Football at speedway? Idea intrigues Powell

Obviously, they weren’t Electric Daisies.

The overwhelming success of the Electric Daisy Carnival at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, combined with the growing trend of stick-and-ball sports events thriving at nontraditional venues, has speedway president and general manager Chris Powell thinking outside the box. Or, in this case, thinking outside the 1.5-mile banked oval.

Instead of picking daisies, Powell wants to plant seeds.

He sees hockey games being played in ballparks and football stadiums, hears about a college basketball game that will be played on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, remembers, perhaps, when the Rolling Stones played a concert at a speedway. And he thinks, sure, why not, we can do those things right here, we can do those things right now.

California Jam can become Nevada Jam. The US Festival can become the We Festival. Somebody call Bono. Somebody call Mick. Somebody call Bruce, when he’s done mourning The Big Man on saxophone.

If there’s a will — and a site fee to be paid — then there’s a way.

“Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely,” Powell says. “We would make a hospitable landlord.”

As for that infamous 1969 Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway in northern California, not to worry, Powell says. This speedway has its own security force. No need to summon the Hells Angels to make sure people get their hands stamped before leaving.

More important, Powell said, no need to wait on would-be developers of would-be sports arenas to round up a billion would-be dollars before hosting a major event.

“We’ve got the greatest sports venue in town,” Powell says. “We can handle a crowd, handle security, handle traffic, handle parking. We specialize in putting on special events.”

No, it’s probably not feasible to play 40 basketball or hockey games in a stock-car stadium. But you could play one, Powell says. The NHL has proved that will work with its annual Jan. 1 Winter Classic, attracting huge crowds to iconic ballparks such as Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, while giving TV viewers something to watch at halftime of the Outback Bowl.

Perhaps the novelty will wear off, but there’s a reason they play hockey games in ballparks and basketball games on aircraft carriers, which Michigan State and North Carolina will do on Nov. 11, on Veterans Day, in San Diego Harbor. People like these one-off, special events. People who work for major TV networks like them even more.

Last year, Northwestern and Illinois played a college football game at Wrigley Field. It was a huge success, if one discounts that both teams ran plays in the same direction. Big Ten officials were concerned that a wide receiver might run into the outfield wall at the other end of the field — this was in November, when ivy didn’t cover the outfield walls, just a protective pad. (Protective pad? I can still hear Dick Butkus laughing.)

It wouldn’t be that difficult, Powell says, to turn the grassy tri-oval that separates the main grandstand from the pit lane at LVMS into a football field.

“We’d have some challenges that we don’t have for concerts and racing, because of the distance from the playing surface (to the main grandstand),” Powell said, adding that these are challenges that could be tackled.

When the Sabres and Penguins played hockey at Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2008, there were 71,217 spectators on hand. It was snowing like a sonofagun. The people sitting in the upper deck couldn’t tell Sidney Crosby from Ogie Oglethorpe. They didn’t seem to mind.

Playing football at the speedway would give UNLV an option to draw a huge crowd when Wisconsin was spoken for. As much as alumni of the big schools would love to come to Las Vegas, their athletic administrations find it hard to justify when the only option is playing in a tiny, 30,000-seat stadium. Too much revenue is forfeited by not staying home to play.

Powell has yet to speak with UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood about the Rebels playing Southern California or Notre Dame or even Brigham Young at the speedway. But with 49 tenured professors having been bought out because of the budget crunch, now would seem like a good time to do it.

“Tell him I’ll buy lunch,” Powell said.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.