Fans show early interest in Las Vegas Bowl tickets

Executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy and her staff usually take some time off after the Las Vegas Bowl, but not this past year after Brigham Young pummeled Oregon.

This time, Kunzer-Murphy was back in the office the next day to answer calls from fans wanting to buy tickets for this year's game.

In fact, Kunzer-Murphy said Monday the bowl has received paid orders for almost 1,200 tickets. Ticket don't technically go on sale until July 1.

"And that's not counting the sponsors," Kunzer-Murphy said. "After 15 years, I hope we have turned the corner."

She recognizes BYU's appearance in the past two games played a crucial role in elevating the bowl from having trouble meeting NCAA guidelines to having back-to-back sellouts. Last year's game, BYU's 38-8 victory over Oregon, drew a crowd of 44,615.

Optimistic BYU fans might be driving the early ticket sales. Kunzer-Murphy pointed to a large local BYU presence.

''And we've had a lot of local people buying tickets and Utah people buying tickets,'' she said.

This year's game is set for 5 p.m. Dec. 22 on ESPN.

After being on a Thursday the past three years, this year's game will be on a Saturday.

The bowl has the first choice from the Mountain West Conference and the fifth from the Pacific-10 Conference.

Pioneer Electronics will serve as the bowl's title sponsor for the fourth year in a row.