crewe did was help make Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons household teen idols by working to create hits such as “Walk Like A Man,” “Sherry,” “Rag Doll,” and more. And the giddy girls never knew his secret. … Missouri University of Science and Technology professor Larry Gragg is just putting the finishing touches on his biography of Las Vegas legend Benjamin Siegel. Its subtitle: “The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas.”

Have an item for the Bard of the Boulevard? Email comments and contributions to Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.