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Monday, February 05, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal |
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Minnesota governor and XFL color analyst Jesse Ventura, center,
taunts a fan Saturday before the Outlaws' game with the Hitmen.
Photo by K.M. Cannon. |
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By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL
When he took the job as Outlaws general manager, Bob Ackles had
heard many times that professional sports are a tough sell in Las
Vegas. For proof, all he needed to do was talk to the many owners
of franchises that have come and gone in the valley in the past
decade and a half.
But despite the naysayers, the Outlaws drew an overflow crowd of
30,389 Saturday to their XFL debut at Sam Boyd Stadium, a 19-0 victory
over the New York-New Jersey Hitmen.
Now, Ackles is hearing a different challenge: Prove it wasn't a
fluke. But the longtime NFL and Canadian Football League executive
said he is convinced that what he saw Saturday night was hardly
an aberration.
The Outlaws travel to Memphis on Sunday to face the Maniax before
returning home Feb. 17 to take on the Los Angeles Xtreme. And Ackles
predicted the game against the Xtreme would be a duplicate of Saturday's
opener in terms of crowd size and enthusiasm.
"I
think we'll, for the most part, have similar success in games two
through five," he said.
Ackles said the phone never stopped ringing Sunday in the four hours
that he was at his desk in the Outlaws office.
Viewers on NBC reacted much the same way. The network won the ratings
battle Saturday and had its best Saturday night since Sept. 20,
2000, the final night of the Olympics.
The network's national overnight rating was 10.3, while the share
was 17. That surpassed Game 4 of the American League Championship
Series between the Yankees and Seattle Mariners on Oct. 14, 2000,
which had an 8.1 rating and a 14 share.
The game had its highest rating in Las Vegas, with a 17.7 rating
and a 29 share. Minneapolis was second with a 14.9 rating and a
27 share. The debut of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura as an XFL color
analyst probably contributed to the high numbers in Minneapolis.
Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, said he was pleased with
the preliminary numbers.
"We're off to a very good
start and are pleased with last night," Ebersol said. "We're trying
to bring Saturday night viewers back to NBC, and last night's game
more than doubled the time period and was the highest-rated Saturday
night since the last Saturday of the Olympics."
Ackles said he wouldn't know the figures on Saturday's ticket and
concession revenue until today but added that a Sam Boyd Stadium
official said beer sales were extremely high.
XFL president Basil DeVito said he was happy but added that things
must and will improve. There were minor complaints about the sound
and not being able to hear the player interviews shown on the big
screen.
"We had a lot of people who worked very hard
on this, and I'm so very proud of what they've done," DeVito said.
"We were putting together a lot of different elements, and one of
the things that happened was that things ran a little longer than
we expected. But we have to work at tightening it up and making
it better, and I'm confident we can do that." |
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